Payment links have become one of the most important tools of selling on the internet. The wide acceptance of payment links has been because of its flexibility, allowing businesses to collect payments anywhere on the internet. 

With just a link, businesses can meet customers anywhere online from social media platforms to messaging apps and in emails, to receive payments. 

This flexibility allows businesses to have access to customer payments from anywhere they are interacting with customers without redirecting them to a website. 

However, it doesn’t stop with just creating these payment links. There are a couple of things businesses have to consider when making payment links, and this is where a lot of businesses make mistakes. 

The best way to avoid mistakes and succeed in business is to do research and find out where others are getting it wrong. So you can do it right.

Here are four common mistakes to avoid when making a payment link to collect payment online.

A lot of merchants believe their job is done once they provide their customers with a payment link, but that’s not the case. 

Customers are sometimes hung out to dry when trying to use a payment link because they encounter a problem and the customer support is either unreachable or non-existent. 

This is terrible for the customer-business relationship.

You need to ensure your customers have adequate customer support available to them both from your business and from the payment solution provider you use for the payment link. 

For this reason, you should do proper research and pick a payment solution provider like Fincra with excellent customer support. 

Getting swift responses when you encounter a problem is something a customer never forgets. 

A lot of times, one-time customers become recurrent customers because of their customer service experience, so it is something all businesses should have in mind when creating a payment link.

A lot of the common mistakes businesses make circle around customer experience. This is because happy and satisfied customers are the life force of a successful business, so it is so important to get it right. 

The whole idea of payment links is a flexible payment option that enables quick payment collection. Forcing your customers to create an account before they can make a payment defeats that purpose and makes the process unnecessarily cumbersome.

This is one of the major causes of cart abandonment because when people click on a payment link to make a payment online, they just want to pay quickly and get over with it. Forcing them to create an account before they can pay elongates the process, and many people will not stick around to the end.

It is important to keep the payment process as brief and concise as possible to give your customers an optimal payment experience.

Most customers blame companies and not hackers when there is a data breach, and rightly so because it is your job to ensure the data they put on the link you provided is secured. 

Customers need to feel safe when making a payment; if you send them a payment link that looks dodgy, there is a high chance they won’t complete the payment. For this reason, you need to partner with a payment solution provider you can trust, one that will always protect your customer’s payment information and any other information they provide. 

You need a payment solution provider like Fincra that is licensed and certified so your customers have full confidence in your business when making a payment. Fincra is certified by the highest compliance standards across its operational countries and regions, so you can rest easy when using our payment gateway.

Different customers have different payment preferences, and your business needs to be able to cater for all of them. 

If a customer is trying to make a payment and the payment gateway you are using does not support their only available payment method, they can’t make that payment and will likely go to your competitors for that product or service.

Providing your customers with adequate payment options is important because payment collection is a crucial point for all businesses. We recognise that it is not easy to convince people to give you their money in exchange for your products. Business is hard work, so you would not want to ruin all that hard work by not having their preferred payment option available at the end of the journey.

You need to pick a payment service provider like Fincra to have a payment link with multiple payment options to cater to diverse customer preferences. Fincra payment links enable payments through credit cards, debit cards, bank transfers, PayAttitude, mobile money, and more. 

With Fincra, you are able to give your customers the frictionless payment experience they desire.

These mistakes may seem basic and straightforward, but you would be surprised how many businesses have been guilty of them when making payment links. 

We have identified them for you and provided ways for you to avoid them because, at Fincra, we care about our merchants and are fully invested in their success.

Create an account with Fincra to get started.