A Mobile Future for Merchant Service Providers

This year marked the first Mobile Commerce Summit hosted by the ETA and held in Chicago. It educated attendees on the current use of mobile technology for small business merchant processing as well as its promising future in this market. It is predicted that mobile will have a strong impact on the industry. Because this is such an innovative endeavor, you may not feel quite up to par. However, there is no need to worry if you feel that your company is falling behind. This will be an ongoing learning process for everyone in the industry. Let’s take a look at the evidence that supports the future of mobile credit card processing service.

Many companies have already started to develop a more mobile approach to merchant processing. For example, Lowes is planning to implement iPhones as POS devices for customer service. Another store investing in a more mobile credit card processing service is Nordstrom. This retailer has already ordered a plethora of iPads for in-store use. Finally, Sparkbase has seen positive results and is quickly growing due to the use of the PayCloud mobile wallet.

After looking at these few success stories, it may seem like everyone is getting involved with some kind of mobile solution. However, it’s important to remember that these previously mentioned companies should be seen as early adopters. This is still a young and constantly evolving market. To help prepare your company for the future, it would be best to start educating yourself now on what is to come.

To help you begin the learning process, here are two crucial insights from panelists at the Mobile Commerce Summit.

Think Beyond Payments

As merchant service providers, you may be used to focusing all efforts on your credit card processing service, and this may have worked well previously when the job consisted of selling a credit card terminal to newly identified credit card acceptors. For existing clients, you may have helped lower their merchant processing costs. However, with the evolving market, your client relationship cannot be solely focused on the payment.

Mobile wallets, such as the Google Wallet, have more capabilities including the addition of coupons and other marketing strategies. You may also have heard of Square, which offers credit card processing along with a POS solution. The mobile future is beginning to develop beyond payments.

Focus on Merchants

Once you’ve broadened your idea of merchant processing and the future of mobile payments, you may discover even more ways to stray from offering only the typical payment solutions. To find new and innovative ways to help your merchants, try focusing on their current problems, needs and what specific ways you can help them with their business. This will position your company as a reliable merchant service provider.

About The Author:
Jeff Zimmerman serves as Clearent’s Vice President of Product Management and Marketing. Having held senior product management roles at Network Solutions and Intuit – maker of Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax, Jeff brings 15 years of product management, finance and marketing experience in the financial services and software industries. Among our solutions, we offer a mobile credit card processing service for our merchants’ convenience. Learn more about our merchant processing products and services and how they can help your business.

Find Answers to Common Questions with Merchant Services Software

Merchants have a busy day-to-day schedule, constantly dealing with the typical operations of their business. Sometimes they have to take time from their busy schedules to ask their merchant account service provider questions about their statement or a particular transaction. Instead of answering the same questions over and over again, it may be more efficient to teach your merchants how to find those answers online through the use of merchant services software. Helping merchants answer their own questions can help you provide the best credit card processing service possible. Here are a few typical situations that can be confusing.

1. I don’t know why my costs are increasing. What’s driving up my costs?

   When it comes to a merchant’s credit card processing service, there are several factors that can impact the cost. The main reason depends on the various credit card types being used by the merchant’s customers. This is why merchants should to figure out which of these cards are being used the most by reviewing their monthly statements or using merchant services software.



2. I don’t understand my merchant statements.

   Merchant statements vary greatly between merchant account service providers and can be difficult to understand. Once they’ve had a more thorough explanation, they’ll be more able to trust you as the best credit card processing company and they’ll feel better knowing where costs are coming from.



3. Locating my old merchant statements is difficult. Is there an easier way?

   Often times, merchants need to locate their old statements, whether for themselves or for an accountant, and it can become a recurring question that providers are asked. To reduce the time spent answering this question often, make sure merchants understand how to use their merchant services software to download their statements.

By spending time reviewing key components of merchant services and teaching merchants how to find and analyze information on their own, you will be saving yourself more time in the long run – creating a more efficient working environment.

