The most critical focus for any healthcare institution is providing the highest quality of care to their patients in the safest way possible. Whether it is treating them in the ER or in a clinic, patient care takes precedence over everything else. Over the past few years, healthcare technology has taken many leaps. Advances in decision support systems via electronic medical records, innovative medical devices and changes to processes/procedures have made it possible to treat many conditions more effectively than ever before.

What are your business’s objectives for the new year?

In 2019, customer experience should be top of mind. 69% of consumers say they will move on from a brand after a bad experience, research shows. How exactly are businesses failing to meet customer experience expectations? For one, 55% of consumers feel that brands are behind the times with how they interact with customers, both online and offline. However, 75% of consumers feel that automated experiences often feel too impersonal. With so many different types of consumers with different needs, it’s important to provide a seamless, easy experience that is also consultative and personal. Here are some ways your business can improve customer experience and keep up with the times without losing your brand’s personality:

Micro-merchants and small businesses have a low number of monthly transactions and spending thousands of dollars on a full-blown POS system isn’t always cost-effective. If you are one of them, you may have been using mobile POS solutions to accept electronic payments to keep your cost down. Over the years, this type of payment solution has gone through many changes – card readers have become smaller for easy portability. In other instances, tablet POS solutions have helped many businesses improve staff efficiency and customer experience. With EMV chip and PIN transactions becoming more common in the U.S., there is a need for mobile POS solutions that can securely accept PIN while still keeping the technology costs down for merchants. This is where PIN on Mobile comes in. These new solutions allow you to securely accept PIN transactions by using a card reader and your consumer grade mobile/tablet device as a POS system. You can learn more about this solution in one of my previous blog posts.

It seems like we’re doing everything on our smartphones today—from reading the news and taking high-quality photos, to ordering and paying for food ahead of time. Businesses need to be ready to accommodate this ongoing transformation by adopting new payment acceptance technologies, such as mobile wallets, an additional capability of NFC contactless technology. Consumers are already asking for it—this holiday season, 30% of consumers plan to use smart payment methods while shopping in store: 24% by smartphone and 16% by wearable (e.g. Apple Watch). To add, younger generations are starting to use their smartphones for things like storing their university ID and paying for extracurricular activities through an app. By being prepared to accept NFC contactless payments and allowing customers to pay how they want to pay, businesses can be at the cutting edge of technology, especially as these students will come to expect it.  

Small business and micro-merchants across the U.S. are looking for a solution that helps them securely accept payment without compromising on security and burning a hole in their pockets. An answer to their call seems to be brewing up in the industry with PIN on Mobile technology. In my first blog post in this series, I discussed the basics of what a PIN on Mobile solution is all about and how does it work. In the second post, I explored which vertical benefits the most from this technology and how. For my third blog post in the series, I am taking a technical route and am looking to talk about the different components of a PIN on Mobile solutions. This is again a common question that I get when I talk about this subject.