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Talking With: Soar Payments Founder Rich McIver on improving the checkout experience

The customer experience starts when a consumer walks into the store for the first time and goes well beyond the checkout process, but if the purchase experience is not rewarding it can hurt the retailer in more ways than one.

April 22, 2016 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com

A streamlined checkout process isn't just a winning attribute of the customer experience. It can bolster the retailer's bottom line as it  an lead to increasing sales conversions. Retail Customer Experience reached out to Rich McIver, who founded Houston-based retail and online payment processing services provider Soar Payments, to get insight on what retailers should and shouldn't do when it comes to the payment transaction. His company provides credit card processing, ACH, payment gateway, and chargeback management services. The checkout experience, says McIver, is just as important as that initial customer contact, whether online or in a brick-and-mortar environment.

Retail Customer Experience: Checkout is a big customer experience pain point for many retailers, food or non-food, and consumers can easily leave a retailer annoyed despite a good 'experience' with product. Do most retailers realize the value in ensuring a smooth easy checkout?

Rich McIver: Businesses are aware of the value of easy checkout, to an extent. It always depends on the company and industry but technology has really highlighted the importance of the payment process. If a customer is frustrated for even a second, they can bail on the transaction and move to a competitor. Checkout is just as important, if not more so, than gaining the customer’s attention in the first place.

RCE:  With the advent of mobile pay coming in fast, what's your view on retail adoption of this new self-service type of check-out? Are consumers expecting it at this point?

McIver: Consumers want options. If they want an easy, self-service checkout experience, it's the job of a business to adapt and comply. In that regard, consumers are expecting, not just self-service checkout, but a variety of options. Businesses are very quick nowadays to respond to the needs of consumers. People are aware of this and, in that regard, they completely expect to have their needs met.

RCE:  What are two to three tips for speeding up the checkout process?

McIver: Make it as simple as possible. A/B test your checkout process with different types of users. Make sure you have a processor offers a variety of different payment options including PayPal, every major card brand, and ACH check payment processing. You might lose them all together if they try to buy a product only to find they can't pay with their preferred payment method.

RCE:  What is a no-no retailers should avoid in enhancing the checkout process?
McIver: Anything that even hints at fraud or failure to disclose. Don't try to hide fine print, have a clear refund policy. Transparency on the front end will result in few problems on the back end with your customers and payment processor. With some of the bigger banks, a single mistake can get your processing agreement nulled. Be careful and always be honest.

About Judy Mottl

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Judy Mottl is editor of Retail Customer Experience and Digital Signage Today. She has decades of experience as a reporter, writer and editor covering technology and business for top media including AOL, InformationWeek, InternetNews and Food Truck Operator.

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