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CoverStory

Jeff Shavitz an industry that was never rooted in these guiding
ToolBox Payment principles.

1 & 3. What a past 18 months—it's hard to describe I experienced this effect first hand as I worked
whether you are running an ISO, owning a credit with merchants of all sizes (small independent
card processing company, or in senior management local neighborhood merchants in Boca Raton, Fla.,
of any business with all the issues associated with to Fortune 100 organizations) when the pandemic
COVID-19 and the effects on employee retention, 1099 swept away all forms of normalcy. Merchants of all
contractors, hiring, firing and anything related with shapes and sizes who were thriving just days before
personnel issues. now demanded payment flexibility; a breadth of new,
viable options to support supply chain inefficiencies;
As I respond to Kate's question, the one word that and a severe lack of lucrative capital and resources.
jumps out for our organization is "empathy." Empathy:
whether you are a salesperson on full commission, the Whether it's our valued clients or our more valued
receptionist, the janitor or the CEO—it doesn't matter employees/contractors, we established "new norms"
your title—we all have our own stories. Successful to make the working environment of COVID work
business leaders who can marry their company's for our team. Using "work" is operative because
mission with the employee/contractor's vision create everyone has different issues at their forefront, and
great companies with tenured personnel. And, it's all what's important to one person may not be needed by
about empathy for your valued people. another person.

The payments industry is defined by financial models, As the dust begins to settle, reflection settles in.
insights rooted in pure data, and ultimately rigidity. My reflection distills down to one key theme that
The pandemic disrupted the payments industry from has entirely shifted the way I approach day-to-day
the inside out, humanizing an industry established by management of ToolBox and my longer-term career
recognizable patterns and quantitative facts. goals. I have a newfound respect and appreciation
for listening more carefully to the "blind spots" to my
Aside from the obvious substantial effects, such as the team and ensuring innovative employment solutions
rise of contactless payments and rapid decline of T&E for a stronger 2022.
spend, COVID-19 forced compassion and empathy in

Calendar

Reinventing the Digital Banking Experience April 6 -7, 2022
https://www.stapayments.com/registration/ March 1 -2 , 2020 https://northeastacquirers.com
https://netfinance.wbresearch.com/

April 12-14, 2022 June 13 - 15, 2022
https://events.jspargo.com/ETA22/ https://payments.nacha.org https://www.southeastacquirers.com/
Public/enter.aspx /what-payments#

If you have a show you
would like listed, please

Annual Conference send information to
July 27 - 28, 2022 September 7 -8, 2022
https://www.midwestacquirers.org/ https://westernstatesacquirers.net/ events@greensheet.com