Personal & Professional Services

One sector that's quick to dismiss ecommerce is the service industry. So often services are performed in person and that makes online payment seem unnecessary.

Why pay online when you can conduct the transaction in person?

That's a fair question, but another fair question is why force a transaction in person if you don't have to? Sometimes offering the option of paying online can make things easier. Suddenly the in-person experience doesn't include the shuffle of credit cards and signing, but can instead focus on people. Services are all about people, so why not focus on them?

It could be part of your brand that you'll handle the money later or people pay up front—both handled easily online— so you can spend all your time together giving the best experience possible.

Ecommerce could also be a simple way to offer gift certificates or other extras. That might be something you've never thought to offer, but it could make an ideal gift for birthdays, holidays, thank yous, etc.

Not every service is conducted in person. There are so many services where the work happens when you're not there, like lawn mowing, or across distances, like web design. These services could benefit big time from ecommerce as a way to handle payment.

Sometimes ecommerce is just an extra option, but it's one more convenience you can offer your clients. Let's look at some more specific benefits:

• Simple: There are a lot of services that don't happen in person and online payment would be so much easier than sending bills or trying to connect in person. What a pain when the paperboy has to come around collecting payment or the kid mowing your lawn has to come back because you weren't home. Why bother? How impressed would you be if the local kid who mowed your lawn had a website with online payment? That's a kid who wouldn't be mowing lawns for long.
• Speed: Online payments for services can be faster and more efficient. There's no need to send bills and payments back and forth in the mail, then deal with checks you need to cash. Payment is immediate.
• Go Green: Online payments mean no paperwork. You're not printing out invoices, stuffing them in envelopes, mailing them out and your customers aren't writing checks and mailing paperwork back. All that paper going back and forth takes a lot of energy.
• Interaction: Paying online can mean a better experience in person. You don't have to focus on swiping credit cards and can instead focus on people. Have a conversation with your customers and be more personable. Customers will remember these good interactions, you'll form relationships and they'll be more likely to come back.
• Recurring Payments: A huge bonus for online payments is when you have consistent payments due every week or month. With an ecommerce system you can set those payments up automatically. That means even less paperwork and more efficiency. Your customers don't have to remember to make a payment and you don't have to spend time following up and making sure payments are made.
• Online Access: If you set up your ecommerce system the right way you could offer your clients online access to payment history. Let them see past invoices, edit recurring payments and more. You could even offer membership style offerings, giving them access to additional content. It might be something simple like a secure place to post policies or exclusive offerings available to clients.
  An accountant may have a PDF with info about collecting receipts for taxes. They want to make it available to their customers without giving it to the world. A membership solution would be perfect.
• More Sales: Encourage more sales by offering your services as gift certificates. A free hour of massage would be an awesome gift, but so would a dog grooming session, lawn mowing or a guitar lesson. Your best customers would love to share your skills with their friends.

The benefits could help so many service professionals, including consultants, coaches, therapists, dog walkers, lawn mowers, cleaners, plumbers, designers, accountants and so many more. Imagine a team of local babysitters who set up a website for scheduling and payment. How cool would that be?

Ecommerce doesn't seem like an obvious necessity for a lot of services, but it could be huge. It makes things easier for you and your client, and makes you stand out from the competition.

Ecommerce really is for everybody.