MENUMENU
  • FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • LOGIN
  • SIGN UP FREE

CFO Daily News

MENUMENU
  • FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Payroll
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Finance Technology
  • More
    • Employment Law
    • Strategy
    • Policy and Culture
    • Fraud
    • Payments and Transactions
    • Budgeting and Forecasting
    • Banking
    • Staff Management
    • Cost Control
    • Supply Chain
    • IT

Service Matters When It Comes to Payment Processing

Jennifer Azara
by Jennifer Azara
March 15, 2013
  • Fraud
  • Payments and Transactions
3 minute read
  • SHARE ON

All business owners appreciate good service from their vendors. They expect salespeople to arrive on time for appointments, deliveries to be timely, and equipment repairs to be accomplished quickly and without a hassle. If you have good relationships with your vendors, good service occurs more often than not, and when difficulties do arise, your vendors make whatever arrangements are necessary to solve the problem.

One Special Vendor

Credit card processors occupy a special place in vendor hierarchies. If you own a restaurant, for example, you can run to the grocery store if your delivery truck is late. If your dishwasher breaks, you can let the dishes pile up for the second shift dish washer.  If the utility company cuts off the gas for an emergency repair, you probably have some propane-fueled catering burners to use temporarily. But if your credit card terminal goes down, this is a problem because many of your customers do not carry cash or checks. Their lives are financed by plastic, whether it’s debit or credit. If you can’t process the card, you’re done for the day.

Service

The customer service department of your credit card processor is extremely important. You need to be assured that when you need help, the customer service reps are available to help. Check out these potential credit card problems:

Denied

If a regular customer’s card is declined, you need to find out why in a hurry. No one likes the embarrassment of being told in front of others that the card did not work. Someone at your card processor needs to help you remedy the situation quickly.

Over Limit

Sometimes creditworthy customers have their credit limits temporarily lowered. If a $10,000 furniture sale is on hold because a customer’s card is declined because it’s over the limit, you need service quickly. A recorded message about high call volume and a 20-minute wait don’t do you any good.

Stolen Card

If you believe that a customer is presenting a stolen card, you need quick and reliable advice about how to handle the situation properly. Your processor should have a dedicated line so that calls about possible fraud are answered immediately. If the company doesn’t offer this service, start shopping for a new processor.

Deposit Issues

That $20,000 sale was great, and it was even better that the “approved” message instantly appeared on your terminal. However, don’t become complacent; you need assurance that such a large sale will not end up lost in the bureaucracy of your processor’s security department, where your money can be frozen for days or even a week. Confirm that your credit card processor has a system whereby you call and make sure your large charge is quickly routed to your bank account. The company needs to understand that you don’t want any NSF (no sufficient funds) surprise because you wrote checks on funds that never made it into your account.

You can find low credit card transaction fees and rates, and you probably can save hundreds of dollars per month if you switch to a more cost-effective processor. Remember, however, that those savings disappear quickly if your credit card processing company isn’t supported by a reliable and readily available customer service team.

About the Author: Kristen Gramigna is Chief Marketing Officer for BluePay, a credit card processing firm offering payment processing solutions. She brings more than 15 years of experience from the bankcard industry in direct sales, sales management and marketing to the company and also serves on its Board of Directors. 

Jennifer Azara
Jennifer Azara
Jennifer, a member of the CFO Daily News staff, has covered business and finance for more than 22 years. She has written for CFOs, credit and collections professionals and accounts payable practitioners and has spoken at industry conferences on sales and use tax compliance.

Keep Up To Date with the Latest Finance News

With CFO Daily News arriving in your inbox, you will never miss critical stories on accounting, benefits, payroll & employment law strategies.

Sign up for a free CFO Daily News membership and get our newsletter!
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
CFO Daily News Logo
  • ABOUT CFO DAILY NEWS
  • ADVERTISE WITH US
  • WRITE FOR US
  • CONTACT
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Payroll
  • Policy and Culture
  • Employment Law
  • Fraud
  • Finance Technology
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Strategy
  • Payments and Transactions
  • Budgeting and Forecasting
  • Banking
  • Staff Management
  • Cost Control
  • Supply Chain
  • IT

CFO Daily News, part of the SuccessFuel Network, provides the latest Finance and employment law news for Finance professionals in the trenches of small-to-medium-sized businesses. Rather than simply regurgitating the day’s headlines, CFO Daily News delivers actionable insights, helping Finance execs understand what Finance trends mean to their business.

Privacy Policy Terms of Service
Copyright © 2021 SuccessFuel

WELCOME BACK!

Enter your username and password below to log in

Forget Your Username or Password?

Reset Password

Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.

Log In

preloader