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Education

Road from happy to loyal failed to communicate about it to them.

The foundation of any successful business is customer • Provide incentives and rewards to loyal merchants:
loyalty. Your business cannot exist without your There are a variety of ways to do this, such as offering
merchants, but it is difficult to keep a satisfied merchant your most loyal merchants a free industry upgrade on
loyal to your company. occasion or providing a greater variety of value-added
services and improved terms. Your merchants want to
What improves merchant satisfaction and retention is know they are appreciated. Remember, despite the
when you provide an exceptional customer experience fact that they could have chosen any other merchant
and service, as well as go above and beyond for your service provider, including their local bank, they
merchants. As a result, merchant loyalty is entirely your chose to do business with you.
responsibility. It is also your responsibility to provide
exceptional customer service to any merchant, so much so • Ask for feedback, listen and engage: Every MLS
that they cannot turn you down. should try to solicit and respond to merchant feedback.
It's an excellent opportunity to show that you're
But how do you go about it? Here are my suggestions: listening and responding to merchants' suggestions.
However, you will struggle to retain your merchants
• Improve your response time: Excellent response over the long term if you only communicate with them
time is one of the most effective ways to ensure when you need something from them or when they
merchant loyalty. This includes building an effective have an issue with your service. The goal here is to
customer service team—even if this is just you—that focus on building relationships with your merchants
merchants can contact with questions or concerns to gain their trust and loyalty.
and that responds quickly and effectively to merchant
inquiries. The same applies for inquiries and questions In the best of times, merchant loyalty can help your business
that may come through social media. If a merchant is thrive; in the worst of times, it can help you survive. This
kept waiting for a long time, they will choose to do was brought into clear focus by the COVID-19 pandemic.
business elsewhere. Exceed their expectations. Most MLSs have discovered at some point that signing
merchants is one thing, but keeping them is an entirely
• Be open and honest about your mistakes: There will different animal. Improving merchant loyalty should be
be days when things do not go according to plan. your top priority; otherwise, the merchants you worked so
Networks go down, POS systems fail and mistakes hard to sign may disappear overnight.
happen; rather than denying the issue or blaming
others, be honest with your merchants. Accept
responsibility and resolve the issue, or make every Natasa Cvijanovic, co-founder and CEO of Tesla Payments, has a proven
effort to do so, rather than becoming defensive. track record within the payment industry of cultivating successful rela-
tionships with ISOs, MLSs and strategic partners. In developing national
• Develop relationships that go beyond business: sales channels, she provides training and coaching to sales partners to
Throughout my writing, I have repeatedly emphasized enable them to become better business partners and advocates for their
the significance of establishing a more personal merchants, and to assist them in building portfolios producing steady
connection with merchants. I have provided examples, residual streams. She is also dedicated to consistently delivering high
for example, my article in the June 13, 2022 edition of levels of professionalism, integrity, dependability and trustworthiness.
The Green Sheet included advice and suggestions on Contact her at natasa@teslapayments.com.
how to use merchant birthdays to strengthen and grow
relationships that eventually will lead to increased
loyalty. Bottom line, get to know your merchants.

• Focus on your strengths: What is your area of
expertise? What sets you and your services apart
from those of your competitors? Answering these
questions will help you define your brand and remain
true to it, which is key to fostering merchant loyalty.
Be a dependable and trustworthy company in our
industry and in your community, one that customers
can always rely on.

• Promote new products: Make sure your merchants
know about new products and services you offer.
Losing merchants hurts, but nothing hurts more than
discovering that they left for a product or service you
provide, but they were unaware of it because you

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