What Cashless Payments Can Do For Your Business

Accepting cashless payments is quickly becoming a standard of doing business. In this post we will help you understand and apply digital payment technology in your business.

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What are Cashless Payments?

Cashless payments allow you to take credit and debit cards either in person using an app, or online with a webpage. If you have a credit card, or even a debit card, you’re already familiar with cashless payments! As customers, we can all appreciate the huge convenience offered by this technology, but in this blog post we will be exploring why and how to integrate digital payment technology into your business.

Digital payments have been steadily growing in popularity since the advent of digital banking in the 1990s, but they have become particularly ubiquitous in recent years. In 2021, cashless payments are forecasted to account for 6.6 trillion dollars in transaction value, a 40% increase from only two years prior. The rapid growth of digital payments is just one indicator of consumers heightened expectations around transactional ease and efficiency. Digital payments are convenient, and for customers and businesses alike they can be easier than the traditional invoice-to-check pipeline that many service businesses may be using.

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How Can I Use Cashless Payments in My Business?

To understand the value cashless payments can offer your business, let’s explore a hypothetical. You get a call to do a pressure washing job. Using Google maps you can quickly call up the location on street view to provide an estimate, or if it is a returning customer, you can use your site notes and past estimates in ServiceMonster as reference for a new estimate. You estimate and schedule the job remotely and show up at the location to complete the job. With your paperwork completed digitally in advance ahead of arrival, you can get to work immediately without waiting to speak to the client on-site. This helps you maximize your uptime and cuts down on delays too your workday.

To finish the job, instead of printing an invoice and trying to track down the client to sign it, you can run the same process digitally after you have left the job site. ServiceMonster supports digital signing for both estimates and invoices, and through our payment partners you can accept a variety of digital payment methods. An added bonus here is that all of the necessary documentation is saved automatically for you, meaning you don’t have to scan the signed invoice after it is completed. The invoice will even mark as paid once it clears through your payment provider.

Cashless payments coupled with the power of ServiceMonster make it possible to conduct business without any face-to-face contact. In the times of social distancing, it is easy to see how this can help keep you and your employees safe, but even without social distancing in effect, the benefits of being able to do business completely remote are plentiful. Being able to manage processes that are critical to operations on-line helps streamline your business, and lets you focus on getting and finishing more jobs. Digital invoices also signal professionalism, and further establish the trustworthiness of your brand. For busy corporate clients, the ease of a cashless payment process is a great time saver.

Digital payments also make it very easy to follow up with clients and tackle non-payment. Instead of mailing multiple invoices and waiting for a check to be sent back, cashless payments give you the convenience of being able to see as soon as a payment is made. For clients, the ability to pay with a credit card means you can be paid on time, even if they have their own cashflow issues. Accepting digital payments can help make late payments a thing of the past!

How Do I Configure Cashless Payments in ServiceMonster?

ServiceMonster has built-in support for two leading payment processors, Stripe and Authorize.net. Both payment processors offer pay as you go pricing based around a small transaction fee. They can easily be integrated into ServiceMonster from the marketplace, and there are help pages that offer detailed instructions for set up for both Stripe and Authorize.net. Choose the payment processor that works best for you, follow the help guide to set it up, and you’ll be ready to accept cashless payments right in ServiceMonster!

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