Retriever, Advantage Merchant Services

Orlando Office: 321-251-6693 · Memphis Office: 901-271-6641
Orlando Office: 321-251-6693 · Memphis Office: 901-271-6641

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Merchants and Planters Uses Value-Added Merchant Services to Fulfill Mission of Supporting Small Business Clients with Help from Retriever Payment Systems

About Merchants and Planters Bank

Merchants and Planters bank was founded in 1946 in Newport, Arkansas as the nation was recovering from WWII. During this economic recovery period as businesses and agricultural operations were expanding, the bank’s founders recognized the need to provide banking products and services to locals by locals. Today, Merchants and Planters has expanded to 5 counties and not only offers full-service banking, but a full line of insurance and investment products through M&P Insurance and Investment Services and still operates with the same mission and values established over 70 years ago.

The Challenge

With a mission to provide a full array of banking, insurance and investment products to Newport and surrounding areas as well as promote economic growth and stability within the communities they serve, Merchants and Planters Bank views its merchant services program as more than a way to improve the bottom line—the program is essential to building strong, long-lasting relationships with local businesses and support business growth. Their previous merchant services partner, however, fell short of meeting the bank’s high service standards. That’s when a fortuitous referral from another bank in 2014 led them to Retriever Payment Systems.

Results:

  • Over 1,000% increase in the number of clients processing card payments through the bank
  • Improved client satisfaction
  • Increased number of services per business account holder
  • World class payment processing powered by Worldpay from FIS (formerly Vantiv) available to business clients

Since the post-WWII period when it was established, Merchants and Planters Bank has been steadfast in its mission: In part, to provide the finest quality banking, insurance and investment products coupled with excellent service as well as promote economic growth and stability within its communities.

To fulfill that mission with the “merchants” of Merchants and Planters, it’s essential that the bank offers best-in-class merchant services available in one place to meet the needs of its small business banking clients and to support local economic growth.

“We view our merchant services offering as much more than just an additional line of revenue,” said Jim Gowen, president and CEO at Merchants and Planters Bank. “We know that if we keep our business clients satisfied and provide value above and beyond simple transactions, they’ll stick with us long-term and continue to entrust us with more of their business.”

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“Retriever truly partners with us to further our mission of enhancing the financial wellbeing of all who live and work within the communities we serve.”

—Jim Gowen
President & CEO Merchants and Planters Bank

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Card payment processing is a high-profile deliverable within merchant services. Financial institutions that get it wrong put their entire business banking portfolio at risk. Unfortunately for Merchants and Planters, its previous payment processing partner did not deliver the high-touch service its clients were accustomed to.

“For example, our previous processor would ship the hardware directly to the merchant and then attempt to remotely walk them through the installation,” said Gowen. “This presented problems for both the merchant and us. Small businesses are run by people wearing many different hats—one of which is not usually credit card terminal installations. With limited time to troubleshoot while taking care of business as usual, the merchant would then expect us to step in and help them troubleshoot—and rightly so as we sell payment processing under our brand banner. However, hardware installations aren’t really our core competency either, so we also had to lean on our vendor who was physically located nowhere near us.”

Local Service, Best-in-Class Processing, Competitive Pricing

That’s when Gowen heard from another Arkansas bank about Retriever Payment Systems and the impeccable service they received from their local representative, Karla Wilson.

“Even other payment processing vendors we looked at wanted to ship out terminals to us and have us do the installations,” said Gowen. “That still wasn’t the level of service we were looking for. With Retriever, all we do is turn over our clients to Karla and she takes care of everything—from closing the sale to hardware installations and after-sales support. Retriever also provides pre-sales support, including POS marketing materials and internal sales tools and incentives for our staff to help us educate our small business banking clients about how we can partner with them for payment processing and help us capture more market share.”

As an added bonus, the cost of Retriever’s payment processing is competitive with the industry’s other largest payment processors due to its relationship with Worldpay from FIS. This unique relationship results in the best of both worlds for merchants and Retriever’s partner financial institutions. Economies of scale allow Worldpay to remain competitively priced as well as invest greatly in back-end processing technology, the most technologically advanced hardware and state-of-the-art fraud detection and prevention, while Retriever Payment Systems maintains local offices and account representatives who provide high-touch in-person sales, service and support.

