You might be under the impression that the only function enabled by your merchant service provider is the taking of credit and debit card payments from your customers.
While these companies specialize in helping you to navigate successfully through that arena, this is only the beginning of the role they should be playing for you and your business.
Take a few minutes to delve deeper into how your provider works for you, and you will see how they also impact customer experiences with your brand.
What does your merchant service provider do?
Your merchant service provider enables businesses to accept and process credit, debit, and electronic payments securely, while offering tools for compliance, payment tracking, customer analytics, and efficient POS systems to streamline in-person and online transactions.
First and foremost, your provider makes it possible for you to accept credit and debit card payments along with other forms of digital and electronic transactions.
Behind the scenes, the right provider also ensures total compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), a measure that helps to safeguard the processing and storage of cardholder data for your business.
Additionally, this vendor furnishes you with a host of tools and technologies, all designed to assist you in the efficient and secure operation of your company.
These include capabilities that allow you to track payments, collect outstanding invoices, and analyze buying behaviors and customer data in order to boost sales and formulate intelligent marketing strategies going forward.
Finally, your provider offers an array of products that help to streamline and enhance the payment process. These include options to enable contactless near-field communication (NFC) transactions, mobile payments through a cellphone or tablet, credit card terminals where buyers can tap, swipe or dip to make a purchase, and online and virtual terminal solutions for ecommerce payments.
These features are made available to you and your customers thanks to a suite of hardware and software known as a point of sale (POS) system. This is where in-person card transactions are registered, where online commerce is transmitted to a payment gateway, where phone and mail order purchases are entered into a virtual terminal web application, and where a plethora of record-keeping and reporting capabilities reside.
In short, the POS represents the “brain” of your business that helps to efficiently run your entire payments processing empire.
Understanding the insights your merchant service provider brings.
Each time one of your customers makes a purchase, the POS furnished by your merchant service provider records the event. It gathers highly valuable information that includes nuggets like who your best customers are, which times of the day, week, or month are most lucrative for your business, and which products or services are the most profitable.
You can even use the system’s employee management capabilities to determine which of your staff members is performing at the highest or lowest levels, enabling you to offer both positive reinforcement and targeted training where applicable.
Since the system’s toolkit also contains customer loyalty programs capabilities, you can use it to help you set up a first-class incentives system that provides benefits to your most frequent buyers.
In addition, the POS’s database can be leveraged to store valuable details about each buyer such as birth dates, purchase histories, hobbies and interests, etc. that can help you to send highly personalized communications and offers.
Since today’s buyers are demanding bespoke and curated shopping experiences that go far beyond mere pay-for-purchase transactions, your POS can respond to this demand with exactly the high-caliber custom offerings that will serve to delight your current clients and keep them coming back.
What’s more, it just might inspire them to spread the word about your brand to their close friends, family, and social contacts.
Finding the right merchant service provider.
Now you know that a good merchant services company provides much more than payment capabilities. Since the systems they furnish also are instrumental in helping you to increase customer retention and expand profits, you must partner with the company that is best for your business.
There are thousands of providers in the U.S. alone, and they are not all created equal. Therefore, prioritize the vendor who supports various forms of payment, including Tap to Pay on iPhone.
Be sure that their costs are fair and transparent, and don’t assume that you need to be bound by the terms of a long-term contract.
Finally, require that the provider you choose has prompt and reliable customer service that can come to your rescue with accurate solutions and fast response if technological or security-related problems arise. This will minimize downtime and help to shield your brand from the negative publicity that comes from data breaches.
Running a successful company requires great products, tons of planning and attention, and often a top-of-the-line staff to represent your brand to in-person and online customers.
Behind the scenes, you also need a merchant service provider to furnish you with the expertise, equipment, and services that make your customers’ shopping journey memorable in the best possible ways.
The effort you devote to finding the best provider will be worth its weight in gold both now and for years to come as you forge positive relationships with your premier customers for the long term.
