How to prevent customer payment calls dropping off

The situation where a customer changes their mind midway through a telephone purchase is called a drop-off.  

The most likely cause is when a customer feels pressured to make a purchase in the first place, and finds an opportunity to hang up the phone.  Human nature makes this hard for many people who try to do this politely despite feeling pressured.  

Paytia’s customer base is 100% companies who take phone payments so our analysis of this situation, and creation of recommendations to counter them is founded on both data and anecdotal evidence.  

Overall, >1% of payment calls handled by Paytia do not complete the first time, or are abandoned.  

The main reasons for not completing a payment first time: 

1. Card expired; a new payment process was restarted using a different payment card.
2. Incorrect card number entered by the customer so process restarted by agent or customer
3. Insufficient funds, so payment process restarted using a different card
4. Process aborted by customer (e.g. changed their mind, phone line ended)

Given the diversity of customers using Paytia, the reasons for making a payment extends from a customer sending a birthday card, placing a deposit on a new BMW vehicle, or buying vape oil products direct from BAT. The degree of customer compulsion to complete a purchase varies accordingly to suit the situation.   

Recommendations to avoid drop offs;

1. Don’t rush the customer - a good agent will mirror the customer’s pace and sense of urgency 
2. Confirm agreement that the product sale is agreed.   Simply repeating the order details is often enough, then give time for the customer to state their agreement.  Then move onto the payment process, not before that agreement is agreed. 
3. Using Paytia secure virtual terminal, watch the progress reports that show the customer’s progression and press the *STAR button to talk to the customer if things appear to have stopped. 
   
   

Avoiding interrupting the customer

If you are using legacy DTMF Masking systems that permit the customer and agent to continue to talk through the whole process, don’t interrupt.   The process forces the agent to ask the customer lots of questions, and prompt each part of the process before initiating the next step.  This can be clumsy and time consuming as the customer is concentrating on answering questions (what is the name on the card, confirmation of amount) and then three separate data entry processes which trigger collection of the card number, expiry date and CVV.  This requires staff discipline and training.   Paytia sees that talking to the customer during the payment process actually distracts them and raises the error rate considerably.  Paytia no longer supports DTMF Masking, favouring Channel Separation,  and has moved to a fully automated process where recorded prompts rather than trained staff guide the customers through the card payment.  This is why the success rate is so high.  

Next time you are entering your card details into a web form, or even entering your PIN into an in-store card reader, you’ll find your conversation needs to pause for a moment.  It's the same on the phone; Paytia avoids creating any interruption to the customer at this critical time, so the error rate falls considerably. 

Can Paytia help your business to take secure payments over the phone? Contact us today and one of our Secure Payment Specialists will be happy to help.