As a small business owner, there is nothing worse than coming down from the high of a stellar sales weekend only to be met with a cold and unforgiving series of client chargebacks and disputes.
As a merchant, you strive to provide a stellar combination of service and results to your clients, so you don’t take it lightly when that is called into question, or when charges are disputed because of fraud or customer dissatisfaction. It can be a devastating blow to your hubris and your bottom line, when you realize that banks have repossessed funds you were counting on to operate your business, before you’ve even had time to address payroll, inventory or the list of business operations you’re responsible for.
If you’ve had one experience with unnecessary EMV chargebacks, that can be one too many for a small business owner. And, while many are relieved that the new EMV standard does a better job of reducing fraudulent card usage, the truth is, the customer experience has not been refined and leaves much to be desired by both merchants and customers, resulting in an increase in the amount of chargebacks and disputes.
North is proud to pilot a new EMV chargeback feature called EMV tip adjust. The tip adjust feature of our EMV application allows customers to add a tip to their receipt after a purchase with an EMV chipped card, in the exact same way they have traditionally with magstripe cards, right along with the added liability protection that EMV provides.
No more broken user experience. No more awkward conversations between a merchant and client about just how much a tip will be down to the penny. No more unnecessary chargebacks, costing you time and money you may never recoup.
Before EMV tip adjust, customers would have to be asked their tip amount and that amount would be added to their bill total without any separate designation of gratuity, leaving the customer reason to question the amount and leaving the merchant vulnerable to unwarranted disputes.
In either of these cases, as a result of the EMV liability shift, you, the merchant, are still on the hook for charges associated with non EMV-chipped cards and for disputed transactions if you are not processing EMV transactions with certified EMV-terminals.
While there are more facets of EMV to discover in the merchant-client interaction, the reality is, deceptive card holders exist and there are people who will seek to abuse vulnerabilities in the EMV shift to exploit smaller businesses that have not yet become EMV capable or enabled.
“Our ultimate concern is with the tremendous growth in card-present chargebacks that merchants who have never been exposed to the chargeback system are now being negatively impacted by accepted payment cards,” says Jeff Stocki, North vice president of operations.
North is first to market this EMV chargeback solution and offers for free to its merchants who have EMV terminals. Our merchants are also receiving free EMV terminals to assist in the transition and are willing to pay our competitors cancellation fees up to a certain amount.
In addition to the added security in avoiding the hassle of chargebacks, you can also take advantage of later next-day cut times that run as late as 10 p.m.ET.
With these features you can get back to running a business you love and worry a little less about who will advocate for you in an industry that champions the customer as always right, when sometimes, the truth is, merchants need support too.
