Andreas Philippi Head of Payment Solutions at Daimler, explains how his teams contribute to developing great user and payment experiences for Mercedes drivers and Mobility customers.
Our goal is to bring Daimler’s sales online by enabling the monetization of our online business models. We have built a Global Payment Platform that is enabling Daimler entities and affiliates to benefit from a secure and simple payment process via a one-stop solution. Mercedes pay is a central component of the Daimler digitalization strategy. It promotes long-term customer loyalty and will make our mobility solutions even more attractive.
With Mercedes pay, payments are processed in the multimedia system MBUX from Mercedes-Benz. The integrated fee-based Mercedes Me Connect services, such as in-car office functions (including automatic dial-in to conference calls and updating of calendars) can be payed, and expired services can be extended. Mercedes pay makes it even more convenient for customers to use pay services such as navigation, DAB+ digital radio, and smartphone integration. The in-car payment service is currently available in more than 30 countries Combined with a Mercedes Me user account, drivers only need to enter the payment details once.
Mercedes pay also makes parking much more convenient. For example, drivers will soon also be able to start, stop and pay for their onstreet parking via the in-car MBUX system or the Mercedes Me app. At the end of the parking duration, the total parking fee will be visible in the MBUX display and the payment will be made to the parking garage operator through Mercedes pay. In addition, drivers can use the Mercedes-Benz parking card to digitally capture their entry into and exit from selected parking garages throughout Germany by means of an RFID chip. This eliminates the frequent need to maneuver the vehicle to retrieve the parking ticket, or the need to walk to a highly frequented automated pay station.
Convenient payment via app: Users of Daimler’s Bertha app compare gas prices and pay for gas at approximately 400 selected HEM gas stations in Germany via smartphone. Mercedes pay offers drivers an integrated payment solution. To pay, the user only needs a Bertha account with registered payment details. Daimler plans to directly integrate this payment function into the head unit of Mercedes-Benz vehicles in the future, which will enable the entire payment process to be handled via the vehicle’s on-board unit.
Future plans include step-by-step development and integration of more Daimler Group products and services.
As seamlessly as possible! Ideally, the consumer will not even recognize payments in a checkout process, so that he can fully focus on consuming our mobility and digital services.
The consumer will store his preferred payment method once and will be able to use it everywhere in the Daimler ecosystem or even maybe beyond that. In addition, we are currently working on other financial products and solutions in order to create a superior user and payment experience and increase our customer touchpoints.
Our relationaship has been collaborative and goal-oriented. ePayment is a hot topic which is demanding in terms of technology, regulation and innovation speed and this makes it challenging in the aforementioned war for talent. Finding just the right talent covering the above mentioned functional areas, plus fitting in the team, plus being available at one of our main sites is challenging.
Organizational leaders should continuously reserve a relevant amount of their schedule to search and meet new talent, even if there isn’t a concrete job vacancy. Payment professionals are highly qualified, sought-after and hard to get. FinTech companies should, therefore, use the chance to hire a talented professional when possible.
Mercedes pay is a component of Daimler’s mobility and digitalization strategy, and is operated by Daimler Mobility Services, a business segment of Daimler Mobility.