About The Author:
Nick Karcher is a Relationship Manager with Clearent. He began his career in merchant services as an Account Executive and later started his own Independent Sales Office, growing an impressive portfolio before joining the Clearent team. Nick currently manages Account Executives and Relationship Managers who service both referral and agent banks.

Clearent is a different kind of merchant account services provider, offering a flexible proprietary acquiring platform and best-in-class service for not only your organization, but your merchants as well. Learn why you should choose Clearent. Our online merchant services software can help you maximize profitability and stay on top of your business.

Using Regulatory Changes to Grow Your Merchant Services Program

In an industry that’s always changing, it’s important to find ways to leverage the recent regulatory changes surrounding the Durbin Amendment and debit card processing interchange. While the interchange caps have reduced income for larger issuers with assets in excess of $10 billion, some merchant services programs have been able to use their lower rates to their advantage.

Add to that recent marketing campaigns such as Bank Transfer Day and Better Name for Banking and it’s easy to see how small community banks and credit unions are able to benefit from the larger banks indecision about how they plan to make up the revenue lost as a result of the Durbin Amendment.

This new cap on debit interchange is beneficial to merchants and can help you grow your merchant services program, providing you take the right approach. This is a time to embark on a new opportunity. For example, if you haven’t marketed to your commercial consumers yet, now is the time to sell your merchant services program by informing possible clients about the chance to reduce costs. Because of this change in the merchant services industry, it’s a great time to create interest around your business. You can also ride the growing wave of negative sentiment towards the big banks and their miscellaneous fees by promoting your services to new customers.

Although this is a great time for new customer acquisition, don’t forget the importance of retaining strong relationships with your current customers. If you have not already done so, let your current clients on interchange pass through pricing they will automatically reap the benefits of the new debit card processing changes. Enjoy this opportunity to better your customer service by utilizing good communication, making the client happy, and protecting your business from competitors.

Additionally, be aware of certain companies taking advantage of the Durbin Amendment be granting false information to consumers. Because of these difficulties and because Durbin is such a new change, you need to be prepared to answer any questions your consumers may have. Be sure to educate yourself over the topic.

About The Author
Nick Karcher is a Relationship Manager with Clearent. He began his career in merchant services as an Account Executive and later started his own Independent Sales Office, growing an impressive portfolio before joining the Clearent team. Nick currently manages Account Executives and Relationship Managers who service both referral and agent banks.

Clearent is a different kind of merchant account services provider, offering a flexible proprietary acquiring platform and best-in-class service for not only your organization, but your merchants as well. Learn why you should choose Clearent.

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.

Providing the Best Merchant Credit Card Processing Service

The word routine is most common in the part of our lives that encompasses the time we spend away from work. Be it making your breakfast, brushing your teeth or tying your shoes, a routine is something you do without even thinking. When it comes to the world of business, however, the word routine is less ubiquitous. Somehow the idea of doing something so many times that you don’t even have to think while completing it, rubs people the wrong way.

A routine does not have to be a mindless activity. On the contrary, it could be a very well thought out and executed task, the only portion that needs to be second nature is the initiation of the task.

In every industry there is a standard for success, and achieving this success is built upon growth – whether personal, financial or for your business as a whole. This is especially true in the highly competitive field of merchant services.

If a merchant services sales person developed a list of mandatory task he or she had to complete each and every day, these tasks would eventually become a routine. Not in the execution of these tasks, but in the initiation of them. Below is a list of tasks that, if committed to a daily routine, will set you on the right path becoming the best merchant credit card processing service.

1. Merchant Management
   Knowing the sales volume of each of your merchants will help you understand which of them are satisfied with your services and which are at risk of leaving. Addressing the high-risk merchants before they have left will build strong CRM as well as save you profits. Your merchant services partner should be able to provide you with reporting on you merchants.

2. Merchant Acquisition
   Growing your merchant services program rarely happens on its own. Bringing in new merchants takes time and effort. Dedicating a portion of every day to calling new merchants is the most reliable was to improve your current portfolio.