“Retriever truly partners with us to further our mission of enhancing the financial wellbeing of all who live and work within the communities we serve,” said Gowen. “Small businesses are the heartbeat of America and it’s essential to the health of our communities to have new and growing businesses. Offering competitively priced, well-supported value-added merchant services means we’re serving our clients’ needs and relieving them of one less thing to worry about—and Retriever Payment Systems does that for us as well. It’s truly a mutually beneficial relationship.”

https://localccprocessing.com/2020/01/15/merchants-and-planters/

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Farmers Bank & Trust Elevates the Business Experience with Help from Retriever Payment Systems

About Farmers Bank & Trust

Farmers Bank & Trust (FB&T), headquartered in Blytheville, Arkansas, was founded in 1908 with a small amount of capital and a big vision for delivering personalized service and innovative banking to Blytheville, Mississippi County and the surrounding areas it serves. As the only bank in the area to survive the Great Depression, over 100 years later, FB&T continues with its proud mission of improving the financial wellbeing of its customers and surrounding communities by delivering high-touch service and state-of-the-art banking.

The Challenge

Recognizing the need to offer a full suite of merchant services to attract and retain small business banking clients, Farmers Bank & Trust (FB&T) rolled out its merchant services offering with one of the nation’s leading payment processing providers. It didn’t take long for the honeymoon period to end, however, as the vendor used a primarily hands-off approach to selling and servicing payment processing to the bank and its clients. That’s when FB&T encountered a new partner that offered a more consultative and hands-on approach to marketing, selling, implementing, servicing and supporting its merchant services offering to business clients.

Results:

  • Increased fee income/profitability from merchant services offering
  • Increase in the number of business banking accounts
  • World class payment processing powered by Worldpay (formerly Vantiv) available to business clients
  • Nearly 100% client satisfaction
  • Increased operational efficiency—less time spent managing merchant services program

As a leading banking provider for Blytheville, Arkansas, Mississippi County and surrounding areas, Farmers Bank & Trust has always focused on exceeding customer expectations and delivering comprehensive, innovative banking products to retail consumers as well as small business banking clients.

“We pride ourselves on genuinely caring about our customers and providing a very high level of customer service, so when we experienced service issues with our previous merchant services provider, it was a big problem because it reflected badly on our bank,” said Randy Scott, president & CEO of Farmers Bank & Trust.

“There were no local representatives to help our clients with getting their payment processing up and running. They would ship the equipment by mail and the merchant was left to set everything up on their own. Of course, setting up credit card terminals isn’t what we do either, so it put us in a bad position when clients would expect us to be able to step in and help them.”

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“Since coming onboard with Retriever, we’ve experienced significant growth in fee income associated with our merchant services as well as our portfolio of business banking clients.”

—Randy Scott President & CEO, Farmers Bank & Trust

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Hands-on Service, Better Value, Better Results

Eventually Scott met his current merchant services representative, Karla Wilson, vice president of area sales with Retriever Payment Systems.

“It was a fortuitous, chance meeting,” said Scott. “She lived nearby and we began to speak about the challenges the bank was having with our provider at the time. Just the fact that we could even have this initial conversation face-to-face showed me how important it was to have local representation.”

That was back in 2006 and now as one of Retriever Payment Systems’ longest-running financial institution clients, FB&T has realized an increase in metrics such as fee income, profitability and the number of small business banking clients, as well as a nearly 100 percent client satisfaction rate with their merchant services offering—all for even lower fees charged than with their original payment processing provider.

“Since coming onboard with Retriever, we’ve experienced significant growth in fee income associated with our merchant services as well as our portfolio of business banking clients,” said Scott.

13 years later, Karla Wilson is still FB&T’s local representative and the bank—and its business banking clients—couldn’t be happier.

“Karla takes complete ownership of the client—from sales to implementation to after-sales service. All we have to do is turn over our referrals to her,” said Scott. She’s quick to follow up and she always provides friendly service. We never worry that she’s not going to represent FB&T with the same care and integrity with which we approach our customers.”

Full-service Banking with the Help of Trusted Partners

“When we launched merchant services, it wasn’t so much about increasing profitability as it was about being able to offer a comprehensive and complete suite of services to our customers,” said Scott.

