If you are a business owner, receiving and sending payments is something that you need to get right. An inefficient payment system can be a detriment to your company’s reputation and to your cash flow, not to mention making you vulnerable to cybercrime and fraud.
If you want to learn about all of the ways that you can improve your business’s payment scheme fast, then this post has got you covered.
Using Software
Software is the most effective way of improving your company’s payment scheme if you offer online sales. The big sales platforms include this kind of software in their package. But if you are going it alone with your own shop front you’ll need to look at merchant services software. This kind of software makes receiving payments much easier.
The reason that it’s important to optimise inbound payments is so that your customers aren’t burdened with complex payment processes. When people want to buy something, they want the process to be as smooth as possible. If you don’t have high-quality merchant software in place, then your customer’s experience of buying things from you may be complicated, irritating, and unduly long. Every unnecessary click means more customers abandoning the cart before completion.
Before you go ahead and invest in software, however, you need to make sure that you research software providers. There are many software providers on the web for you to choose from, and some are better than others. After balancing the pros and cons of different packages for your specific business it is usually wise to take advantage of a free trial period before committing. Merchant services software will be an essential element of your business for the long term, so take the time to get it right.
Payment Methods
Many businesses just accept debit and credit cards and lose business as a result. By accepting multiple payment methods, including PayPal as a minimum, you will make your business much more attractive to customers who prefer paying in other ways. Growing numbers of businesses also accept cryptocurrency payments. Make sure to advertise openly that you do accept alternative payment methods, so that you can attract those people.
Customer Data
If you want to improve your business’s payment scheme, then you need to make sure that you handle and protect your customer’s financial data. Unfortunately, cybercrime is on the rise. If you don’t take steps to protect people’s data then it could fall into the hands of a cybercriminal. A good merchant payment service will encrypt and protect that data as part of the package. You should never store any customer data without the customer’s consent and in all cases you need to make sure that any customer data retained is fully compliant with GDPR guidelines.
Fraud Prevention
You don’t just need to protect against theft, you also need to protect against fraud. A lot of businesses only think about fraud being committed against them, but the real threat lies in people paying for products with stolen cards or other people’s financial information. Because of this, you may want to partner up with a payment processor that doesn’t allow chargebacks. If a person finds out that their card has been used for fraud then they might apply for a chargeback. Frequent chargebacks can mean that you lose out for something that wasn’t your fault to begin with.
Updating Software
When you do have merchant software in place, it’s very important that you keep it updated, so that it works properly. Not updating your software could mean that it ceases to work, or that you don’t get to benefit from the latest features added to it. Most experts agree that the best way to ensure that your business’s software is always updated is to allow for automatic updates. Automatic updates usually take place at night. In order for them to take place, you will need to activate them, and then leave your devices running overnight, unattended.
Staff Training
Finally, make sure that your staff are properly trained in how to use the merchant software that you have invested in. If they have absolutely no idea what they are doing, as far as using software goes, then they could make mistakes, mishandle data, or just annoy your customers. The best way to train your staff in how to use software is to train them yourself. Alternatively, you could ask the software provider if they have any online training materials that you can use and then set everything up for your staff so they can learn how to use the software at work.