8 | | APRIL - 2022By Tomasz Kurczyk, Chief Transformation and Digital Officer, AXAPAYMENTS: A NEGLECTED TOOL FOR IMPROVING CUSTOMER RETENTION Last year was unprecedented for all types of businesses. A dramatic shift in consumer shopping behavior across all industries meant that companies had to react quickly and digitize to keep revenue flowing. It prompted the abandonment of cash and cheque payments and the adoption of at-scale digital payment methods. In 2020 the value of digital payments grew by 21 percent YoY, and it is expected to keep expanding at 13 percent CAGR until 2024.In the current economic environment, customer retention is more critical than ever. Across many industries, retail customers are more cautious, limiting their discretionary spending. Business customers, meanwhile, are reducing investments and focusing on cost reduction to optimize cash flow. In this context, customer loyalty and retention become more important than ever, even for high growth markets and countries. Most business leaders have known for years how important it is to adapt products and services to become more customer-centric. This approach has taken center stage in many brand and communications strategies, with a much smaller impact on product and core processes, especially when it comes to payments.Unfortunately, too many service providers focus solely on the first-time purchase experience and forget the service renewal experience, which consequently lacks optimization and provides only one-size-fits-all payment options for customers.From a business perspective, the implications are even more critical. Losing customers due to issues with renewal hurts the bottom line: one additional customer retained today immediately contributes to a company's profit, and vice versa. This is common sense for most business leaders, which makes it surprising that so many leave money on the table by not addressing these issues.Organizations wanting to address this problem should consider the following aspects of their payments process, which have a direct impact on retention:IN MY OPINION
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