Speaking on The Leaders Council Podcast, Fusion Telecom managing director Adam Norsworthy addresses current changes to how people pay for goods and services and how this could facilitate a move toward a cashless society.
For a company such as Fusion Telecom, which supplies secure telecom and payments services [under the Payguard brand] to business and contact centres, how consumers pay for goods and services is a matter of great interest. At the present time, the ways in which people purchase and move money are changing with the development of new technologies, largely spurred on by the digital revolution seen during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Discussing the issue on The Leaders Council Podcast, Fusion Telecom managing director Adam Norsworthy sought to contextualise the current state of play, explaining: “We’ve seen the Covid-19 pandemic really push technology forward and that includes a lot of technology that existed beforehand. Technology is now playing a major role in everybody’s working life in some way and how people have adopted technology is what’s really pushed it forward and made it more prevalent in B2B communication and in the payment sector.”
The key element behind the widespread take-up of new technologies, in Norsworthy’s view, lies not just in convenience of use for consumers but also for businesses themselves.
“What businesses are seeing is that technology typically helps them reduce their costs and become more efficient. Communication remains strong because people have got used to working with Zoom, Microsoft Teams and other platforms. There was a difficulty business seemed to have in adopting new technology and a hump that needed to be gotten over, but now Covid has driven businesses to really work through that, they have seen the benefits.
“In the world of payments, for example, there are so many different ways in which people can pay, and different ways people can receive money. There are more secure and compliant ways of paying and looking after customers’ data and all it takes is a bit of time to learn about the technology, how to use it and how it fits into one’s business. Once you’ve got through that, it’s easy to see that using technology is simply a better way to do business.
“Security around payments is a key factor in people’s decision-making as to what payment methods they use, but it isn’t the biggest consideration. The key one for consumers is convenience. This is why we're seeing, for example, people tapping their cards using ‘chip and PIN’ technology for debit or credit card payments. It's not very secure, anybody can tap someone else's card, but it is very convenient. That is the primary thing that is driving consumers in their payment choices. However, the new methods coming out are well understood by the card issuers, banks and regulatory bodies as being more secure, because they realise it's up to them to really drive the security into the market. Their customers savour the ease of payments and aren’t thinking too heavily about security in all its complexities. So, we're seeing things like open banking, transfers, interbank transfers, and some of the new card payment technologies are far more secure than they were before thanks to industry playing its part.”
With the rate of change being so rapid in the payment space and the convenience of using technology increasing, Norsworthy shared his view that this could eventually bring about the demise of cash and lead to a cashless society.
Norsworthy said: “Cash has taken a big step back during the pandemic. Debit cards are now overwhelmingly the driving force behind the majority of transactions within the UK. Within that top mix of transaction methods, cash is still there in the top five, but you have other things like direct debit payments, faster payments, bank transfers, and just looking at faster payments and bank transfers, money is now being transferred within seconds from one account to another. It is really accessible technology, which is easy and convenient to use, and it is actually now less convenient carrying cash because once you do run out you have to go and withdraw more.
“Added to that, other than withdrawing cash you cannot really do a great deal at cashpoints so there’s no other reason to go to them other than to withdraw money. As payment technologies become more convenient, that convenience replaces the convenience of using cash, so we’ll see cash continuing to decline.”
Norsworthy went on to explain that for businesses, it would be critical to adapt to changing consumer spending behaviours and adapt internal processes to become future-proof and survive in the long-term.
“Consumer spending behaviour has really changed, and businesses need to embrace all of these changes and offer consumers different ways in which they'd like to set up their accounts or make payments. We're seeing the increased use of Apple Pay and Google Pay, we're seeing the increased use of tokenisation of card information for recurring payments. Direct debit payments are increasing, we're seeing standing orders increasing, and there is a wide range of choice for how people wish to pay. Different people do like to pay in different ways, and we are seeing those businesses who are more flexible and open to adapting the way that they can accept payments, becoming more successful.
“We are also seeing that across the board with technology and in business operation in general. It's the same way with the return to work following the lockdowns: those businesses that are able to offer more working options for new and existing members of staff become better positioned to retain staff.”
Listen to the full interview with Fusion Telecom’s Adam Norsworthy on The Leaders Council Podcast below.
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