“Now, offering merchant services can be a game changer for remaining competitive in today’s harsh environment. We must always be on the lookout for new and improved ways of increasing revenue, as well as attracting and retaining high-value clients. It’s rare to find a technology partner you can trust implicitly while achieving tangible, positive results. Retriever is one of those rare partners.”

https://localccprocessing.com/2020/01/15/farmers-bank/

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First National Bank of Lawrence County Exceeds Revenue Goal with Retriever Payment Systems

About First National Bank

First National Bank (FNB) was founded in March 1919 and serves Lawrence and Randolph Counties in Northeast Arkansas. The bank has strong roots in the primarily agricultural and industrial communities it serves. As a testament to its long and stable foothold, only 5 presidents have served the bank since its founding. Today, FNB offers all the modern banking products and services needed to help consumer, agricultural and business accountholders achieve their dreams and obtain financial wellbeing.

The Challenge

Long understanding the importance of offering value-added merchant services to its business accountholders, FNB was partnered with a payment processing provider that was not delivering the service and support needed to help the bank achieve its revenue objectives. FNB sought a new provider who could offer a more consultative and hands-on approach to marketing, selling, implementing, serving and supporting its merchant services offering to business clients.

With a long and rich history in the Northeastern Arkansas communities it serves, First National Bank of Lawrence Country (FNB) has seen its fair share of change over the 20th and 21st centuries it has been in business.

One of those changes has been increasing digitization. This paradigm shift has profoundly affected electronic payments, making solid merchant services offerings not just “nice to have,” but essential to meet increasing competition from big bank competitors who own the lion’s share of payment processing business from commercial clients.

Results:

  • Revenue objective exceeded
  • World class payment processing powered by Worldpay (formerly Vantiv) available to business clients
  • Client expectations exceeded

Undelivered Promises

Recognizing the importance of offering state-of-the-art card processing products to the highly profitable business banking segment, FNB partnered with its previous payment processor which promised to deliver high-touch support and service, as well as an impressive new revenue stream, but fell short.

“In the two years we were with our previous processor, we saw nearly $0 in revenue,” said Milton Smith, president and CEO of FNB Lawrence County. “Of course, at the time we signed they pledged to deliver all the training, service and support we’d need to implement a successful merchant services program.”

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“It became obvious fairly quickly that there was a night and day difference between the level of service we received from Retriever and our previous processor.”

—Milton Smith
President & CEO,
First National Bank of Lawrence County

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The Best of Both Worlds

Cue Retriever Payment Systems.
FNB made the switch to Retriever in 2012, setting an aggressive revenue objective which was met handily.

“It became obvious fairly quickly that there was a night and day difference between the level of service we received from Retriever and our previous processor,” said Smith. “From day-one, we have had hands-on, face-to-face access to our local representative who handles everything for us—we don’t have to get in the middle of sales, implementation or service.”

Equally important, FNB’s clients are extremely satisfied with the payment processing service and products available from Retriever.

“Our clients always have positive feedback, and the occasional time clients lured by cost-cutting leave, they end up returning once they realize how detrimental poor service and support can be to their businesses,” said Smith.

The Personal Touch

While payment rails, state-of-the-art technology, and safety and security are of the utmost importance in selecting a card payment processing partner, in-person, hands-on support can make or break a program. Since signing with Retriever, FNB has benefited from their local representative’s professionalism and expertise which has made all the difference to the profitability of their merchant services program.

“Our representative, Karla Wilson, is always a phone call away and onsite when we need her. She handles every-thing for us—all we have to do is turn over our leads to her and she takes care of the rest,” Smith said.

“Our staff has the right level of training to feel comfortable discussing the features and benefits of the service, but Retriever does the heavy lifting of closing the sale, onboarding the client and supporting them—and us—from there-on-out. Karla is a hard worker and takes pride in the product. We feel comfortable having her speak to clients on our behalf.”

And the years-long partnership has been a win-win for FNB and Retriever.

“It’s hard to find companies these days that deliver both a top-notch product and high-touch customer service—Retriever is one of those rare partners.”

https://localccprocessing.com/2019/10/04/first-national-bank-lawrence-cs/