Cloud communications platform Twilio has announced the launch of <PAY>, their new secure payment API that will enable developers to process payments over the phone in s secure way.
Twilio <PAY>, developed through a partnership with technology and payments company Stripe, provides the ability to use just one line of code to quickly and easily accept payment via automated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) interactions or in contact centre environments.
“Historically, taking payments over the phone has been either unsecure or painfully difficult and complex for businesses to support."
"With Twilio <PAY>, we think there’s a better way,” said Kris Gutta, Senior Product Manager of Programmable Voice at Twilio. “Twilio <PAY> gives developers the tools needed to build secure and intuitive payment experiences. Now developers will only need to add one line of code to begin processing payments over the phone.”
The PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliant solution means that Stripe customers will be able to connect their account and begin accepting credit card payments in minutes.
As Twilio’s launch partner, Stripe enables users to accept payments over the phone by using their existing Stripe account via the new Twilio <PAY> Connectors. “Stripe is uniquely focused on enabling the programmatic movement of money,” said Bob Rosin, Head of Partnerships at Stripe. “We do that by eliminating the complexities of compliance and ongoing shifts in payment methods. With today’s partnership, any business or platform can easily integrate secure payments for interactive voice response or live agent assistance.”
Twilio <PAY> is designed to make it easier developers to build secure and intuitive payment experiences for their customers, allowing them to securely capture credit card information and pass on the information to a payment platform, such as Stripe. Twilio <PAY> allows businesses to:
- Easily add payment experiences to contact centres so agents can assist customers through the payment process. When it is time for a customer to share credit card information, the agent will never see or hear the numbers being entered.
- Automate payment workflows so businesses can enhance their existing IVRs by adding in <PAY> for a customisable payment experience.
- Integrate with payment platforms such as Stripe with just a few clicks through Twilio’s <PAY> Connectors.
- Customers who make repeated purchases with a company can choose to securely have their credit card information saved on file for faster checkout later. Twilio does not store credit card data, but instead will use the payment provider you’ve selected to tokenise the information and pass it back to your app.
- Developers will only need to add one line of code or use Twilio Studio <PAY> Widget to begin accepting credit card payments with their Twilio Programmable Voice applications.
- If a company records customer phone interactions for orders, Twilio will automatically pause the recording when <PAY> is activated and resume the recording once the payment information has been supplied, preventing the recording from capturing sensitive information and ensuring compliance.
Currently in public beta, Twilio <PAY> will be priced at $0.10 per successful <PAY> transaction with out-of-the-box support with Twilio Flex and Twilio Studio. It is anticipated that it will be on General Availability during the first half of 2019 in the U.S. and select international markets supported by our payment partners.
