Put Financing Where Customers Can Find It: Why Financing Shouldn't Live Only at Checkout

Learn how financing links and QR codes can make payment options easier to find across websites, email, text, direct mail, signage and customer-facing technology.

If financing is only introduced at checkout, you may be waiting too long.

Think about all the places a customer interacts with your business before making a decision.

They visit your website.

They receive an email or text.

They see an advertisement or direct-mail piece.

They walk through your store or office.

They interact with a point-of-sale system, kiosk or another piece of customer-facing technology.

And then—sometimes only at the very end—they learn that financing is available.

Why wait?

At FormPiper, we talk about introducing financing Early & Often.

But that philosophy isn't just about training employees to talk about financing earlier.

It's also about making financing visible and accessible throughout the customer journey.

Don't Make Financing Something Customers Have to Ask About

There's an important distinction between having financing and making customers aware that financing is available.

A business might have a strong lender lineup and multiple payment options available through FormPiper.

But if customers don't discover those options until the final conversation—or don't discover them at all—the program isn't getting every opportunity to work.

Instead of thinking about financing as a checkout tool, think of it as part of the broader customer experience.

Where are customers already looking?

That's where financing should be.

One Application. Multiple Entry Points.

FormPiper Custom Links and QR codes allow businesses to create direct paths into their FormPiper financing experience.

That means the application doesn't have to live in one place.

It can be accessible from multiple touchpoints.

Your Website

A customer researching a purchase, repair, procedure or service may be thinking about affordability long before contacting your team.

Making financing visible on your website gives that customer an opportunity to explore payment options earlier in the decision-making process.

Email and Text

Already communicating with a customer?

A FormPiper link can give them a simple way to access financing directly from an email or text message.

No hunting for the right page. No waiting until they return to your business.

Click the link and start the application.

Direct Mail and Signage

Digital links aren't the only entry point.

QR codes can connect physical marketing directly to the financing experience.

That could mean a QR code on a direct-mail piece, countertop display, window sign, product signage or other customer-facing material.

See payment options. Scan here.

A physical touchpoint becomes a direct path to the application.

What About POS Systems, Kiosks, DVIs and Other Technology?

This is where the strategy becomes even more interesting.

Businesses already use technology throughout the customer journey.

Instead of asking financing to operate separately from that experience, there may be opportunities to put access to financing inside the technology customers are already using.

In auto repair, for example, FormPiper Director of Business Development – Auto Repair Jace Barrera recently discussed how FormPiper can work alongside AutoVitals.

A customer viewing a digital vehicle inspection can see photos, recommended repairs and an estimate—and have access to a financing link within that experience.

The customer doesn't necessarily have to wait for someone to say:

“Would you like to hear about financing?”

The option is already visible.

The same broader principle can apply to other customer-facing technology.

A POS experience.

A kiosk.

A digital inspection.

Other platforms supporting the purchase or decision-making journey.

The technology will differ by industry.

The strategy doesn't.

Put financing where customers are already looking.

Early & Often Without Making It Feel Like a Sales Pitch

There's another benefit to this approach.

Introducing financing early doesn't have to mean aggressively pushing financing.

Quite the opposite.

When payment options are naturally available throughout the customer journey, financing becomes simply another way to pay.

Cash.

Credit card.

Low monthly payment options.

The customer can decide what works for them.

That's very different from waiting until a customer hesitates at the total and then suddenly introducing financing as a solution to a problem.

Making payment options visible earlier gives customers information they can use to make their own decisions.

Visibility Can Also Create Better Marketing Intelligence

Creating multiple entry points can solve another problem:

Where are your financing applications actually coming from?

Custom FormPiper Links can be used for different channels and campaigns, giving businesses greater visibility into the sources generating financing activity.

Website.

Email.

Text.

Direct mail.

In-store.

Connected technology.

Instead of simply knowing that an application was submitted, you can begin asking more useful questions about what helped generate it.

Which touchpoints are customers using?

Which campaigns are driving engagement?

Where might there be an opportunity to make financing more visible?

That brings the strategy full circle.

Measure. Learn. Improve.

This connects directly back to one of the financing metrics Austin Fowler encourages businesses to watch closely:

Applications.

If applications are lower than expected, don't immediately assume you have a Provider problem.

Ask first:

Are enough customers finding the application?

Then look at where financing appears throughout the customer journey.

Your website.

Your emails and texts.

Your marketing.

Your physical environment.

Your customer-facing technology.

Every one can become another door into the same financing experience.

More entry points. One FormPiper application.

And that's ultimately what Put Financing Where Customers Can Find It is about.

Not pushing financing harder.

Making payment options easier to discover.