The Future of Customer Success in a Payments Fintech: Insights from Anna Fowler - Head of Customer Success
In this Q&A, Anna offers a deep dive into how her team defines and achieves customer success, the unique hurdles they face in the fintech industry, and the strategic approaches they employ. From navigating the implementation of real-time payment solutions to collaborating across departments and leveraging emerging trends, Anna shares her expert perspective on driving customer satisfaction and success in a dynamic field.?
1. How do you define success for your customers, and how does your team contribute to achieving that?
Success for our customers begins with understanding their unique success metrics and the specific pain points they aim to resolve by implementing the Azupay suite of real-time (account-to-account) payment solutions. Our approach involves several key steps:
1. Identifying Customer Metrics:?We start by understanding what success looks like for our customers. This involves identifying their specific pain points and how our solutions can address them.
2. Go-to-Market Planning:?We collaborate with our customers early on to develop their go-to-market strategy. By sharing knowledge and offering creative ways to launch and communicate the change, we help our customers effectively reach their end users.
3. Implementation and Support:?Throughout the implementation phase, we work closely with our customers, providing the necessary support to ensure a smooth launch. This includes a hands-on approach in reviewing and offering recommendations on their UX designs.
4. Ongoing Engagement:?After the launch, we maintain an ongoing dialogue with our customers, revisiting the original success metrics, plans and goals. This continuous engagement allows us to pivot and adjust strategies as needed.
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2. What are some of the unique challenges you face in the Fintech industry compared to other sectors, and how does your approach differ?
Coming from a background in Corporate Banking & Payments, where payment solutions have often been established for decades, real-time payment solutions like PayID and PayTo are relatively new to the market. The challenge is that we are not just implementing a payment solution that end users have ingrained in them as a way to pay a business, we are often educating the business, staff and end users to change behaviours and promote the benefits of these new payer methods.
Our approach is highly focused on continuous educational awareness and improving the payer experience at the end-user level. We spend time with our customers co-planning the launch, including customer communications, promotions, press releases, and reviewing the end-user payment flow experience. We pride ourselves on helping our customers implement a first-class customer experience by selecting one of Azupay’s real-time payment solutions.
With the growing trend of consumers switching to account-to-account (A2A) payments, we have simplified the checkout experience with a hosted checkout solution. This solution helps speed to market and provides our customers with the benefits of our well-designed Pay by Bank checkout, featuring all the latest functionalities.
So, in short, our approach differs from just adding traditional legacy payment products; we take time working with our customers for a successful launch, migrating existing (and attracting new) payers to a new alternative and growing choice with A2A (real time) payments.
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3. How do you approach the implementation phase of your customer success strategies, especially when introducing new features or services?
?The Azupay Customer Success Team approach follows four key principles:
Open Communication:?We maintain transparent and open lines of communication with our customers. This involves regular updates, clear timelines, and ensuring that all stakeholders are informed and aligned.
Gathering Feedback:?We actively seek feedback throughout the implementation process. By asking for feedback at every stage, we can quickly identify and address any issues, ensuring that the solution meets our customer's needs.
Collaboration:?We involve our internal product, tech, and other stakeholders early in the process. This collaboration ensures that the technical aspects of the implementation are seamless and that any new features or services are integrated smoothly
End-User Perspective:?Our approach is always guided by the perspective of the end users. We constantly ask ourselves, "Would the end (payer) users find this useful and easy to use?" By prioritising the end-user experience, we ensure that the implemented solutions are not only functional but also user-friendly and valuable to those who will be using them.
By combining open communication, continuous feedback, strong collaboration, and an end-user-centric perspective, we create a robust and effective implementation process that drives customer success and satisfaction.
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4. In what ways do you collaborate with other departments, such as product development or sales, to ensure a holistic customer experience?
Ensuring a holistic customer experience is truly a team effort, and collaboration across departments is essential. Here’s how we make it happen:
Engaging Internal Stakeholders:?One of the key responsibilities of the Customer Success (CS) team is to identify and engage the right internal stakeholders at the right time. This means bringing together team members from product development, sales, technology, and marketing to address various aspects of the customer journey.
Acting as the Glue:?The CS team acts as the glue that holds all these efforts together. We coordinate and facilitate communication between departments, ensuring everyone is aligned and working towards the same goal: the customer’s success.
Leveraging Milestones:?Throughout the customer lifecycle, there are critical milestones where different departments’ expertise is required.
For example:
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5. What trends or changes do you see foresee in customer success practices within the Fintech industry?
I'm particularly excited about how AI can continue to enhance customer success and speed to market. Here are some trends and changes I foresee:
AI-Driven Insights:?AI can analyse vast amounts of data to provide deep insights into customer behaviour and industry trends. This will help us make quick, informed decisions and continuously improve services.
Automated Support:?AI-powered chatbots, virtual assistants, workflows etc offer immediate support, resolving common issues quickly and efficiently.
Predictive Analytics:?AI can predict potential issues before they arise, enabling proactive solutions and preventing disruptions.?
Personalised Customer Journeys:?AI can create a personalised implementation plan with tailored recommendations and solutions based on individual customer data, enhancing the customer experience and driving better outcomes.
With all the current and future advancements in payments innovation and options, I see their will always be a need for Customer Success teams. Technology can enhance our capabilities, but the human element is crucial. Customers need the expertise and support of dedicated teams to fully achieve their goals. Customer Success representatives can co-create success plans, which foster accountability and collaboration on both sides. This approach ensures customers not only implement a service but also realise its full potential and achieve long-term success; driven by our Azupay company values: Pioneering, Diligent, Reliable, Considerate and Collaborative
Azupay is a leading Australian Fintech provider of real time, account to account payments for Government, Banks, Billers and Enterprise customers, delivering unique product payments features on Australia's New Payments Platform with PayID & PayTo. While primarily providing solutions to businesses, Azupay also places significant focus on end payer experience, migration and adoption by now delivering out of the box RTP/NPP payments applications that can be quickly integrated by businesses into mobile, online and instore checkout and payment options.
Head of Mid Market Sales & Partnerships | Real-time Payments Specialist
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