After a long-term collaboration with Klarna and subsequently its spin-off Kustom, tire and rim retailer ABS Wheels has decided to change its online payment solution and move the flow to Svea Bank. The decision covers the company's annual online sales of approximately 100 million Swedish krona.
According to the company, it wasn't the technical features of the checkout itself that determined the change, but rather how the handling works in everyday situations when technical or administrative issues get stuck. Since end customers who experience problems with a payment or invoice often turn directly to the e-retailer, the payment provider's support has a direct impact on the retailer's own workload and customer experience.
The payment partner becomes part of our customer service. When something doesn't work, we need to be able to get help quickly and solve the problem together with our partner. This is important for both our customers and for us, says Andie Lahdo, CEO of ABS Wheels.
Friction in Automated Flows
As financial and technology companies automate ever-larger parts of their customer service, the issue of personal availability has become a practical challenge for many e-retailers.
We have experienced that even relatively simple support cases could drag on when handled through automated flows. What we primarily lacked was the ability to quickly contact a personal handler when an issue could not be resolved, says Andie Lahdo.
Although ABS Wheels does not keep a separate time record of how many hours have been spent on payment-related issues, the company describes that the delays have created extra work internally.
However, we have experienced that our customer service has had to spend unnecessary time trying to solve questions where we had wished for faster help from our payment partner, he notes.
The Limits of AI in Customer Service
Andie Lahdo clarifies that the decision is not about any conflict with the previous supplier, but about how the requirements for availability have changed as the industry has automated.
We had a long collaboration with Klarna and have had good personal contact with people who knew our business over the years. Our decision was based on our collective experiences and the need for a payment partner with good availability and personal support, he says.
ABS Wheels uses AI tools itself in its daily operations, but draws a clear line at situations where technology creates bottlenecks instead of solving the customer's problem.
We use AI daily ourselves and strongly believe in the technology. But when automation is not enough, there must be a person who can take over and help the customer further, concludes Andie Lahdo.
The change of payment solution is another step in the company's work to review its own infrastructure and customer journey. Previously, Ehandel.se reported on how the e-retailer restructured its operations and moved to a new headquarters to increase delivery speed.