Investing in the right technology can improve revenue and ease workloads, says PXP Financial’s Kamran Hedjri
As the ‘cost-of-doing-business’ crisis continues to impact the travel sector, Karman Hedjri, Founder and Group CEO at PXP Financial, explains how leveraging the right point-of-sale technology can provide a much-needed boost.
With almost half of all consumers (42%) anticipating that the rising cost-of-living will have some impact on their holiday plans, it’s hardly surprising that travel businesses are now feeling the strain. The sentiment is echoed by 45% of travel professionals, who view the cost-of-living crisis as the greatest threat to the sector in 2023 with petrol and energy prices named by less than a quarter (23%) as the most pressing challenges.
With many travel businesses therefore looking for ways to boost their bottom line, leveraging the right point of sale (POS) technology can not only improve efficiencies and therefore revenues, but also ease workloads and improve customer experiences. Here’s why.
Save time and money
A state-of-the-art POS system can automate a range of business operations, including managing finances, bookings, inventory, and customer relationship management (CRM). This automation eliminates many common human errors, making the process more accurate while freeing up employees to build those all-important customer relationships.
But this automation doesn’t just minimise errors. POS systems can connect and sync data across multiple locations, saving time when it comes to data management and providing a real-time update of products. This mitigates the risk of two customers booking same plane seat or hotel room.
A streamlined checkout process
Despite a post-pandemic surge in demand for holidays, the current economic crisis means this short-term demand won’t sustain recovery of the travel sector. To stand out from the competition, savvy brands must focus on the customer experience, from payment to refund, to retain and attract business.
At the moment, many potential holidaymakers still feel frustrated when booking travel, with three in every four (73%) reporting problems and frustrations during the booking process. To alleviate this, travel companies can take advantage of payment tech that gives consumers a frictionless payment experience while providing robust security to avoid fraud risks.
Many new POS systems not only optimise payment processes, they also make offline processing possible which, in the context of cruises and travel, can speed up embarkation and onboard sales.
Furthermore, POS systems can support the use of dynamic currency conversion (DCC), which gives cardholders the choice of paying in their preferred currency. This provides the peace-of-mind of knowing the exact exchange rate and amount charged immediately, rather than the converted transaction being charged at a later date.
Payment security
POS systems also support strong security throughout the payment process. For example, point-to-point encryption (P2PE) means customer card data is encrypted directly on the PIN entry device and remains encrypted until it is processed. The systems never see any sensitive data, minimising the impact of a data security compromise.
POS systems are increasingly becoming integrated with payment data tokenization, which further supports a seamless checkout experience. It uses software to algorithmically generate a token – a unique string of numbers – to represent the sensitive data. This protects cardholder data by eliminating the need to store sensitive data on a merchant’s system. If breached, the tokens are meaningless because they only contain a random assortment of numbers. A Visa report showed that merchants can experience a 2.1% increase in authorization rates when using the technology.
Maximising customer satisfaction and loyalty
The potential of your POS system goes well beyond taking payments; it can actually collect valuable data about your customers and their spending habits. The real-time reporting portal provided by PXP Financial is a great example, as it offers an overview of all premises, and reports provide a deep dive of transaction totals, dates, status, and more. These kinds of insights are crucial for effective business operations and for creating bespoke offers for your customers.
The travel may not be entirely back on its feet after Covid, and the economic situation has dealt another blow, but for businesses to weather the storm, they need to be able to keep pace with changing consumer needs and the expectation of fast, frictionless and safe experiences.
Upgrading your POS system may seem like a needless expense, but in the long term it will pay dividends, helping travel businesses to be more efficient and provide the best possible service to travellers.