The 'guest checkout' or 'one-time payment' route is something everyone has experience with. Almost all e-commerce sites offer customers the ability to make a purchase without registering or creating an account. This feature is designed to remove obstacles for the customer -- because most people don't want to register to make a simple purchase.

Would it surprise you to know, then, that not all online payment platforms offer a guest checkout option?

There are many ways to measure your organization's customer experience, from quantitative surveys to qualitative interviews and reviews. When it comes to identifying areas for improvement, however, there are a few key metrics your organization should be tracking on a regular basis. Most organizations are familiar with Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT). But one of the more overlooked metrics is the Customer Effort Score (CES). Customer effort measures how easy or difficult it is for a customer to interact with your organization. In other words, how much effort does a customer need to expend to accomplish a particular task?

How important is keeping up with customer preferences? Although the answer to this question may vary by industry, the reality is that most organizations need to meet the changing needs of customers to remain competitive.

In a recent blog post, we discussed the benefits of improving the online payment experience. We detailed how a good online payment experience can decrease customer service calls, lower print and mail costs, speed up collections, and improve customer satisfaction. Now that you have a clear understanding of why a good user experience for online payments is to important, the next step is learning how to identify the Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment platform that will drive the best user experience for your customers.

Consumers’ needs are constantly changing, but one thing remains the same—they expect an outstanding user experience (UX) every step of the way, from customer support to online payments. When it comes to making payments online, customers want to pay their bills whenever and wherever they want, and on the device of their choice, without the hassle of roadblocks like a one-time registration. In fact, lack of exceptional UX in the payments industry can lead to reduced customer satisfaction, lower electronic payment adoption rates, and increased staff workloads.