PayPoint, the payment services company, has admitted it has “lost touch” with many of its retailers, as it continues to deal with the fallout from changes it made to its commissions.
Steve O’Neill, marketing director of the company, which handles about £14bn of payments from terminals in over 37,500 stores in the UK, Ireland and Romania, made the admission in a letter to The Grocer (p23) this week.
“In light of recent coverage, I am concerned that we’ve lost touch with a lot of our retailers and we’re committed to improving that over the coming months,” he said.
The company has been embroiled in a storm of negative publicity since announcing it would cut caps on commission that retailers earn on prepay energy and bill payment transactions.
In his letter, O’Neill said the company had been listening and understood it could be doing “a lot of things better” to help retailers and their businesses.
O’Neill promised “a series of improvements”, including regular visits from the PayPoint field team and the launch of independent retailer forums to help understand their business challenges and help them profit from the PayPoint service. He also highlighted the launch of the company’s next-generation payment terminal later this year, which would enhance its service “by arming retailers with the very latest retail technology”.
Paul Baxter, chief executive of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, said: “At our recent meeting with PayPoint we pressed upon them the importance that they communicate regularly and clearly with their retail customers, focusing on providing better service and better support.
“In return the NFRN has pledged our support as PayPoint strives to be more in touch with their customers.”
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