For those of us who belong to Generation X, or even the lucky ones known as Millennials, looking back at payment methods in our youth takes us to a time when cash was king, and the predominant method of settlement. Point of sale (POS) terminals, when they arrived, were slow and limited to the major card types such as Visa and Mastercard.
Fast forward to today, and payment at the POS is a daily habit we don’t even think about. The way to catch our attention might be through a new value-added service (VAS) at the till, such as bill split, providing customer feedback or even making a charity microdonation. Payment terminals have become a crucial point of interaction with customers, but the act of payment itself is merely an additional feature.
When we gaze into the future, we know at some point soon, the use of physical cash will disappear, digital payment will be omnipresent, and we will have reached a point where “anything can pay on anything”.
So, what does the POS terminal need to achieve to meet the expectations of today’s merchant and their customers?
To answer this question, we decided to launch a new series of articles, called Perspectives, looking at the expectations of different sectors from their payment experience. We start by considering hotels, restaurants and cafes, often referred to as the HORECA segment.
The functional requirements for the perfect payment experience…
Hospitality businesses are based on a physical, face-to-face customer experience. A variety of devices and tools are used to collect information from customers relating to reservations, customer preferences and feedback, orders, bill split and ultimately payment. That’s a lot of information coming from a wide variety of sources. So, why not use only one device for all of them?
Ingenico, a Worldline brand, has conducted research1 evaluating the needs of HORECA merchants to identify their key requirements and what they need most from their payment terminal:
…need to be user friendly too
Having determined the physical and functional attributes of the perfect payment terminal for HORECA, it is important not to overlook the people who will be using the device on a regular basis and to ensure ease of use:
The initial results of this analysis demonstrate that payment terminals need to be as close as possible to a “one device fits all” fashion, despite the variety of needs within the same merchant location. With no single solution and a customised approach needed, merchants need payment providers who can adapt to their unique requirements. This is why Ingenico has launched a flexible Android offer, defined and designed to take each segment’s needs into account.
Because, at Ingenico, we care about our customers, the merchants they serve, and the payment experience we provide.
1 Source: Merchant Advisory Board, Ingenico Iberia
Francisco Gil Barez - Managing Director Iberia for Terminals, Solutions and Services at Ingenico, a Worldline brand
Francisco oversees Ingenico’s (TSS) activities in Spain and Portugal. With extensive experience in the technology and payment sectors, both in domestic and international markets, he has been part of Ingenico since 2014.
Prior to joining Ingenico, he worked as CFO at BT Global Services and has outstanding experience in the design and development of service solutions in B2B technology environments, service outsourcing, telecommunications, IT and in global supply chain management.
Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry and #4 player worldwide. With its global reach and its commitment to innovation, Worldline is the technology partner of choice for merchants, banks and third-party acquirers as well as public transport operators, government agencies and industrial companies in all sectors.
Powered by over 20,000 employees in more than 50 countries, Worldline provides its clients with sustainable, trusted and secure solutions across the payment value chain, fostering their business growth wherever they are. Services offered by Worldline in the areas of Merchant Services; Terminals, Solutions & Services; Financial Services and Mobility & e-Transactional Services include domestic and cross-border commercial acquiring, both in-store and online, highly-secure payment transaction processing, a broad portfolio of payment terminals as well as e-ticketing and digital services in the industrial environment. In 2019 Worldline generated a proforma revenue of 5.3 billion euros.