User experience has become a cornerstone in shaping the world of SaaS. Your product is your bread and butter, and as a verticalized software company, you know just how important a tailored, industry-specific application is to your end user. Dedication to delivering an exceptional user experience ensures your software is something that your customers can’t live without in their business day-to-day.
But a well-designed user interface that is responsive and consistent across devices is not the only element of a great user experience—innovation and interconnected experiences are raising the bar.
As consumers, we’ve grown accustomed to seamless experiences. It’s now an expectation that is carrying through into the B2B and B2B2X landscapes. SaaS companies that embed payments recognize this and therefore, have an extraordinary advantage when it comes to providing their customers (and their customers’ customers) with the user experiences they have come to expect.
Value-added services, such as digital wallet integrations, PCI compliance programs, and omnitoken, give software companies leveraging payments a unique opportunity to deepen relationships with their merchant customers, maintain competitive edge and brand stickiness, and deliver, you guessed it, an even better user experience.
Benefits of value-added services for software companies
In the world of payments, value-added services are additional solutions that add value to a software platform’s core payment processing solution.
Vertical software companies that embed payments with a payment facilitation provider, like Payrix, are likely sitting on a gold mine of value-added services (VAS). These additional offerings help software companies optimize the payments experience for their merchants and unlock additional opportunities to realize revenue.
Value-added services help software companies solve essential business problems, including:
- Grow their software user base
- Retain their software customers
- Remain competitive with innovative and interconnected features and functionality
When implemented strategically, value-added services can strengthen a software company’s payment infrastructure, optimize operational efficiency, and enhance the customer experience. Additionally, software companies can increase the lifetime value of their platform, create stickiness from a customer retention lens, and increase opportunities for revenue generation.
Embedded Payments are becoming common place for verticalized software, so differentiation in the market may come down to the payments solution and niche value-added services you can provide your user base to simplify their operation and grow their business all in one place.
Verticalized software companies have a unique opportunity with VAS
Verticalized software companies have a deep understanding of what their merchants need to simplify their day to day, plus a sound technology infrastructure to support additional solutions that can enhance the user experience. This combination allows you to provide your customers with new payment services built right into the platform they know and love with ease.
SaaS success today is about more than just addressing your customers current needs. You’ll need to provide your users with the solutions they need to help them meet future demands too. Instead of solving problems as they arise, software companies are well positioned to be one step ahead of their merchant customers and make a considered effort to align their offerings with their ever-changing needs and innovative trends in mind. By doing so, you can position yourself as strategic partner rather than just another piece of technology.
Popular value-added services that get us excited
As self-proclaimed payments nerds, these are a sampling of our favorite value-added services that we believe your merchants will love and as a result, help deepen the relationships you have with your customers today, tomorrow, and in the future.
- Create a seamless consumer checkout experience with digital wallets, tap to pay, text to pay, and account updater integrations.
- Maximize loyalty and brand stickiness with gift card solutions (for not only you but your customers’ customers as well).
- Safeguard transactions with omnitoken.
- Ensure PCI compliance for your small business customers, particularly those in the e-Commerce space.
- Maintain cash flow with embedded finance, small business lending, and advanced funding plans.
Finding value in value-added services and baking them into your strategy
Many software companies have expressed interest in value-added services, and more specifically, embedded finance products, because they understand the opportunities they present to their business and their customers’ business too. This insight was uncovered in our most recent merchant insider survey and report. However, excitement aside, it’ll be important for SaaS companies to do their due diligence and understand the exact needs of their niche software users to prioritize and strategize accordingly. More isn’t always more when it comes to value-added services. It’ll be important to carefully curate your offerings making your software irresistible to your customers.
Interested in learning more about value-added services and their role in a successful Embedded Payments strategy? Check out this short and information-packed podcast episode about value-added services on the PayFAQ: Embedded Payments podcast.
