The small businesses most affected by the pandemic were less satisfied with the companies that support their card and mobile wallet payments, with service-type functions receiving the lowest ratings, according to a new study from J.D. Power.

The J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Merchant Services Satisfaction Study showed that U.S. small businesses with significant sales declines during the past year also reported more challenges with customer service, cost of service, and underwriting and onboarding at their merchant services providers.

Paul McAdam, J.D. Power’s senior director of banking and payments intelligence, said in a statement that payment processors should anticipate that small businesses will continue to face challenges.

“In recent years, merchant services providers have introduced technology innovations that make it easier than ever for small businesses to accept card and digital wallet payments,” McAdam said. “This past year demonstrates that the technology is consistently meeting market needs, but achieving real, lasting customer satisfaction is as much about service levels as it is about technology. Payment processors should anticipate that many of the challenges and financial pressures small businesses faced in 2020 will continue to be a factor for the foreseeable future and tailor their customer-facing strategies to address those needs.”

J.D. Power’s study was conducted from September through November 2020 and included responses from 3,253 small business customers of merchant services providers.

Overall small business customer satisfaction with merchant services providers was 836 on a 1,000-point scale, down slightly from the 2020 study. The score was even lower, 827, for businesses with significant revenue declines due to COVID-19.

Businesses that have experienced COVID-19-related disruptions had significantly lower satisfaction with their provider’s contact center representatives, automated voice response (IVR) services, underwriting and onboarding, and cost of service.

Despite lower satisfaction with service-related experiences, technology fared better in the survey, with technology functionality, reliability and ease of use among the highest-scoring factors.

E-commerce small businesses had the highest levels of satisfaction, scoring 851. The study found that this group also had the highest level of understanding of pricing and fees and higher satisfaction with the options and tools available to manage chargebacks. But small businesses that accept card and digital wallet payments in physical environments did have higher satisfaction this year in the areas of timeliness of resolving service requests and clarity of pricing and fees.

Square ranked highest in merchant services satisfaction with a score of 857, followed by PayPal at 852. Two banks tied for third with a score of 849: Bank of America Merchant Services and PNC Merchant Services.

J.D. Power noted that in addition to the pandemic, some small businesses in 2020 were affected by changes related to mergers at FIS, Fiserv and Global Payments, as well as the dissolution of a joint venture between Fiserv and Bank of America.