Blog | Retriever, Advantage Merchant Services

Turn PPP Recipients into Lifelong Customers

The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has opened up small businesses to new relationships with community-based financial institutions—and the benefits that come with building business banking partnerships.

While the program is not perfect, community banks in particular rose to the occasion, flexing their competitive advantages and value propositions to woo small businesses away from large bank competitors in many instances.

The question that remains is how will community banks leverage the new opportunity presented to them? Simply remitting the funds to businesses will result in leaving a mountain of lost opportunity on the table.

Add Value to Convert Transient Accounts

One way financial institutions can maximize those new relationships is to take on the role of a trusted advisor to small business banking clients. During the “new normal” for the foreseeable future, all messaging should revolve around being there when account holders need you most—and small businesses are no exception. Experience, as well as the receptiveness to new offers of new account holders, can be combined to set the stage for a long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationship. Winning new customers over from larger competing institutions, as well as being there for them during one of recent history’s most challenging times, provides the opportunity to port over existing services from those banks.

Perhaps nothing adds more potential value to overwhelmed small business owners than a rich merchant services offering, including state-of-the-art equipment and well-supported customer service. Now may be a good time to reevaluate your existing card processing vendor relationship to answer these questions:

• Are we being offered the most competitive rates?
• Does our institution and do our merchants have access to 24/7/365 support as well as local, hands-on support?
• Does our partner offer state-of-the-art equipment, payment rails and security (fraud detection and prevention)?
• How hands-on is our partner with marketing, sales, installation and support?
• Does our partner offer referral incentives for our staff?

It can be easy to relegate your merchant services program to a simple checklist item in light of all the pressures facing financial intuitions—particularly now. But a first-rate card processing solution can actually open new streams of revenue and improve profitability as well as help you retain and attract small business banking clients during a time of great economic uncertainty.

With the influx of PPP recipients literally falling into the lap of community-based financial institutions, the hard part is done. Now it is time to convert those loan recipients into lifelong customers using a relationship-based approach supported by best-in-class products and services.
Retriever Payment Systems checks all the boxes for financial institutions seeking to elevate their merchant services offerings. Whether you are currently in the midst of a card processing vendor contract or nearing expiration, contact us to learn how we can partner with you to deliver more value to your business banking clients as well as improve the profitability of your existing merchant services program.

Protecting Yourself from Credit and Debit Card Fraud

With all the enthusiastic shopping that takes place during the holiday season, there is no shortage of thieves who want to steal your hard-earned money from you. While a lot of the problem involves packages that are stolen from people’s porches, you also have to be very careful about protecting yourself from credit and debit card fraud. It’s a terrible feeling to check your balance on a credit card and discover hundreds or thousands of dollars in charges that you had nothing to do with. It’s even worse to check your bank account balance and find that money is missing, along with the bank’s fees for insufficient funds.

Many people mistakenly think that their cards are secure now, thanks to the industry’s conversion to chip-based cards a few years ago. However, the fraud continues at an accelerating pace. So, you might be wondering, what can the typical consumer do to protect themselves? Fortunately, there are steps you can take to reduce your risk.

For starters, using a credit card is much safer than a debit card. And while many people try to avoid running up credit card debt, the bottom line is that, when you charge a purchase, the money doesn’t come straight out of your account. Instead, you get a bill that you pay later. With debit card purchases, however, the money comes straight out of your account and you may have to wait for your bank to resolve the issue and replace the funds

Other steps you can take to protect yourself include:

Keeping your credit and debit cards secure.

The best practice is to always keep them in your wallet or purse unless you have it out for a purchase. At restaurants, this can be tricky if the server takes your card to the back to be processed, so check your statements frequently.

Protect your self from gas pump skimmers.

Before you run a card at the pump, make sure that the card reader is securely attached to the pump by giving it a light tug. Also, try to use the pumps closest to the store, which crooks usually avoid. Of course, the best way to protect yourself is to pay for your gas inside at the counter.

Be cautious with online purchases.

