Microsoft Teams now includes a payment system that allows small businesses to earn money through appointments, classes, individual sessions, webinars and more. Teams users in the US, Canada, and the UK will be able collect payments while attending a meeting. This service is now available to small businesses, financial advisors and lawyers, as well as instructors, tutors and other SMBs.
In the last few years we have seen a change in the way services are provided online. This is due to the pandemic, and the ease and growth of virtual meetings. Brenna Robinson is the general manager for Microsoft 365 Small and Medium Business. She spoke about how “the pandemic” changed things. “I believe that many SMBs are now more tech-savvy, and not just corner stores.”
Microsoft has now tapped into the tech savvy and demand of small businesses by offering a new payment app within Teams. This app allows businesses to host webinars and one-on-one meetings, as well as accept payments. Microsoft has partnered up with GoDaddy PayPal and Stripe in order to make this happen. It’s also free for Teams users. The payments app allows you to track who paid for the meeting.
Teams makes it easier for small business to meet their accountant or take classes virtually. Robinson says, “I don’t think I’ll ever meet my accountant again in person.” I think we have learned that maybe we didn’t even need to meet in person for all of these tasks.
Microsoft Teams’ payments app allows customers to pay during meetings at any time. Stripe and PayPal are available as part of the public preview today, while GoDaddy payment will be coming soon. The payments app creates a request within Microsoft Teams meetings.
This system is a great option for small business because it supports webinars, has a large number of attendees and can be used for private networking events and online classes. For the smaller, one-on-one sessions I can imagine future subscriptions here. You could easily subscribe to a course and pay through Teams. Robinson explains that “Right Now it’s more of a one-off.” “I believe we are interested in this area… I would say that this is just the beginning of how SMBs interact with their customers.”
