Getting to the Core of What People Want in B2B Payments

Great user experience (UX) isn’t about fancy design or adding more features. It’s about understanding what people actually want—and making sure they get it.
In B2B payments, where transactions involve multiple stakeholders, approvals, and compliance checks, getting to the heart of user needs isn’t just a UX play—it’s a customer retention play.
Companies that nail this keep their users coming back, while those that don’t become a source of frustration.
So, what do people truly want in B2B payments? And more importantly, how can you design products that fulfill those needs consistently?
What People Expect in B2B Payments
Let’s start with the basics. If you’re a CFO approving a six-figure payment, a treasurer managing liquidity, or a finance lead reconciling invoices, you expect a few things:
- Speed: No one wants to wait days to know if a payment went through.
- Clarity: They need to know how much they’re paying, when the money will arrive, and what fees are involved.
- Reliability: Payments should work every time—without glitches, errors, or surprises.
- Security: Given the stakes, payments need to be secure without being a nightmare to complete.
- Ease of use: Finance teams already have enough on their plate. They don’t want another complicated system that takes weeks to learn.
These expectations are the foundation of a great experience. The challenge for payment companies is not just meeting them—but exceeding them.
What People Want to Accomplish (And How You Can Help)
How do they feel when they do their work?
What's their mental state when they use certain platforms?
These are key questions to consider when designing to exceed user expectations. The best payment experiences don’t just facilitate transactions—they instill confidence, clarity, and control.
To achieve this, your platform must:
- Eliminate unnecessary friction. Every extra step, redundant approval, or unclear error message erodes trust. Smooth, intuitive workflows reinforce confidence in decision-making.
- Provide crystal-clear visibility. Users should be able to understand their financial position at a glance—upcoming payments, cash flow forecasts, and potential risks should be surfaced proactively.
- Enable better decision-making. Anticipate what users need before they realize it. If a payment is delayed, don’t just flag the issue—explain why and offer an immediate solution.
- Deliver unwavering support. Payments don’t always go as planned. A failed transaction or unexpected fee should be met with proactive guidance, not frustration.
The most effective payment platforms preempt problems. They empower users with tools that feel intuitive, decisive, and reliable—allowing them to focus on strategy rather than troubleshooting.
The Ultimate UX Play: Getting to the Core of What People Want
When you deeply understand your users, you can build experiences that remove unnecessary complexity and help them focus on what matters.
A framework for doing this:
- Observe users in action. Don’t just rely on surveys. Watch how CFOs, treasurers, and finance teams actually work. Where do they get stuck? What workarounds do they use? What they do and how they do it provides valuable insights.
- Analyze support tickets. The most common complaints and questions point directly to UX gaps.
- Ask better questions. Instead of asking, “What features do you want?” reframe the conversation to uncover deeper insights:
- “What’s the hardest part of your payment process?”
- “What’s one thing that frustrates you every day?”
- “What would make you feel more confident when approving large transactions?”
- “What’s an example of a payment experience you actually enjoyed?”
- Test and refine continuously. Great UX isn’t a one-and-done effort. Release small improvements, measure their impact, and iterate.
UX is about making users more productive and efficient. When you do that, they’ll stick with your platform.
Building a User-Centric Strategy with Modern Tools
Historically, improving B2B payment UX was slow and expensive. Companies spent months developing new features, only to realize they didn’t fully solve user problems.
But today, AI and low-code/no-code tools have changed the game, allowing for faster, more iterative improvements that align with user needs and business objectives.
Here’s how to use them to stay nimble:
- AI-driven automation: Use AI to automate repetitive tasks like invoice matching, fraud detection, and reconciliation. This reduces manual work, improves accuracy, and instills confidence in financial decisions by providing clear, reliable data.
- No-code solutions: Finance teams often create workarounds in spreadsheets because existing tools don’t fully meet their needs. No-code platforms let you build and test solutions quickly, reducing reliance on engineering and empowering teams to adapt processes to their unique workflows.
Proactive UX improvements: AI can analyze user behavior to detect friction points and suggest improvements. Instead of waiting for users to complain, you can address issues before they escalate—helping finance teams feel in control, informed, and supported in their decision-making.
There’s no excuse for slow innovation. Payment providers that commit to a lean, user-centric approach can ship meaningful improvements faster than ever before.
WDIR is your strategic partner in this process, helping you align UX enhancements with long-term business goals, ensuring that every investment in user experience directly contributes to efficiency, trust, and customer retention.
The Payoff: Exceeding Expectations and Retaining Customers
B2B payment platforms don’t compete on features alone—they compete on trust, ease of use, and reliability. The best ones go beyond meeting expectations; they exceed them.
Here’s what that looks like in action:
- Instead of just offering a transaction history, provide intelligent insights that help CFOs optimize cash flow.
- Instead of making users dig through documentation, offer real-time, AI-powered assistance.
- Instead of forcing customers to switch between multiple systems, integrate with their existing workflows seamlessly.
Companies that get this right don’t just win customers—they keep them for the long haul. The question is: are you one of them?
Ready to Improve Your B2B Payment UX?
If you’re serious about making your payment experience a competitive advantage, it’s time to take action. At WDIR, we help payment leaders like you build intuitive, user-focused platforms that drive business results.
Let’s talk about how we can refine your UX, increase adoption, and make your payment experience seamless. Get started today!