Taking Charge Of Everything
Today’s economy, every cent counts and adding them to your bottom line is possible despite the economic doom and gloom reports. These steps helps you increase your profit and decrease expenses, as well as blocking theft so your business can grow much bigger.
Business in the food service industry, if you’re running a restaurant point of sale system then this tips can greatly help you drive your business to success!
Checks
They are still widely used, especially among older customers. If you haven’t been accepting checks, start soon. There’s equipment that will scan the check as quickly as a credit card, check out and measure them against a nationwide database of bad check writers, transfers the money to your account electronically, and guarantee you receive your funds within a few days. In addition, it is less expensive than for credit cards and can add 10% to 15% of your sales—possibly more if seniors make up the majority of your customers.
Accept all Cards
Of course you already accept Visa and MasterCard. What about Discover and American Express? The latter, in particular, generally accompanies larger transactions. You might have felt hesitated because of the fee, but reconsider—a 1% difference may not look worth it for you, and since American Express transactions are often larger than those of other cards, you’ll make it up in gross profit. Furthermore, customers will coming back because they’ll know that your business accepts all forms of credit cards.
Do Your Research
Most merchants think their fees are 1.69 percent plus an additional $.19 because that’s their qualified rate on a tiered pricing program. Though fewer than 20 of 100 transactions receives low qualified rate and all the rest downgrade and cost one, two, or even three percent. By researching for alternate programs that offer different interchange rates might just help you out in saving more.
Insist on Understandable Statements
Neither you nor your bookkeeper would have to scratch the back of your heads over a complex credit card statement that just doesn’t add up. A few companies have made extraordinary efforts to simplify these reports. You should be able to come into terms with your statement and rates without exceeding 15 minutes.
Online Reports
You’ll never have to wait for the post office to deliver a letter disputing a charge. Using the help of internet reporting, you’ll exactly know what’s up within 24 hours, allowing you to aggressively defend against chargebacks. This type of quick action will increase your success rates and reduce your losses.
So there will be no more scratching of the head for you and your bookkeeper over complex credit card statements.
Using Card Validation Value and Address Verification System. They are highly effective fraud screens proven to reduce losses, and by using them the right way, you obtain the lowest possible discount rate.
Also, you need to avoid hackers by being PCI compliant. There are mammoth fines charged to merchants who are hacked, and even drives them out of business. Find time to read Visa’s report on noncompliant systems, you need to be alert in order to protect your business.
Taking Care Of Chargebacks
For Internet and phone orders, implementing the “Verified by Visa” or “MasterCard Secure Code” plug-in on your web site eliminates all cardholder nonauthorization chargebacks. The state of being legally obliged and responsible for these chargebacks is shifted away from you to the issuing card bank, and you qualify for the lowest discount rate available. This simple step could eliminate up to 80 percent of all chargebacks and increase your profits.
The author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants.com with over 20 years experience helping restaurants nationwide increase their efficiency and bottom-line profits with restaurant point of sale systems.
Visit POS-For-Restaurants.com for more information on how our national network of restaurant point of sale professionals can help your business achieve greater success in these difficult economic times.