How Consumers Make Decisions In The Digital Age

With the ever-increasing popularity of social media and constant free flow of information, now more than ever, consumers are making purchasing decisions based on social reputation and reviews.

While the task of managing reputation and relationships across such a broad spectrum of sites can be daunting, it can also be rewarding for merchants who understand how consumers’ decision making processes are changing.

That’s what PYMNTS.com is hearing from Chris McNulty, group executive at TSYS Merchant Solutions, who explained how the onset of the “digital age” is changing traditional consumer-merchant interactions.

“Consumers today look at how they make buy decisions very differently,” McNulty explained. “You know, what they should buy, where they should buy it, what are my friends saying about this company or this product … there’s a lot of access through social media and other avenues to information, really at their fingertips.”

According to McNulty, the availability of that information underscores how important it is for merchants to understand and measure how they’re interacting with their customers.

Enter TSYS Merchant Insights, which McNulty describes as a “dashboard” and “web-based portal” that allows merchants to evaluate their revenue, reputation and social media engagement, and to weigh its performance against others in their market.

To illustrate how the tool can help merchants, McNulty used the example of a restaurant that wanted to compare how it performed on Thursdays against other small businesses. TSYS Merchant Insights would allow the restaurant to evaluate its effectiveness on Facebook and Yelp and produce a “report card” that suggests where action should be taken.

That actionable data can be used for both short-term fixes and long-term strategic initiatives, such as immediately reaching out to a consumer who’s had a bad experience, or deciding to offer free desserts to every new follower on a certain social platform.

“Understanding what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong … gives them the call to action to change their business practices,” McNulty said.

“Ultimately, it’s about deriving incremental business and helping that business – whatever it is – grow.”

To hear more McNulty on social’s influence on spend, TSYS Merchant Services and more, listen to the full podcast below.

*If you have trouble with the audio player above, click here.

Chris McNulty 

Group Executive Sales, Business Development and Client Relations 

TSYS Merchant Solutions 

Chris joined TSYS Merchant Solutions Executive Management Team in September 2011 as the Group Executive of Sales, Business Development and Client Relations. 

With more than 20 years of industry experience, Chris came to TSYS Merchant Solutions from Voltage where he was the Vice President of Payments. Prior to joining Voltage he led national, direct and regional sales teams at NPC for 14 years. He has also worked at First Tennessee and Fifth Third banks. 

Chris is a frequently requested speaker at various payments industry events. Chris’s expertise spans a variety of industry topics ranging from payment security to mobile technology and social payments.