Instant Payments Emerge As Key Factor For Winning Customer Loyalty

The last year brought about a perfect storm of economic and transactional challenges for microbusinesses and consumers.

Establishing frictionless disbursement flows between vendors, consumers and payors became more critical than ever as offline sales evaporated and the volume of online transactions rose rapidly. All entities involved in the payments cycle were thus placed under intense economic pressure to send and receive funds quickly and efficiently.

At the same time, the layers of complexity and risk common among legacy payment architectures became increasingly burdensome for microbusinesses. Payment delays — whether for loan disbursements, refunds or services — could provoke a crisis for microbusinesses that were enduring economic insecurity. Consumers also showed interest in receiving instant disbursements for larger payouts like loan proceeds and insurance payments.

Payments choice ultimately became a determinant of businesses’ survival as well as consumers’ engagement in 2020, and the majority of consumers and microbusinesses now want access to instant payment options.

The Disbursements Satisfaction Playbook: Leveraging Instant Payments To Drive User Engagement, a PYMNTS and Ingo Money collaboration, examines the importance of instant access to funds for long-term client and consumer loyalty. PYMNTS surveyed more than 5,000 consumers and 1,000 business owners, determining that most microbusinesses and consumers view the availability of instant disbursements as a key reason to continue doing business with a commercial partner. More than 67 percent of microbusinesses and 61 percent of consumers reported that they would be more likely to continue doing business with a company that offered them access to instant disbursements, for example.

Large payors appear to have recognized the significance of providing instant disbursements for their clients and consumers, with PYMNTS research revealing that more than 81 percent believe that the ability to offer instant payments is crucial to their long-term client relationships. Sixty-eight percent of payors are now even willing to pay a fixed fee to offer instant disbursements to consumers and business clients — removing the most significant barrier to increased consumer and microbusiness adoption.

These findings represent just a few of the insights into how instant disbursements are transforming the way payors use payment choice to build long-term customer relationship success. For more insights, download the report.