Vespa Brooklyn wanted to provide contactless payment methods and have a more convenient workflow for staff and customers. They were able to collect payment faster, increase customer satisfaction, and improve their bottom line.
- Industry: Automotive
- Company Size: Small
- Number of TXT2PAY Users: 3
Vespa Brooklyn, a Vespa dealership located in New York, faced a challenge in two main areas: providing a simple and contactless payment method for customers and developing a more efficient and convenient workflow for staff and customers.
After signing up for TXT2PAY for Zipwhip, Vespa Brooklyn has been able to securely accept payments via text, greatly increasing efficiency in the service and sales departments, all while improving customer satisfaction and convenience
Challenges
Vespa Brooklyn has been proudly serving Brooklyn for years and is trusted in their community as a reliable, customer–centric business. Vespa Brooklyn’s business model depends on fast and efficient customer service.
The shop faced challenges with accepting and inputting credit card payments over the phone. Not only was taking the information over the phone tedious for staff, but it was also not a smooth or secure experience for customers. Every other department at the shop was a well-oiled machine, but collecting payments was not as smooth, so they knew they needed to make some changes
Additionally, customer communications from the service department had major time inefficiencies for both staff and customers. When a repair is complete or is being worked on, or if there are additional questions from staff about the service, the staff would have to call the customer and, most often, leave a voicemail. This led to a frequent game of phone tag where customers who were unable to answer the phone during work hours had to call back and pull the service staff away from work for a second time.
Here’s another example of where Vespa Brooklyn’s payment process lacked efficiency. Vespa offers customers the option to store their bikes over the winter, when they’re not riding them. This requires the shop to own and maintain a storage facility, and they pass some of that cost along to the customer. To collect payment, the shop again relied on phone calls.
The dealership offers customers the option to store their bikes over the winter when they’re not riding them. With 50-100 customers storing bikes at any given time in the winter and billing occurring on a monthly basis, it became a very tedious and time-consuming task. Vespa Brooklyn needed a solution to simplify communications, streamline processes and collect payment in a fast and secure way.
“In the first day of using TXT2PAY, we had collected $4,000+ in service payments. This allowed us to close out the job and move on to the next one, which was never possible in the past. The job was done and we were paid”
Andrew Hadjiminas
President & CEO, Vespa Brooklyn
Results
Vespa Brooklyn is now leveraging TXT2PAY for Zipwhip to great success and have made it a key tool in their day-to-day workflow.
The shop has greatly improved their workflows since signing up for TXT2PAY, not only due to the reduced steps in processing payments securely, but also the seamless flow from text conversation to payment request, all within Zipwhip.
The service department has seen a substantial increase in efficiency and reduced missed communications with customers. Service advisors send status updates to customers via text. When services have been completed, service advisors can request payment via TXT2PAY in the same text conversation. Not only does this save a massive amount of time for the service staff but allows customers to pay within seconds, without interrupting their workday with phone calls.
TXT2PAY’s secure payment platform has also dramatically reduced the need for calls with customers to manually input credit card information for storing bikes over the winter. Customers who have been introduced to TXT2PAY have raved about the simplicity, saying things like, “Hey, that was really easy! Super cool, thank you!.” Repeat monthly storage and service customers have seen the greatest simplification of the payment process as they simply enter the last four digits of their card on file to pay.
Finally, the largest change for Vespa Brooklyn has been the overall speed at which they are collecting payment. Creating a method by which customers are not interrupted by phone calls or required to log into a portal or payment page has dramatically improved their time to payment since day one of using TXT2PAY for Zipwhip.
With plans to expand TXT2PAY to their sales staff, Vespa Brooklyn has leveraged texting for increased customer satisfaction with a simplified payment process, increased efficiency across the service department, greatly decreased their time to payment, all while saving both time and money.
