Tip of the fortnight 9 - Compelling practices to optimize your customers' payment experience

Hello everyone,

Digital payment has dominated the marketplace. That's why, when you're creating your online payment forms, there is a lot more you should be doing to upscale conversions beyond simply collecting payments. Yes, besides the marketing strategies you follow to drive traffic to your website, shed focus on designing your forms with interactive UI, intuitive fields, and a flawless workflow.

Today, I've put together six tips for creating your next payment form. Do you ever ask yourself, "Am I asking my customers enough questions?", or "Should I make my form longer?". These tips can help you out:

Ask for less information

Creating simpler forms that use only the necessary information can be a great way to avoid stacking multiple questions. Complex forms can push your customers to abandon them, just like they'd abandon a long wait in line. For example, a T-shirt Order Form should be simplified to only require payment, shipping, and delivery information.

Name your form fields clearly

As you add fields to your forms, try to name them very clearly, avoiding any vague or confusing names. Matter-of-fact field names will allow your customers to easily understand what they need to enter. To enhance personalization, create rules to only show relevant fields based on answers provided by your customer.

Explicitly display the payment amount

When your customers are a click away from making a payment, avoid any uncertainty by clearly displaying the exact amount they are paying. If there are any extra charges, clearly specify them in your form. These simple details can improve your forms' user experience, and boost your conversion rates.

Motivate checkout with images and finer details

Choose good product images! Attractive, relevant images and appealing details can motivate your customers' checkout process. When your customers can see attractive images along with all the relevant details of their order, confidence in the product or service increases. For a Hotel Booking Form, you can provide the details of the room—like maximum guests and images of the specific room—as they book.

Provide a variety of payment options

Payment processing is the last thing your customers encounter when finishing up your form—so make it easy! You can provide multiple payment options inside your forms to allow your users to pay using a provider they already use, or at least are familiar with. This way, you cut down any drop-off at the checkout!

Keep your branding consistent!

If bolstering trust is what it takes to convert one-time customers into recurring customers, then do what it takes. The same way your website is built with branding by using your business' name and logo, remain consistent by including them in your forms. If you are posting your forms in social media, this favors your business and resembles where your forms are from! We'll discuss more about this as we get to the end of the post!

Build relationships using responsive confirmation emails

Make sure to send out automated confirmation emails including all your customers' chosen form responses and payment status. It will improve their sense of your responsiveness and boost your overall customer experience. For example, a simple Welcome Email for an event registrant, an Order Confirmation email for a successful purchase, or a Subscription Confirmation email to your new subscribers.

Aside from email content, you can build loyalty with personalized document creation for things like order receipts and registration fee waivers. Take advantage of the PDF option to leave your customers with a copy of their submissions.

Use social media to upscale selling

As you drive traffic to your website, connect with your customers on social media, too. Spread awareness of your brand and get form submissions in the same space! We provide options to connect and share your forms via Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn directly whenever you create a form.

(This is the second post in our payment forms series, if you missed our previous post, read it here)

Do you have anything else to add? Let us know in the comments below! We'd love to hear from you!

Until next fortnight,
Prasana

To get updated every fortnight on useful form tips, click follow under our community learning series.

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