Executive summary
Payments should reduce friction—not create it. For CSG’s clients (from billers to merchants), “easy” means: customers can pay in any channel, funds settle predictably, support teams resolve issues fast, and compliance/security stay invisible. This article lays out a practical blueprint for making “getting paid” the easiest part of the journey—covering customer experience, risk & compliance, operations, analytics, and support automation (including Zendesk + AI).
1) What “easy” actually means (for each stakeholder)
Customers: One-minute checkout or bill pay, familiar methods (card, ACH, wallet), clear fees, instant confirmation, and accessible options (IVR, kiosk, mobile, web, in-app).
Merchants/Billers: Straight-through processing, fewer declines, built-in retries/account updates, fast reconciliation, simple refunds/adjustments, and clean reporting.
Finance/Ops: Accurate deposits and fees, automated dispute workflows, configurable surcharging/convenience-fee rules, and audit-ready logs.
Security/Compliance: Tokenization, PCI scope minimization, 3-D Secure/SCA when needed, granular roles/permissions, and policy controls by business line or geography.
Developers: Clear APIs, webhooks, sandbox parity, predictable versioning, and transparent error codes.
2) Experience design: meet payers where they are
Omnichannel by default
Web, native app, mobile web, IVR, self-service kiosk, POS, chat, and agent-assist—present the same payment options and state across channels, with context handoff.Choice without confusion
Offer major cards, ACH/eCheck, and mainstream wallets (e.g., device-based tokens) with smart defaults. Hide non-applicable options to reduce cognitive load.Friction only when needed
Progressive risk: step up verification (e.g., 3DS challenge, OTP) only when the risk model demands it. Keep most sessions one-tap or one-form.Inclusive accessibility
WCAG-compliant flows, plain-language receipts, multilingual IVR prompts, and kiosk interfaces designed for a broad range of users.
3) Conversion & recovery: turn “declined” into “processed”
Smart retries & routing
For soft declines (timeouts, transient network issues), retry with exponential backoff and vary acquirer routes when supported.Account Updater & token lifecycle
Keep cards-on-file fresh; prefer network tokens where available to improve approval odds and reduce re-entry friction.ACH optimization
Use account validation and configurable returns handling; set expectations on posting windows and notifications.Cart & bill-pay nudges
If a session fails, offer a one-click “try another method,” save state, and follow up via secure reminder (SMS/email/link) with the original basket/balance preserved.
4) Trust by design: security & compliance that stays out of the way
Tokenize everything and keep sensitive data out of your app whenever possible; use hosted fields or device-based tokens.
Right-sized authentication with SCA/3DS for risky contexts; silent flows when low risk.
Fine-grained controls for surcharging/convenience fees, MCC rules, and jurisdiction-specific mandates.
Auditability: immutable logs for payments, adjustments, issuer messages, and user actions; exportable for finance and compliance.
5) Operations: from settlement to reconciliation (without spreadsheets)
Daily deposit predictability with clear fee breakdowns and funding calendars.
Reconciliation you can trust: reference-rich exports, webhooks for lifecycle events (authorized, captured, settled, refunded, charged-back), and automated GL mapping.
Disputes that don’t derail: a guided evidence kit, SLA timers, and templated responses reduce losses and labor.
Service quality SLAs: set clear thresholds for auth success, refund latency, batch completion, and webhook delivery.
6) Analytics & insight: measure what moves the needle
Core KPIs
Authorization rate (by BIN, wallet, channel, issuer country)
Soft vs. hard decline mix and recovery rate
Time-to-funds and refund latency
Repeat-payer share and saved-payment adoption
ACH return codes and first-payment success
Dispute rate and win rate
Practices
Surface anomalies early (sudden issuer/bank declines, wallet dips, channel-specific errors).
Benchmark by segment and payment type; route traffic toward higher-yield paths.
Push datasets to BI (e.g., Power BI/Snowflake) for joined analysis with product and revenue metrics.
7) Support excellence: make help as fast as payment
Self-serve first, smart handoff when needed
Chatbot collects transaction ID, method, amount, timestamp, and decline code from the knowledge base of common fixes.
Auto-diagnostics (e.g., retry soft declines, validate account/card details, run account updater) before involving an agent.
If escalation is needed, Zendesk Auto Assist posts a summary (what failed, what was tried, recommended next action) and presents a “Process Payment” action to the specialist.
Post-resolution automations update ticket fields (status, justification, override reason), notify the customer, and tag the case for trend analysis.
8) Implementation blueprint (fast path)
Week 0–1: Foundations
Stand up environments (sandbox → production), enable tokenization/hosted fields, configure roles/permissions, and connect webhooks.
Build the omnichannel UX: checkout, bill-pay, IVR/kiosk scripts, and agent-assist flows.
Week 2–3: Risk & recovery
Configure retries, account updater, BIN-level routing rules, and SCA/3DS policy.
Stand up Zendesk flows (chatbot intake, Auto Assist procedures, macros, SLA policies).
Week 4: Reconciliation & BI
Wire funding schedules, export schemas, dispute workflow, and finance dashboards.
Launch KPI monitoring and alerting on auth rates, soft-decline mix, and funding anomalies.
Go-live readiness
Run controlled pilots, simulate issuer/gateway failures, ACH returns, partial captures, and dispute lifecycles.
Finalize runbooks and on-call rotations.
9) What “great” looks like (targets to aim for)
+3–5 pts lift in authorization rate through routing, updater, and wallets adoption
<2 min average time-to-answer for payment help (bot+agent)
>90% same-day settlement for eligible rails and flows
25–40% reduction in repeat tickets via proactive KB and Auto Assist fixes
Measurable drop in soft-decline fallout due to automated recovery
10) Checklist: make getting paid the easy part
Omnichannel parity (web, app, IVR, kiosk, chat, agent)
Tokenization + hosted fields; PCI scope minimized
Wallets + ACH offered with smart defaults
Retry/backoff + account updater + network tokens where available
Real-time webhooks + clean reconciliation exports
Dispute workflow and evidence templates ready
Zendesk chatbot + Auto Assist playbooks in place
BI pipelines, anomaly alerts, and weekly KPI review
Closing thought
When paying is effortless, everything else becomes possible: happier customers, higher conversion, cleaner books, and fewer late-night escalations. Design your payments like a product—and let “getting paid” be the easiest part, every time.
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