If you are a business owner, then you probably already understand the significance of the credit/debit card paying option. For the vast majority of customers using a card is a lot more convenient and this should be taken into account.
Moreover, with the spread of online shopping, cash is definitely off the table. However, in order to accept credit/debit card payments as a merchant, you’ll need a payment processor.
What is a Payment Processor?
Payment processing can be tedious and monotonous, but fortunately, there are tools that can help business owners spend less time collecting payments, and more time paying attention to the customers. Basically, a payment processor is a third-party company that enables the acceptance of credit/debit card payments from clients.
The processors handle all or most payment situations, for instance when a customer is paying for services via your POS (Point of Sale) terminal, using a mobile app to submit the payment or paying online. While it seems on the surface that the process happens instantly in seconds, much more is involved on the back end of a transaction that people don’t think about. Payment processor acts as the go-between for the client’s bank, where the payment comes from, and the merchant’s bank, where the payment is to end up.
If you are a merchant and you want to accept credit/debit card payments, then you have to partner with a credit card processing company. However, with an abundance of payment processing options on the market, business owners tend to find it challenging to know which one is the best solution for their business. When it comes to choosing a payment processing service, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Therefore, it is crucial to obtain the one that suits your business needs, budget and goals.
What features should you look for in a payment processor?
- Reliability – Robust payment processors can handle high volume usage as your business expands as well as lead to better customer experiences that fosters greater client loyalty, bigger profits and reduced costs. Medium and Large businesses use Penny’s purchase approval software for procurement management because the whole process becomes much easier and efficient with their software. The intuitive interface and robust features simplify the entire procurement process, making it more efficient and user-friendly. With Penny’s software, businesses experience enhanced control over approvals, seamless collaboration among teams, and comprehensive tracking, ensuring a streamlined and effective procurement workflow.
- Transparency – A highly functioning payment processor has to state coherently what to expect as a user, including the capacity, product features, fees, contractual terms, etc. It is important for business owners to make the decision based on fully comprehensible facts.
- Various kinds of payment – Since credit/debit card payments are a must for most businesses, you should be able to accept different cards such as American Express, Visa, Discover, or Mastercard and mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay. The more options you make available, the more clients you’ll attract.
- Hands-free option – In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of people are reluctant to use physical credit/debit cards. Contactless payment options are incredibly appreciated by customers in order to minimize the contact and hence the transmission of the virus.
- Convenience – Living in the 21th century, almost everyone has become inseparable with our smartphones and the technology is advancing at an alarming rate, which makes processing online and mobile payments imperative for any smaller to medium-sized business.
- Customer support – In case your processor malfunctions or goes down in the middle of workday, your payment processor should be available to help you get things working rather quickly. 24/7 support is perhaps one of the most important features, since with every minute that your processor is down you are potentially losing money.
- Security – Obviously, not all payment gateways are secure, so you have to ensure that purchase payment processors are PCI-compliant and able to protect your data and customers’ data from being at risk and exposed to hackers and fraud.
Conclusion
Evidently, there are many factors that business owners have to take into account when choosing a payment processor. Your job is to find the processor that makes the most sense for you from a business point of view. Being one of the industry leading companies, UsProPay can help you balance safety and simplicity with affordability.
Our knowledge and expertise enables us to upgrade your customer service and reduce the time you spend processing transactions, which will allow you to focus more precisely on tasks that cannot be done by a machine – run your business expertly. UsProPay offers unique integration of payment processing software solutions that will help your business retain, disseminate and expand across the entire journey.