3. Merchant CRM
   Acquiring new business is only half of the equation. Following up with them is equally important. Customer relationship management should be added to your schedule each and every day.

4. Staying Relevant
   The merchant services industry is one that is always changing. This means that in order to be the best merchant credit card processing service and to stay relevant to your merchants, you must stay informed. Setting aside a few minutes of your day to look up industry terms, new technologies and what your competitors are doing is a great way to stay on top.

The common belief is that is takes 21 days of repetition to turn something into a routine. When thinking about next month’s schedule, it may be ideal for you to add each of the listed items above to your daily checklist. What may start as being something time consuming and tedious will turn into something that is simple and the driving force that is turning you into the best merchant credit card processing service in your industry.

New Merchant Services Software Gaining Popularity

If you are not familiar with Square you should be, as it is one of the most highly acclaimed merchant services around today. Square recently developed a mobile wallet called Card Case, which is an app that allows you to purchase items directly from your mobile device. This new merchant services software has not generated the popularity that its mother company Square has, but the trend is gaining buzz in select businesses and markets across the nation.

Getting started requires that you make an initial visit to the business and register your information. Then the next time you return you will be able to “start a tab” as soon as you are in range of the store and order. For example, once you pull into the parking lot you can start a tab while sitting in your comfortable air-conditioned car with your favorite music playing. The cashier will then find your information when you pick up your order and that’s that, no need for cash or a card as the transaction has already been made and will appear in the history tab of your Card Case app.

While this is a neat app for small take-out businesses, it’s difficult imagining it moving to the mainstream of merchant services software. The setup is somewhat annoying, in that it requires you to visit the business to set up an account and then make a second visit before you can actually use it. Also it will be hard to get people to use it over cash or a typical card-based payment because Card Case isn’t really that much of a time saver. Unless of course the business is insanely crowded, then sitting in your car greatly trumps a long line.

The mobile wallet has in no way become an ordinary method of payment. However, if businesses paired its use with an incentive of some kind, a coupon or product give away, it would become more desirable to consumers. But with the rapid growth of mobile payments, it will be interesting to watch the changes unfold.

Mobile Payment PCI Compliance Process Updated

In addition to commemorating America’s independence, you also could have celebrated the PCI Security Standards Council for updating its viewpoint on mobile payment applications and the payment card industry data security standard before the holiday. The major points of the updated PCI compliance process are listed below.

What was updated?

The PCI Security Standards Council came to a consensus that the device itself and the software that runs on the device present a large amount of risk. These two factors are referred to as the “environment”. There are three categories of risky devices that the council categorized and they are:

1. Approved PIN Transaction Security (PTS) devices.
2. Mobile devices built for payment acceptance - This includes the hardware, software and payment application that are solely used for accepting payments and can meet PCI DSS compliance requirements.
3. Consumer devices like smart phones and tablets that are not solely used for accepting payments.

What specific devices are in each category?

The council made the description of each category very technical, but here are some examples of how they play into payment card industry data security standards.

Category one includes wireless credit card terminals, such as the VeriFone Vx670, Nurit 8020 and Hypercom M4230.

Category two includes devices that are fairly rare, such as the mobile checkout devices used by clerks in Apple stores. These devices all meet the standards outlined in the PCI compliance program.

The third category is simple and includes iPads, iPhones, Android phones and Blackberry phones, as well as tablets.

How does the PCI compliance process differ between categories?

Any mobile payment applications that fall into category one or two will be expected to follow current PA-DSS validated payment applications. This means that vendors with apps that fall into these two categories need to follow PCI DSS compliance standards.

The PCI Security Standards Council does not yet require category three products to be compliant with PCI data security standards, However, they are expected to provide more instructions for this category by the end of the year.

What is the current PCI process for Category 3?

Category three does not have to be officially compliant with the principles of PCI DSS, but they should be used as a guide. This will hold true until the Council provides more instructions.