Mar 21, 2022 3:53:05 PM | 7 Min Read

5 Ways a Merchant Service Provider Can Help Grow Your Business

Posted By
Gabriel Oria
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5 Ways a Merchant Service Provider Can Help Grow Your Business

Accepting electronic or non-cash payments is a necessity for nearly every business. To process those payments, an account is needed with a payment processing company or merchant service provider.

Merchant Service Providers not only enable and process the non-cash transactions between customers and businesses, but also offer a variety of other services that can help your business.

What is a Merchant Service?

As previously mentioned, the merchant service provider processes the credit card or electronic payments, working as a middle person between the customers and merchants. Merchant service is essentially payment processing, and the only way businesses can accept non-cash payments is with a merchant service provider. Here are the processes that occur when an electronic payment is taken:

1. The MSP (merchant service provider) receives the sales information from the merchant and confirms with the issuing bank that the sale can go through.

2. The MSP receives authorization from the issuing bank and collects the money for the sale from the issuing bank.

3. The money from the sale is sent to the acquiring bank or merchant bank account.

Since customers expect to be able to pay you several different ways and don’t often carry lots of cash, operating as a cash-only business would most likely alienate customers and profoundly affect your sales. By using a merchant services provider, you can accept all forms of payment and get the funds in your bank account within 48 hours.

These days, merchant service providers do a whole lot more than just process payments. Here are 5 ways merchant service providers can help grow your business and have your operations running more efficiently than ever before.

1. Securely Accept All Forms of Payment

As previously mentioned, one of the main reasons to partner with a merchant service provider is to be able to accept all forms of payment. This payment diversification includes debit cards, credit cards, gift cards, contactless payments, online buying, as well as bill splits, recurring payments, subscriptions, reward programs and more.

It’s important to make sure customers information is securely stored and protected. Merchant services providers help you become PCI DSS certified. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was developed to minimize fraud and improve transaction security for the payment card industry, allowing trust between consumers and the businesses involved in handling their payment information.

Merchant service providers also supply the point-of-sales systems or equipment needed to process electronic payments. These POS systems integrate with the business accounting and reporting systems to help streamline processes.

When we talk about POS systems, we’re not talking about a simple cash register, these days POS systems can track customer behavior, sales and prospective information that can help increase the buying frequency, which leads to greater retention and higher sales numbers.

2. Manage Operations and Generate Reports

It was only a few decades ago that business owners were faced with piles of spreadsheets, ledgers, and loads of receipts that led to all sorts of billing challenges. The merchant services of today offer POS systems to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to billing calculations, management of operations, inventory management, employee management, payroll, customer relationship management, report generation and so much more.

Since your POS can automatically monitor your stock and employee performance, it only takes a few clicks to receive accurate reports that allow you to make better data driven decisions when it comes to what items to restock or prioritize and what employees to reward or penalize.

Being able to store customer information like contact details and purchase history can help you get a sense of customer loyalty and help target your customers through segmented email campaigns to keep them engaged and coming back for more purchases.

POS systems and their applications also allow you to take online orders and capitalize on eCommerce opportunities for those customers that want to order online. More and more consumers are ordering online with different forms of payments other than credit cards; the more flexibility and ways customers can order your product or service, the greater the chance for more sales.

Updated POS systems and all their associated apps make it significantly easier for business owners to run their businesses with greater efficiency and allow more opportunities for growth.

Take  paymentd on the go

3. Take Payments on the Go

POS software and hardware also allow you to take payments over the phone and mobile payments on the go. The ability to take payments on the road at trade shows, community events, and other events allows for the establishment of new relationships that would probably not have been made.

Being able to take payments on a mobile device can also help you operate more efficiently in some instances. For example, if you own a restaurant and your workers can submit orders and take payments right from the customers table, it saves time by them not having to write the order down on a piece of paper and then go to the machine to transfer everything or process the payment.

With it being all done at the table right away, waiters don’t have to wait for a stationary machine to be open, which saves lots of time and allows more tables to open faster, which means more customers and higher sales numbers.

4. Greater Customer Satisfaction

The customer relationship management system in POS systems has analytical software that gives you the information you need to market directly to your customers based on their distinct behaviors and needs.

Since customers like to be recognized and feel special, they’re more likely to purchase again if they receive personalized customer care when being targeted with marketing and promotional offers. The CRM not only allows for this segmented targeting to happen but also gives you the ability to ask happy customers for reviews and share their experiences via social media.

The more exposure you get from great reviews the more likely positive word of mouth, social media engagement, and increased traffic will happen. Having a solid POS system with a CRM database allows you to keep your customers engaged and informed on your business, so you can send them the right promotions and resources to have them coming back and shopping with you again.

5. Marketing Services

The types of merchant service providers and what they actually “provide” vary greatly in the industry. The mass majority of MSP’s just charge high processing fees and don’t actually provide anything other than the processing.

On the other hand, MSP’s like Rebel Payments offers members a complimentary website and discounted marketing services to help businesses grow.

Rebel Payments innovative processing plans range from 0% processing fees to traditional processing and beyond. Members that process with Rebel, get low rates that save them more money and receive:

• Next day funding
• Clover 🍀 device
• 24/7 customer service
• Designated account manager

If you’re interested in switching merchant service providers to grow your business, get a lower processing rate, update your point-of-sales, or accept credit cards payments, contact Rebel Payments today for a free consultation to see how much you can save and grow your business.

To learn more about Rebel Payments or to schedule a savings analysis, fill out the form below!

 

Topics: Credit Card Processing, Merchant Services

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