Change isn’t easy for any business, which is particularly true when thinking about switching from your current provider to processing payments. Focused so much on your day-to-day operations, it’s often easier to trudge down the same processor path than to think about the opportunities that may exist within a new opportunity.
Part of the challenge that exists within understanding how and if you may have outgrown your payment processor relationship is knowing what items to look for. Upgrading seems tedious and expensive, which causes many businesses to simply forgo making the necessary upgrades. But staying in a bad relationship just because it’s easy? That’s just bad business.
Whether you’re thinking about your online payment processing, mobile payment processing on in-store payments, having a modern, highly-efficient and customizable payment processing solution matters for both your daily operations, but also your customer success rate. Attracting new customers and staying relevant in any market can’t be done by sticking with the status quo. Businesses should always be evaluating if their processor fits their needs.
To help you determine if your payments relationship is right for your business, we’ve gathered a simple checklist with five questions to ask yourself before determining if it’s time to stay the course, or if it’s time to look for a new partner.
Does Your Payment Processor Save You Time and Money?
There aren’t too many things more valuable to a business than added time and money. Instead of adding an extra workload, and more to your bottom line, it’s important to ask yourself how your payment processing services fit into your budget plans. Of course, this isn’t suggesting you should always pick the cheapest route. You should find a partner that’s focused on seamless integration, transparency, and flexibility. Each of those elements will help you determine if your payment processing solutions are saving you the right type of time and money.
Does it Help You Attract and Retain Your Core Customer Base?
Customers expect more from businesses today, which includes how they are able to pay for goods and services. If your payment processor only allows you a select number of ways to accept payments, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. The right payment processor will provide a path to integrating both traditional and emerging payment methods in order for you to cast a wider customer net. Keeping your existing customers happy matters for your bottom line since it’s more cost-effective to retain customers than acquire new ones. Still, to attract new customers your business needs to constantly be innovating how you think about the customer shopping journey. This includes everything from user experience and customer service to check out and payments options. The right payment processing partner will enable your business with a gateway solution that can help you accept any type of payment your business needs to accommodate your growing customer base.
Does it Make Running Your Day-to-Day Business Operations Smoother?
Daily business operations shouldn’t be bogged down by managing your payments processing. You’ll want to look for features in your payment processor that can help drive efficiencies in your business, such as recurring billing services, batch processing that allows you to process large volumes of transactions at once, and the ability to seamlessly integrate inventory management into your POS. Reducing friction in your business also comes from discovering how your payment processing services work on behalf of your entire business model, not just your payments side. The right payment processing partner will help streamline your payments reconciliation so funds are properly flowing across your systems without having to manually worry about these mundane tasks.
Does Your Payment Processor Protect Your Business and Your Customers?
Your businesses and customer transaction data is one of your most valuable assets. Protecting your customers’ personal payment credentials matters for protecting your bottom line. Find a payment processing partner that offers a suite of data security and fraud detection services that can help your business safeguard your systems and software from unnecessary outside threats. A payment processor partner with the right gateway solution will help ensure a payment authorization request is managed quickly and securely. This will help your business avoid accepting payments from legitimate sources, while at the same time protecting your legitimate customers from unauthorized charges on their credit card.
Does it Actually Provide a Solution that’s Tailored to Your Business?
This last question to consider seems intuitive but is easily overlooked. Some payment processing solutions offer generic, one-size fits all solution and expect your business to fit into their model. Remember when choosing a payment processing solution that you are the customer and that service provider should work to accommodate your needs. Instead of attempting to fit a square peg in a round hole, find that payments processing partner that has the right shape solution for your transaction needs. The ability to customize a solution package that works for your team and budget shouldn’t be a compromise your business is willing to make.
Choosing the Right Payments Processing Partner: The Key to a Good Relationship
If the answers to the above questions can’t easily be found in your current payment partnerships, it might be time to hit the drawing board for a new processing provider. The right relationship will equip your team with the necessary tools and software to enable the type of payments experience your business needs — and one that your customers demand. To stay relevant in today’s ever-competitive marketplace, having the ability to adapt to new technologies as they enter the market can only be done through a provider that can customize a payments strategy that fits your business model.
Whether you’re looking to upgrade your current payment processor opportunities or find an entirely new system, this is where Payline can fit the bill. With a focus on providing frictionless, efficient and secure payment processing, a partnership with Payline is meant to reinvigorate your payments process — not complicate it. If you’re ready to evaluate your payments relationship, now is the time to determine what’s missing from your current systems, and how that might be impacting your ability to process credit cards.
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Anna Kragie is a content contributor for Payline Data. She previously wrote for PYMNTS.com, as a Sr. Content Producer, where she focused on financial services and payments innovation, fraud and security, emerging payments, and FinTech news, research and thought-leadership content across the payments industry.
