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Spotlight Innovators

Boarding business shouldn’t be painful
Emily Karawadra, President of Impact PaySystem, LLC, recounts two recent experiences she had while attempting to place
business with prospective vendors. “I’ve been in the industry long enough to know you have to test a product or a vendor
before jumping in with all your feet,” Karawadra explained. Karawadra had been vetting two vendors to place customer
accounts at. “My first deal submission was painful and exactly what I would never want our agents to experience when
placing new business with us,” she said. “It made me stop and evaluate how we’re doing business, and I began to wonder
if our agents ever felt similar frustrations.”
In contrast, her boarding experience with the second vendor went easily, giving Karawadra additional insight into what
makes a boarding partner more desirable. “I started to think about what the key ingredients are to ensuring sales partners
have everything they need during the boarding process, even if an account can’t be set up quickly, or a challenge arises
with the application,” Karawadra continued.
What makes a good boarding partner?

After analyzing her two experiences, Karawadra began talking with her sales agents, canvassing them on what they
felt were the key qualities that great merchant services partners should have during the account boarding process. As
she surveyed, the following three factors were mentioned over and over again by everyone on her sales team, providing
invaluable information to what she could review and apply within her own company: Communication – “Above all else,
communication is the highest priority,” urged Karawadra. “Even if you don’t have an answer, communicate this honestly
to the selling agent boarding the business, so they can update the merchant and give them a realistic timeline.” According
to Karawadra, frustration often comes in when a merchant asks for a status update on their application, but the sales
person can’t answer because they aren’t receiving quality feedback or guidance from the MSP.

Reliability – Every frontline sales person needs to be able to rely on what their MSP is telling them. The information
given should also be factual, and predicted timelines should be met, so your sales force feels comfortable enough to
continue bringing business to you. Karawadra believes a sales person that feels confident and can comfortably rely on
what you tell them about the deal, timeline and account provisions will almost always bring their new business to you
first. “Simply answering the phone goes a long way too,” she said. “It can be tremendously challenging to be in the field
with a merchant, only to find out the MSP is not reachable by phone to answer a simple question.”

Follow through – “We all know the follow through is the hardest part of providing service,” Karawadra stated. “Identifying
the problem is the easy part, but it is finding the resolution and seeing the fix through to the end that is the real key to
keeping a customer happy.” Karawadra feels this is where MSPs often get lost and start losing agents. “If a sales person
brings attention to an error, or any problem that needs resolving, and the matter never gets resolved,” she continued. “It
is just as negative as telling them their business isn’t important to you.” Karawadra urges every MSP to have a system for
documenting concerns, escalating them when needed, and holding the company accountable to providing every sales
person with the best possible solutions.

Sell for a company that cares
Karawadra also urges sales people in the payments industry to do an analysis of their own on the company or companies
they board business with. Is the process cumbersome? Is someone always available to answer questions when you need
it? What kind of ongoing communications occur during the application review process? Does the company ever ask
what they can do to provide better service to you? If any of these questions leave you pondering about the quality of a
partner relationship, or you are wondering if there could be a better option for you, Karawadra invites you to visit Impact
PaySystem's website, call 877.251.0778 or contact the company via email to discuss the potential of starting a selling
relationship.

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