This is especially important if you’re using a lesser-known site. First, check to see if the URL starts with “https.” That “s” at the end stands for “secure” and if it’s missing, it could be a problem. On a secure site, you should also see a small padlock icon in front of the URL. And if you want to take it a step further, right click anywhere on the site, scroll down to “Inspect,” then click on “Security,” and you’ll see details about the website’s security status. Also, never send bank account or credit card info by email or text, whether it’s for online shopping or any other reason.

Avoid shopping when connected to public Wi-Fi.

It’s just too easy for a crook to read your signal and steel your personal information.

Use technology to stay informed.

Most banks and credit card companies allow you to check your balances and recent transactions from a smart phone. So if you have any doubts, check it immediately. You may also be able to set up an alert so that, every time a transaction is made, on either your credit or debit card, you’ll know so you can address it immediately.

It may sound like a lot, but once you get into the habit of staying safe, it doesn’t take that much time to stay on top of it. And it’s definitely worth the effort. Ask anyone who’s ever been through it before. It’s much more of a pain to clean up this kind of mess than it is to prevent it in the first place.

Expecting a Holiday Rush? Here’s How Merchants can Protect Themselves from Fraud

Even though it’s been three years since retailers have been able to switch to new chip-based credit and debit cards, a recent study shows that payment fraud is still a major concern in the United States as criminals take advantage of remaining vulnerabilities at point of sale, while also focusing more on online merchants. And with the holidays in full swing, criminals are also ramping up their efforts because they know retailers are often overwhelmed by high order volume. In fact, just last year, e-commerce fraud attempts went up by 22 percent between Thanksgiving and the end of the year.

Clearly, one of the reasons for this increase is that chip cards don’t protect retailers from online fraud at all. Still, the new technology has not been as effective in the U.S. as it is in Europe, most likely because In Europe, the customer is required to enter a PIN at the point of sale to complete the purchase both online and in person. Additionally, some retailers still aren’t compliant with the chip technology, despite the incentive of substantially reducing their risk to loss from fraud when they update their equipment.

For retail merchants, this trend means it’s even more important to take any steps available to protect yourself from credit card and debit card fraud. The most obvious step you can take is to make sure that you are using up-to-date processing machines that accept chip-based cards. Other steps you can take include:

Increase your fraud screening capacity.

As holiday orders start coming in faster and faster, you may find that your fraud screening capabilities can’t keep up. If that’s the case, don’t make the mistake of skipping manual and simply declining all flagged orders. While it may seem easier, declining valid orders can cost you more in lost business than the fraud you’re trying to prevent. Also, you don’t have to let orders get backed up in your manual review queue. If you haven’t been able to keep up with manual review demands during previous holiday seasons, you may want to consider at outsourcing that function.

Put more emphasis on providing top-level customer service.

In 2016, false declines cost businesses in the U.S. $2 billion more than completed fraud did. For many retailers and merchants, that’s an eye-opening statistic. It also may point to a customer service problem related to how flag orders are reviewed. When your manual review team reaches out to customers to check the validity of a flagged order, it takes skills and training to be able to present that review as an example of outstanding customer service, instead of a nuisance or making the customer feel like a suspect.

Making sure you understand every sales channel’s fraud prevention strategies.

That includes treating mobile and desktop online sales as separate channels, as well as in-store purchases. For example, one study found that synthetic identity fraud, the practice of creating fake identities with both fabricated and real information, has become a particular challenge for mobile commerce.

Close the shipping loophole.

With merchants getting better and better at spotting fraudulent activity, criminals have started targeting a new area: The shipping department. In this scam, the criminal uses stolen customer data, including the victim’s card number, billing address, and shipping address, to place the order. This avoids raising flags at the point of sale. Then, once the order is approved, they then attempt to get the shipment re-routed to a different address. While they sometimes reach out to the merchant’s customer service team, they have also been known to contact the shipping company directly to change delivery information.

Every business is unique and experiences different challenges, including the ways that criminals attempt to defraud them. If you have specific questions about your business, reach out to us on our Contact Page. Our experts will be happy to assist with all your questions.

The Merchant Processing Implications for Gift Cards: A Small Business Guide

As a small business, you may be wondering if it’s worth your while to get into offering gift cards to your customers. You may think it involves giving out free money to people, and that’s bad business – right?

