One year on from its fallout with retailers over commission, the chief executive of PayPoint has laid out plans to be a leading voice on the issues that matter to retailers and prepare them for the future.

Speaking exclusively to Retail Express, Dominic Taylor admitted that the company had previously been “distracted” from focusing on retailers. 

“Although in the past I can understand we’ve been perceived to be a bit arrogant, that genuinely is not the sentiment I’m trying to drive through the organisation,” he said.

“I’m not particularly happy about the level of service we provide to retailers. I want us to provide a much better level than we currently do. I know we’ve got a long way to go.”

To get closer to retailers, PayPoint is working on introducing a ‘retailer pledge’ that sets out what it can be held accountable for. As well as a promise to innovate, it will vow to better represent the needs of retailers. “While we can’t be held to be responsible for the fundamental things going on in the retail community, whether it’s the living wage or banking charges, we could better represent some of those things outside,” Taylor said. 

“I want us to show a much higher level of empathy around the issues going on. We can’t solve these problems directly, but we can seek to understand them better and try to provide a stronger voice to represent their concerns in a way that a shop can’t do by itself. We do have a voice and frankly I don’t think we’ve used that voice enough.”

He said the company was investing heavily in the future of independent retail to “future proof” retailers’ businesses. It would come through new technology such as its PayPoint One terminal, an integrated payment and EPoS solution with beacon and touchscreen technology, that will begin to roll out at the end of the summer.

He said: “We, somewhat uniquely, think quite hard about technology in terms of what consumers are going to demand through local stores in the future. We invest in technology to try to grow the business – for our benefit, but also the benefit of the retailer.

“There’s a lot more we can do around retail services and working out what the store of the future is going to look like so we can cater for it.”

READ MORE: on PayPoint’s plans to help the independent convenience channel.