Many service businesses pay more than they need to when it comes to processing customer payments in the field. And your technicians would probably prefer an easier, more efficient, and more secure way to capture those customer payments for your business.
In this webinar recap, we break down the latest in payment technology and explore the true costs of different payment methods, including ServiceTitan’s latest solutions like Tap to Pay on Mobile, and when to use each one for maximum benefit.
The webinar’s three key takeaways for accepting payments in the field are:
Checks and keyed-in manual entry for credit and debit cards are slow, messy, and costly.
Digital payments accelerate cash flow, ease field collection, and simplify reconciliation.
You can ditch card readers and extra fees by signing up today for Tap to Pay on Mobile.
Watch the full webinar on-demand now to learn how to optimize your field payment tools, or read on for the highlights.
Evolution of Technology
When it comes to adopting and adapting to technology, newer generations of customers move more quickly as they seek speed and convenience to accomplish daily tasks. And while older generations may take longer, they’re beginning to see the added value that technology offers.
At ServiceTitan, the goal is to look at technology as a whole and develop tools that resonate with all customers while also providing the best technology to drive your business forward.
Technology has evolved rapidly in recent years, from the first brick phone to today’s smartphones, and from the old, large-tank water heaters to the tankless versions we see today.
“The change of evolution has come to the trades as well, and we want to keep up with that,” says Drew Lizama, ServiceTitan Manager of FinTech Sales.
Just like cellphones and water heaters, the way customers pay for home services has also evolved, says Richard Kohberger, General Manager at Comfort Control Inc. in Atlanta, and also known as the Blue Collar Nerd on YouTube.
While we no longer barter or pay with precious metals, the evolution of payments has flowed from cash to writing paper checks, to swiping bulky analog credit card machines, to today’s contactless payment methods.
“Now in the modern day of 2025, we have contactless payments where you can just take a phone or a card with a chip in it and hold it up to some sort of reader and 1, 2, 3, it's done. You've taken a payment,” Kohberger says.
Some customers, however, still prefer to pay by check or they want the technician to key in their credit card number for payment. Both ways can be slow, messy, and costly.
According to ServiceTitan data, the problems with manual payment are:
25% of check payments take up to 14 days to process
$88 per bounced check is what it costs you
45 seconds for keyed-in credit card payments to process
“So, there's a lot of room for error, there's a lot of room for things to go wrong,” Kohberger says.
Checks get delayed or bounce for insufficient funds. When you key in a credit card transaction, it’s not immediate. It takes about 45 seconds for it to fully go through.
“What that means is, your technician can think everything's good, close things out, and walk away. And only later, back in the office, do we realize, ‘Oh, that credit card payment didn't actually go through,’” Kohberger says.
It also costs your business more in merchant fees when techs key in customer credit cards because it’s considered a “card not-present” transaction. More on that later.
Payments Demystified
To demystify how customers make payments today, consider the following digital-payment usage numbers:
92% of consumers used some form of digital payment in the last 12 months
25% of all card transactions in the U.S. are now contactless
6% of consumers paid a bill using a check
Examples of digital payment include mobile wallets, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, and Zelle. Customers also tap NFC-enabled debit or credit cards, pay by bank with ACH, or scan QR codes to pay online.
Digital payments offer many benefits:
For the owner
Faster cash flow
Reduced aging unpaid invoices
Real-time visibility into revenue
For the tech
Faster payments in the field
No additional hardware needed
Elevated customer experience and trust
For the back office
No more chasing down missing checks
Automatic reconciliation with ServiceTitan
Instant digital records
Digital payments eliminate the need for techs to haul around credit card readers from a third-party device, or remember to keep them charged, or bring the reader with them in the first place.
“Now, it’s just their phone,” Kohberger says. “Just a quick tap, no additional hardware, nothing for the tech to keep track of, nothing for them to ‘not break’ besides their phone.”
Taking “card-present” transactions, Lizama says, helps contractors do two things:
It’s the most secure and efficient way to accept customer payments.
It’s the most cost-effective for merchant fees, with lower rates for more secure transactions.
But in order for the contactless tap-to-pay feature to work, the smartphone or other device must have an NFC (Near Field Communication)-enabled chip inside. Many techs use tablets and iPads while on the job, but few of these devices include the NFC chip, including Apple. Even if you’re using the tablet’s camera to scan the credit card in, Kohberger says this is still considered a “card-not-present” transaction.
“You're still going to end up paying a little bit more for that transaction because the card companies are taking more perceived risk in that scenario,” he explains. “It's assumed that the card is not actually with you. It's assumed that you're taking it over the phone.”
Tap to Pay on Mobile
With ServiceTitan’s new Tap to Pay on Mobile, the transaction is considered a “card-present” transaction because the customer taps to pay using the technician’s NFC-enabled smartphone.
“This is something that ServiceTitan is actually on the forefront of being pioneers in the blue- collar space. There's no other solution out there that’s specifically for the trades,” Lizama says. “It's all-inclusive, all-embedded, all-integrated within ServiceTitan, the platform that you use to operate and run your businesses.”
For companies whose techs use mobile tablets or iPads, devices without NFC, ServiceTitan offers the solution of a simple swap via QR transfer—also considered a “card-present” transaction. Here’s how it works.
“When the technician goes to close out and collect payment, there's going to be a QR code they can scan with their phone,” Kohberger explains. “They scan the QR code on the iPad with the phone, and that automatically opens up ServiceTitan on the phone, to the ‘collect payment’ screen where they need to be. The customer taps the card on the phone, and then the tech can resume everything else on the iPad. They strictly use the phone as the POS (point-of-sale) system.
“Now, you can have a fast, secure card-collection process that’s more convenient for your customers, more convenient for your techs, and ultimately better for your bottom line,” he adds.
Debunking the Top 3 Tap-to-Pay Myths
ServiceTitan’s Tap to Pay is available to all users, it’s encrypted behind the scenes, and it’s easy to set up, Lizama says.
“There’s no heavy lifting you need to do,” he says. Businesses simply reach out to their customer success manager at ServiceTitan to activate Tap to Pay, or they can email fintechsales@servicetitan.com for help in setting it up.
Other key points about Tap to Pay:
There are no additional fees to use it.
When using swap via QR transfer, you don’t have to log in and out of your tablet or phone.
It works seamlessly with debit cards and credit cards.
You’ll remain compliant with the payment-card industry since it’s more secure.
Techs never gain access to your customers’ personal financial information.
“Just from a person who's been in the field before and a person who's operated a company before, I would recommend adopting this. I don't really see a whole lot of downside to it,” Kohberger says.
>>Ready to implement Tap to Pay on Mobile? Contact us to get started.