The thing is, investing in gift cards isn’t nearly as bad as you may think. In fact, handing out gift cards can actually increase the amount of money your business makes.

So how does this all work, and what exactly can this do for your company? Keep reading to find out how getting gift cards for your small business can help your company succeed.

Why You Should Invest in Gift Cards for Your Small Business

Like any debit or credit card, gift cards have a whole host of benefits for the user, but with a twist: there are benefits for businesses as well.

The very first thing you should know is that gift cards make a customer return to your store more often. Why is that?

Well, when people get their hands on a gift card, they feel compelled to spend it at the store. In fact, customers who have gift cards are three times more likely to shop than those who don’t.

This will entice them to buy more items in your store, further putting money in your pocket. Customers who come in with a Gift Card almost always spend more than the value of the card, so it’s a definite win for you.

Getting started on a gift card program is also really easy. For small businesses, it’s best to have a closed loop gift card system. This means the gift card can only be used in your store, allowing all the returns to stay in your company.

Want more of an incentive? For as low as $100 a business can have their own gift card program. It can also be used as a giveaway, as a promotion, or for people who want a refund with no receipt.

Oh, and one more thing – gift cards are a simple and efficient way to advertise your business.

When one customer shows their gift card to a friend or family member and tells them about the awesome deals your store has, you could potentially bring in another buyer without having to do anything yourself.

Lesson of the day: gift cards are beneficial in so many ways, and using them will do nothing but help your business. It’s about time you started looking into getting the plastic.

Your One Stop for Your Electronic Business Needs

If you’re looking for ways to use gift cards for small businesses to make your company grow to new heights, You should definitely give us a try. At Retriever, you’ll find that our products and customer service are second to none.

We specialize in many different services, including point-of-sale systems, mobile payment apps, and custom solutions. We also offer our processing solutions to retail institutions, professional businesses, and on-the-go merchants.

Have a question you need us to answer? Not a problem. Just reach out to us and we’ll be sure to get back to you about any concerns you may have.

We look forward to hearing from you.

How Do Gift Cards Work? Here’s Why Your Business Needs Them to Increase Profit (Easily)

People are less sensitive to their spending when they’re holding a gift card. It’s a simple fact, and it’s one of the reasons that you should implement a gift card program for your business.

There are many reasons that gift cards bring an increase in sales. There are close to no reasons that you shouldn’t have a few sitting out on the counter next to the register.

But how do gift cards work? How do you input them to your point of sale system and get them running smoothly? It’s not as difficult as you think. We’ve created a little guide on how it will go.

How Do Gift Cards Work?

Before we get started on the logistics, let’s briefly cover what a gift card system could do for your business.

The Benefits

It may seem like something that could just be a convenience for customers, but gift cards actually have the potential to give a huge boost in sales. First, people want to use them to give gifts.

If your shop has product that could conceivably be given as gifts, you’re going to be in luck. Large chains have loads and loads of gift cards, and this is for good reason. It’s because people don’t always know what their loved ones want, and they don’t want to give cash because it’s too impersonal.

Right then, three days before Christmas, the gift cards catch the customer’s eye and they have found the answer to their gift-giving problems. Giving them an alternative makes you a hero. Do some creative gift packaging and you are now a superhero.

Another element in the equation is the fact that we referenced at the beginning of the article; people spend freely when they are using a gift card. It makes sense, too. Those who are buying the gift card want to be generous enough to allow the recipient to buy whatever they want.

Gift cards prompt customers to spend every penny and some! They don’t want to leave a balance!

Setting it Up

Thankfully, it’s really simple to set up the gift card program. Contact your Local Retriever representative and learn how easy and cost effective it can be.

Gift cards will be created for your business in just a few weeks that contain your logo and your chosen design. Then You simply enter an amount, swipe the card, and that amount is added to the card. The total sale is deducted each time the card is used, and that’s it!

Optimize the Way You Handle Money

We know processing and like the gift card that can help you to optimize your cash flow. It’s worth your time and money to learn about everything that’s available to you.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to optimize your point of sale, we have the information you need.