PAYMENTS & TELECOMS
Persson gives e-shopping as an example , where customers “ can easily check out using a variety of payment options from credit cards to digital wallets .
“ They can even opt for buy now , pay later services , apply coupons and discounts , and receive cashback or loyalty points all in a single transaction journey .”
Digital payments : Reducing costs It is not just greater customer journeys , engagement and retention that digitalisation offers the payments divisions of telecom companies – it can also help to significantly reduce costs .
By helping telecom companies reach higher operational efficiencies , the cost of payments infrastructure can be significantly reduced .
For Persson , there are two key areas where digitalisation has helped telecom companies reduce their expenditure : voucher generation and distribution costs .
He notes : “ In the ‘ old days ’, and particularly in developing countries , any customer who needed to top up their phone prepaid subscription had to run to the local store and grab , for example , a US $ 20 paper voucher .
“ Digital payments allow customers to self-top-up through their digital wallets , circumventing the need for these paper vouchers and thus removing the untold costs associated with first printing and then distributing millions upon millions of vouchers . “ For example , MTN , a leading telecom operator in Africa , has more than 24 % of its airtime sales processed by MTN Mobile Money .
“ Digital payment offerings also enable telecom companies to streamline their payment processes , reduce cash handling expenses , minimise late payments and bad debts , enhance customer service , and gain valuable data insights .
“Consumers have come to expect endto-end experiences , which is drawing telecom companies towards offering embedded financial services like digital wallets ”
DANIEL BELDA HEAD OF PRODUCT STRATEGY , OPENPAYD
76 October 2023