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Your customers are used to visiting a website, selecting a product, going to the checkout and paying quickly and smoothly by card – when they’re shopping as consumers. But when they’re buying as business customers, the experience is not usually so easy or satisfying.
Increasingly, however, the same convenient experience is being offered in business-to-business transactions. This is both a challenge not to be left behind and an opportunity to differentiate from your slower competitors. It may be time to consider integrating Stripe’s payment gateway with your FileMaker system.
A payment gateway such as Stripe is the technology that makes safe online transactions possible. It’s not a financial institution itself, but it securely transfers payment data between the seller, the customer and the bank or credit card provider. This simple, quick online checkout experience involves a complex sequence of encrypted processes that ensure the transaction is both fast and secure. Result: the transaction is rapidly authenticated, the order is approved and payment is processed.
Stripe can be used by any business that sends invoices, even if they don’t take orders online. Following a sale the business emails through an invoice containing a link that goes to a Stripe interface, where all the details of the transaction are already there and it’s quick to pay.
When your customers do a bank transfer they have to go to their online bank, enter your business’s name and bank details, the reference and amount, and approve payment. In contrast, Stripe's online card payments are quick and intuitive. The transaction details are already entered. All they have to do is enter their card details – and often their browser knows most of those already. It’s easy.
It’s not only easy, it’s also far more secure. Payment gateways like Stripe have rigorous security measures that protect sensitive customer information and use high-level encryption technologies and secure protocols to safeguard data such as credit card numbers. They also use advanced fraud detection tools that screen transactions for suspicious activity.
The combination of ease of use and security builds trust and confidence in both the payment process and in your business.
The more ways you can be paid, the more likely you are to be paid. Before using Stripe you may have been unable to take card payments, which can put off some customers. And if you did have a card machine, you may have taken customer details over the phone and manually entered them yourself – meaning you also have the responsibility for keeping those details safe.
Now, your customers have a more positive payment experience. And this translates into positive perceptions of your business. You are seen as more professional, more dependable and more advanced, which can translate into a measurable increase in repeat purchases. You’re more likely to retain customers too.
With Stripe you can now also take credit card payments, which many businesses use to manage cash flow. International payments become easier. Both these factors can increase sales.
Having Stripe integrated with your FileMaker offers a range of valuable efficiencies. Stripe will immediately tell your system when your customer has paid, or whether they tried to pay and failed, or haven’t yet paid. You no longer have to go into your bank account to check.
If the payment is one in a sequence of orders, it can trigger the next step in the process – and this happens automatically. If the payment hasn’t happened, the system can automatically chase the customer for payment.
What’s more, every payment via Stripe is automatically matched with an order and an invoice. This can be a real game-changer, especially for businesses that use a card machine to take payments by simply keying in the amount. Doing reconciliation for every transaction can be a major task, and one that can easily result in errors. Stripe payments are intrinsically linked with an order and there’s no room for mistakes and not even any need for approvals.
Finally, when your FileMaker system knows a purchase has gone through, it can manage the next step of the process – whether that's releasing stock for despatch, or sending the confirmation text that confirms the job in the schedule.
Integrating your FileMaker system with Stripe can be a revolutionary step forward for your business. An easy, quick and super-secure payment process has a big impact on buyers, both in simple practical terms but in how they perceive your business. For you, integration with your other processes means time and cost savings, as well greater business intelligence about orders and payments. It’s an important step in future-proofing your business and gaining an edge on your competitors.
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