Page 27 - GS211001

CoverStory

surcharging. "If merchants process $7,000 to $10,000 a ployee or if you had 200 employees, had a payroll clerk,
month and all I want to do is pitch cash discount, I prob- maybe a whole team of payroll clerks."
ably won't even ask for a merchant statement, because I'm
going to eliminate all their processing fees anyway," he Their job, she explained, was to manage the constantly
said. "Surcharging is the complete opposite; some people changing government regulations to ensure that every-
sell it without statement analysis, which is insane because one got their paychecks, all line items were correct, and
you have to differentiate between debit and credit cards." all transactions were reconciled, debited and credited per-
fectly. If it was done wrong, she added, "you had tax li-
Instant quotes abilities, you had payroll liabilities, you had government

Sometimes it makes sense to skip statement analysis and liabilities—it could become a nightmare."
go directly to an instant quote, Shepherd advised. ISO
Amp provides a tool that estimates interchange costs, card As humans migrated to AI-powered solutions and auto-
brand costs and savings based on a merchant's volume mation, payroll companies began to replace yesterday's
and average ticket. Clients can use the tool without send- payroll departments, Eaton-Cardone pointed out. Payroll-
ing a statement, he stated. They would just ask the mer- focused companies that specialized in myriad aspects of
chant how much volume they did last month, what their payroll drove greater demand and adoption. Fast-forward
average ticket is and what they pay in total fees, he added. to today, there's no such thing as having a payroll clerk
with all this expertise and no business anywhere on the
"When it comes to surcharging, we have a tool that does a planet has the required level of competency to stay apace
fully compliant surcharge proposal, even if the statement with the ever-changing payroll sphere, which is similar to
does not give us the details of credit versus debit," Shep- chargebacks in so many ways, she added.
herd said. "We use the average ticket size and other vari-
ables to make a guess of how much is debit versus credit." Pointing out that chargebacks can become a liability if
they're not handled correctly, Eaton-Cardone explained
To further illustrate this point, Shepherd recounted when why it's difficult to reconcile the debits and credits, stating,
a new client notified ISO Amp support that its surcharg- everyone speaks a different language; there are rules that
ing estimator wasn't showing any savings. It turned out get changed—twice a year minimally in different regions
the merchant was a QSR running 70 percent debit card and if you don't do it right, you're going to lose money.
transactions, and the client was marking up debit, Shep- Digital transformation
herd said. Surcharging is not for everyone, he added, espe-
cially merchants processing 70 percent debit when you're "With COVID driving digital transformation across indus-
charging 1 percent and 25 cents. tries and companies and AI helping to streamline opera-
tions, more companies are looking for service providers
Talapan noted that even the best analysts can take up to 40 that satisfy their needs so they can focus on becoming
minutes to thoroughly review a merchant statement and more competitive and selling to more customers," Eaton-
create a competitive proposal. Full automation facilitates Cardone said. "It may sound a bit cliché, but it comes down
an agile review process in which a client or partner can to dollars and cents. Merchants and acquirers need to un-
literally upload or email a statement and get an analysis derstand their costs so they can make the right decisions."
and proposal in seconds, right before your eyes, he stated.
Talapan has also seen significant progress with AI-pow-
"With Fee Navigator's Integrated Studio solution, our part- ered tools and technology. Service providers have evolved
ners can inspect the analysis performed, as well as review beyond delivering instant analysis and proposals going
and tweak the pricing and proposal to their liking, all in deep with technology that shows interchange classifica-
seconds," Talapan said. "The technology allows you to re- tions, card brand dues and assessments and processor-
spond to opportunities quickly. It also enables digital cus- specific data points, he stated.
tomer onboarding—think of a potential customer visiting
your site or marketing funnel, getting an instant proposal "This provides an unparalleled level of detail and allows
based on your parameters, and we'll pass all the informa- crowdsourcing of knowledge that benefits the entire com-
tion to your onboarding tech. All this is possible through munity," Talapan said. "It's one more essential tool for un-
advanced automation." derstanding margins and profit potential that can be used
to target different industries and custom cases, dramati-
AI, human co-creation cally reducing time to market and accelerating sales."
Reflecting on the steady march from paper to digital ser-
vices in recent years, Eaton-Cardone suggested that pay- Dale S. Laszig, senior staff writer at The Green Sheet and managing
ment providers have much in common with other indus- director at DSL Direct LLC, is a payments industry journalist and content
tries. "I look at chargebacks like payroll," she said. "Ten strategist. She can be reached at dale@dsldirectllc.com and on Twitter
years ago, every company, regardless if you had one em- at @DSLdirect.

27