The Future of Payment Technology for HVAC Businesses

Posted on:

August 27, 2019

While it’s easy to get bogged down by the daily grind of the busy summer season, contractors who remain focused on the future and the innovations required to improve their business will continue to enjoy a distinct competitive advantage. The same goes for providers of payment solutions, which have come a long way in recent years and continue to evolve to improve their usability and accessibility for customers and businesses in the HVAC world.

Contractors and payment providers are advancing their solutions in tandem. In this article, we will expire the future of payment technology for HVAC businesses by looking at four transformational trends.

Waterfall Payment Options

Contractors see customers with different HVAC needs at every stop, and customers’ financial needs also vary from household to household. To help ensure every prospective buyer can pay for the services or equipment they need, companies often onboard an array of payment options that address different financial situations. These can include providers who allow for open-ended lines of credit for ongoing financing needs, as well as those that offer installment loans with equal monthly payments. Additionally, a contractor may add a second look financing provider to help approve customers whose FICO scores might not qualify for a prime financing provider.

To avoid the friction of using different vendors for different customer situations, financing providers and payment tech providers continue to develop solutions that bring each option into a single, unified platform. These payment platforms are advancing to become increasingly user-friendly. They support contractors in closing sales by allowing them to review all payment options with the customer so that, in turn, they can make the best financial decision for their unique needs.

Financing providers are developing partnerships, both, amongst themselves and with fintech vendors to continue innovating payment platforms for a seamless waterfall process. As a result, customers are now able to apply for prime financing, and if the application is declined for credit reasons, their information can seamlessly transition over to a second look provider for an immediate decision. Contractors that leverage a platform with integrated payment options take stress and application fatigue out of the customer experience, while also materially increasing the likelihood for approval.

Seamless API Integrations

One common concern for contractors looking to bulk up their payment solutions is fear of a cumbersome integration process, but many financial institutions and fintech providers have dramatically simplified the process for quick, seamless integration.

Leading financing providers continue to invest in robust technologies and top talent to ease the burden of onboarding new solutions. This can include handling the heavy lifting when doing an API integration into the contractor’s existing technology and collaborating with other payment solutions to adapt their application process to the existing solutions.

Financial technology vendors have also taken on the role of a middleman to bring different providers together onto an easy-to-integrate solution. By increasingly embracing a platform-agnostic model, providers can instantly onboard new contractors to their platform in several ways.

Providers using web browser-based applications can make the service accessible on any device with online capabilities, including tablets, cell phones, laptops, or even a customer’s desktop if needed. Plug-in integration is another option that quickly moves the application into the existing e-commerce platform, which can then be supported on the contractor’s website before or during the appointment.

Innovations in Security

Securing personal information continues to be a top-of-mind concern for customers, and financing applications require some of the most closely guarded information a customer has. As cybercriminals become increasingly sophisticated, so must technology and financial companies.

In recent years, we have seen a quick evolution in how companies secure access to information, especially on the customer side. Two-factor authentication became mainstream for online access, and in just the past few years, mobile phone innovations have allowed for biometric authentication using fingerprints and facial recognition. The future promises continued the advancement of security measures to protect access to contractors’ and customers’ information.

Modernization of Business Management Platforms

While we have discussed payment platforms at length herein, tech providers are increasingly merging payment solutions into more robust platforms to address all of a contractors’ needs, from payments to inventory, marketing, on-the-job instructions, scheduling, HR and more.

Payzer has long been an HVAC industry leader in technology solutions, and in addition to offering an array of financing options from its financing partners, the platform provides a one-stop-shop on the technology platforms contractors are already using in their offices and customers’ homes. The all-in-one HVAC software handles scheduling, job status, financial, claims, and technician status, on a fixed schedule or on–demand.

Just as financing providers are merging their services into integrated platforms, solution providers will increasingly merge cross-disciplinary business specialties to limit the friction of doing business while empowering HVAC businesses to operate more efficiently and profitably.

Author
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Dave Caruso

Chief Commercial Officer at Fortiva Retail Credit

Dave Caruso is the Chief Commercial Officer at Fortiva Retail Credit, the only second look consumer financing program serviced by a publicly traded company with decades of experience servicing credit-challenged consumers (issued by The Bank of Missouri). He may be contacted at David.Caruso@atlanticus.com .