SMB empowerment zone

Moving beyond its roots as a payment processor startup in 2004, TouchSuite has evolved to become a financial technology and marketing services provider. In that time, the company has made consecutive appearances on the Inc. 500 list of America's fastest growing companies, this year placing 160th in the overall rankings.

Based in Boca, Raton, Fla., TouchSuite also received the Governor's Business Ambassador Award for its contribution to economic growth in the Sunshine State. In the past three years, it has expanded from 36 employees to more than 80, and the growth continues, the company noted. "We have a lot of talent here, which is where it all starts," said Sam Zietz, TouchSuite founder and Chief Executive Officer. "We have a large team of developers, 100 percent of them in-house."

But in today's technology-driven world, having talented developers alone is not enough. Zietz believes a unified approach is necessary to spur innovation and substantial growth. To illustrate this point, he noted that TouchSuite recently updated its development area to create an open environment where developers can interact with one another and with other employees to develop new concepts designed to drive merchant growth.

Integral to the development process is determining how to resolve the core issues merchants face. "Very rarely is his root cause merchant processing and, ‘Can I save another $10 or $20,’" Zietz said. "It's, ‘How do I get more customers into my establishment, how can I process customers in a more efficient manner, how can I get more in-depth reporting to make more intelligent decisions, how can I track what employees are doing?’"

Listen first, act later

When TouchSuite set out to develop its first vertical-focused POS system for the salon industry, it interviewed scores of salon owners and found many lacked automated systems for tracking customers and encouraging repeat business. To address these core needs, the company launched its flagship product, Firefly, a fully integrated, tablet- and cloud-based POS system.

Firefly enables salon owners to view and book appointments, enter customer information, track client purchases, and complete transactions in a secure environment. Within the system, businesses can send out customized promotional campaigns.

"We take these very basic concepts and automate them, so all they have to do in our system is enable it," Zietz said. "Hit 'enable,' put your promotion in, don't touch it again, and for the next 100 years it will just automatically each day figure out whose birthday is three weeks from now and mail that postcard for them."

Or with the touch of a button, businesses can pull up customers who haven't made a purchase in the past three months and send out an email or text message, or custom postcard at a cost of about 69 cents apiece to print, process and mail – an affordable alternative to traditional direct mail campaigns.

Help merchants, help yourself

Firefly has since expanded to other vertical markets including retail and restaurant businesses. TouchSuite also added Lightning Payments, which integrates with QuickBooks, to streamline accounting functions for retail, professional, nonprofit, association, education and other business clients.

In early 2015, TouchSuite launched a gift card exchange that allows merchants to apply unused credit from multiple prepaid gift cards toward in-store purchases. Zietz said this program has brought in new customers and increased average ticket size for participating merchants.

TouchSuite also offers search engine optimization, which is designed to create better visibility for merchants locally. And in September 2015, TouchSuite was preparing to launch ReCharge, its automated, recurring, billing presentment product.

TouchSuite remains committed to providing solutions that enhance merchant profitability. "If we can increase their revenue by 20, 30 or 40 percent per year, we've increased our revenue by the same percentage, because there are that many more transactions," Zietz said. This has become a popular incentive for agents and ISOs to join the company’s partner program, he added.

Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.