Page 33 - GS171101

Education

StreetSmarts SM

Steve Feldshuh

“Talk To Steve”

Making for a better holiday season

By Steven Feldshuh Next, I was asked by several merchants for a back-up
Merchants' Choice Payment Solutions East terminal. Anthony from D's deli said having back-up
security was critical to him. NY Deli, Grand Gourmet and
ecently, as a member of The Green Sheet Robert's Tobacco all asked me if it was true they could
Advisory Board, I was asked a number of pass on fees to their customers. They had heard some
questions pertinent to the coming holiday truth and some fiction about the cash discount program.
R season. Members were asked what we were
learning about merchants' challenges for the season and I was also asked by a fine arts dealer how the cash discount
whether we had devised novel ways to help them. Several program worked. He had been told no one pays any fees.
advisory board member perspectives can be found in The telemarketer who contacted him said he needed to
"Helping merchants thrive during holiday season 2017, send someone in to explain how the "no fee program"
The Green Sheet, Oct. 23, 2017, issue 17:10:02. This article worked. I called the telemarketing company back and
expands on the comments I provided for that article. stated that I believe the proposition of no fees for anyone
was impossible. I am waiting to attend that meeting with
To gain further insight, I interviewed ISOs and merchant the merchant and that company's rep. An offer like this
level salespeople (MLSs), as well as a number of clients is obviously too good to be true, but it gets merchants to
who own small to midsize businesses, not large chains listen and react.
or discounters. I posed questions about issues they face
as we approach the holiday season. Some responses were One merchant who owns a sit-down restaurant asked
what I expected; others were rather enlightening. if I could refer him to an inexpensive online ordering
company. We ended up speaking about developing a
Comments from merchants website to cut back on costs associated with leading online
ordering services, which can charge 10 percent of the
Not surprisingly, the No. 1 request I heard during calls to order. The funniest request was in the form of an invitation
merchants was for reduced processing costs. Among them to volunteer for gift-wrapping duties on Saturdays. I
was a couple that owns the Kilt restaurant that pushed for declined the offer but did realize gift-wrapping is a good
a lower cost. Being that the company is set up with very idea to help brick-and-mortar retailers compete against
sharp pricing, I explained that if they found someone Internet companies that ship in brown boxes.
who had lower costs, I would match them, but I doubted
they could. It was disappointing they didn't realize all
the work we put into their account, since they continually
screw things up with tip adjustment.

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