Three Rules For Being The Best Merchant Credit Card Processing Service

In your quest to be the best merchant credit card processing service or debit credit card processing service, you may be tempted to adopt gimmicks and shortcuts.

You may try to build your business by offering catchy discounts instead of quality service. You may offer merchants a technical support number instead of actual customer service. You may give them free equipment and supplies instead of proven, long term solutions.

You may turn a profit in the short term, but your clients won’t stick with you for long. But, unfortunately, the bad reputation you develop will.

Instead, follow these three rules. They’re not easy, but if you’re interested in building a credit or debit credit card processing service with long term success, they’re the only way.

1. Be dedicated to customer service.

To be one of the best merchant credit card processing services, you have to stay in touch with your customers. You need to call them, visit them in person, send them emails and keep them up-to-date via periodic newsletters. You have to check to make sure they’re getting everything they need, and if not, fix it right away.

2. Transparency is key.

Always give your merchants information in a format that’s easy to read and digest. No one likes to wade through the sludge of incomprehensible reports, so don’t make your merchants do it.

You should also promptly tell your merchants any news – good or bad. Bad news is bad enough without finding out that someone has tried to hide it from you.

And make sure to clearly explain any fees they’ll have to pay.

3. Know your merchants’ businesses.

Your merchants know everything about their respective industries, and you need to learn as much you can about them, too. How can you expect to give them good advice if you don’t know how they do business?

That being said, you don’t have to know it all. If they ask you a question and you don’t know the answer, it’s completely fine to say so. Just tell them you’ll do some research and get the answer to them as soon as possible.

Lastly, make sure your merchants understand these three important rules, and that they know you’re trying hard to live up to them. You want them to think of you as a partner –not just some company they have to pay.

And when they start thinking of you as a partner, you’ll build relationships with merchants that last – as well as a reputation that will attract new business.

Do you follow any of those rules? If so, which ones? If not, do you have any of your own? Leave us a comment below.

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Jeff Fortney is Vice President of ISO Channel Management at Clearent. He has 35 years of experience in financial services, with 17 of those in the debit and credit card processing industry. As many ISOs and agents will tell you, Clearent will help your business thrive by providing you with some of the best merchant credit card processing services and debit credit card processing services.

Durbin Amendment Brings Risk of Debit Credit Card Processing Scams

As you probably know by now, the Federal Reserve Board came to an agreement on how to regulate debit card interchange. As of October 1, every merchant with Interchange Plus pricing received a cut in their debit card processing fees, which means they will start seeing significant savings for their business.

More savings means more profits for your merchants. Because of this, many less informed merchants will become the target of debit credit card processing scam artists. In the weeks to come there may be “specialists” who come to your merchants door stating that they will be able to save them loads of money. All they would have to do is allow the specialist to examine their statement and the specialist would pass along this information to his payment processor and the card associations, with whom he had previously worked out a deal which would save the merchant an exceptional amount of money.

A knowledgeable merchant service provider knows that these “savings” the “specialist” is talking about are a direct result of the Federal Reserve Board’s decision. However, to the uninformed merchant this looks like an excellent business opportunity. Ensuring that your merchants do not waste money, and that you do not loose business, starts with education.

Many merchants are aware that the new Durbin amendment will affect the way their business handles debit credit card processing. However, many are not aware of the con artists out there who are stalking them, especially those with larger profits. As they see it, the more the merchant has to loose the more they have to gain.

Explaining the risk of debit credit card processing scams to these merchants is a good place to start, and then you can advise the rest of your merchants. When speaking with your merchants about such risks, it is important not to preach to them. Rather than telling them what not to do, share with them some actual stories of businesses that have been taken advantage of, as a cautionary tale. They can then reach their own conclusions, which will hopefully be that you are a trusted merchant service provider whom they can stay with for a long time.