Experience The Marketplace And Own The Experience

Our series tracking the traits that make up a great on-demand marketplace continues, with Hyperwallet’s Michael Ting putting forth the mandate that firms not just set the marketplace experience in motion but own it as well.

How do you own the online experience? How do you direct the experience between buyers and sellers in a way that’s efficient, seamless and positive for both parties?

In the continuing dialogue between PYMNTS’ Karen Webster and Michael Ting, senior vice president at Hyperwallet, on just what makes a great on-demand marketplace, Ting explained that owning the experience goes far beyond the visual UX of a given technology. Rather, it’s about the way users interact with both the visual UX and how disparate hardware and software solutions “come together and create simple, elegant experiences.”

While the visual UX of a given technological solution may be important, Ting clarified, what people see on the screen “and what they actually experience through the whole transaction” can be complex. For example, critical factors for sellers often include being paid on time, while being able to track their activity across payments.

Plus, Webster noted, people want to complete the entire experience without third parties involved.

Ting further explained that, while many firms strive to keep everything within the organization and avoid outsourcing mission-critical activities to others, at times, that goal can be an impractical one, with the end result leading to at least some reliance on outside partners.

Thus, the conundrum: How do you own the experience when others are in the mix?

Transparency, Ting noted, is key: “It is important to give both buyers and sellers the comfort of knowing that whoever is on the other side has been vetted somehow … that they are not just some arbitrary person or robot.”

When it comes down to it, service quality depends on the quality of the interaction between people and suppliers, and being transparent is vital in ensuring a positive interaction. It’s important, for instance, to be transparent about just how much is being paid in a given transaction, whether there are any currency transaction fees, and to ensure that people or firms know just who it is they’re selling to. The more transparent, the more secure the transaction for all parties involved.

One firm that owns the on-demand marketplace experience, according to Ting, is Uber, which has fostered a relationship with its drivers that wrings out maximum efficiency in interactions. The firm, Ting explained, does the hard work by finding the riders, allowing the drivers to focus exclusively on driving and getting paid (and leaving it to Uber to figure out the rules that govern those payments). When the ride is over, riders simply exit the car, and the payment is handled automatically. Talk about efficient, seamless and — hopefully — positive.