As part of our 2011 kick off, PYMNTS.com has turned to its cast of experts on the Market Platform Dynamics team for a few of their payments New Year’s resolutions. In addition to sharing their thoughts, we would love for you to share your payments resolutions, here.
I will treat merchants as valued customers.
- I have taken the merchants who pay much of the cost of the card business for granted. They were so unhappy they went to Uncle Sam and complained. While that irks me, I realize that they are important customers and I need to treat them that way. So this year I’m going to really work on creating valuable services for them that they will willingly pay for. (Related Briefing Room: Merchants)
I will learn some behavioral economics.
- I hear this mix of psychology, economics, and statistics can provide a lot of valuable tools for designing products and marketing campaigns. I also hear that regulators, especially at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the US, are using behavioral economics to figure out even more ways to regulate what I do. So I figure this is a three-fer: I can use what I learn for day-to-day business in coming up with profitable products and campaigns; I can figure out what stuff I do might come under attack by the Fed; and I can even figure out maybe what kind of products might keep the behavioral economics inspired regulators off my back.
I will do a better job of communicating why my products really help people and don’t just line my pockets.
- I’m sick of the media and politicians picking on me. My financial services products help a lot of people with their day-to-day household management. But I haven’t done a very good job of explaining how they help people. I used to think I didn’t need to explain the value of these products since millions of people pay good money for them and obviously understand what they are getting. Now I realize that I need to get the all those talking heads out there to understand how everything from credit cards to overdraft limits to prepaid cards actually make life better for ordinary people.
David S. Evans is an economist and a business advisor to payment companies around the world. His recent work has focused on helping companies create, ignite and profit from payments innovation. He is the originator of the Innovation Ignition Framework® , a tool provides a systematic way for companies to evaluate and implement innovative ideas and achieve critical mass. Click here to contact David Evans.
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