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Why being human managers and caring professionals who can show clients
how to leverage payments systems to grow and scale their
is our best businesses.

As processors, ISOs and MLSs, we've weathered numerous
differentiator iterations of commerce technology while consistently
striving to build meaningful relationships. Our customer
service and help desk professionals answer questions,
solve problems and provide advice on a range of business
solutions that support our clients' requirements and
business models.

As anyone in this business will tell you, merchant services
is always evolving. Customers change behaviors, regulators
create new rules and emerging technologies change
the way we pay. Business owners find many aspects of
merchant services confusing, from security to pricing to
cash discounting to mobile and virtual payments. Let's
face it: most merchants would appreciate having a trusted
partner who could help them navigate their ever-changing
options, requirements and technology.

Security
By Allen Kopelman As trusted payment processing partners, we can also help
Nationwide Payment Systems business owners maintain secure systems, by ensuring
that all third-party service providers are PCI compliant,
lug-and-play tech is on trend in the small busi- and helping to implement truncated transactions, point-
ness community and for good reason. We all to-point encryption, tokenization and more, while
know merchants have more important things to continuously monitoring transactions to detect and thwart
P do than to worry about credit card processing. malicious attacks on premises and online. A payment
And platforms that bundle merchant services with money processing provider must also have a well-staffed risk and
management, accounting and investing platforms into underwriting department to assist with fraud control and
subscription services are simple, safe and easy to operate. chargeback prevention and remediation.

Most subscription-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms offer flat Price transparency
rates, instant onboarding and tools that help merchants Pricing can be simple, but most big platforms never fully
manage their businesses. These are attractive qualities for disclose the bottom line or how much money is left on
small and midsize businesses, which is why many of them the table when businesses use their service. Wouldn't
are flocking to self-attended commerce solutions. it be preferable to see the interchange rates that Visa,
Mastercard, American Express and Discover charge for
It's worth noting, however, that self-attended commerce each transaction and the service provider's mark-up?
solutions are different from traditional payment processors. Alternatively, merchants who do not need that level of
Their help desk departments, for example, rarely pick up granularity would be satisfied to know that their pricing is
by the third ring and open a ticket. significantly lower than the bundled, one-size-fits-all rate
that tech platforms typically provide.
Merchants who are accustomed to this level of service
are usually surprised when they reach out to customer Cash discount, surcharge
service, only to be directed to an FAQ page. There are no
relationship managers at most SaaS firms, or even a help Recently, there's been a lot of discussion about cash
desk for that matter. Self-service, automated solutions "just discount programs and dual pricing. Like credit card
work" until they just don't. processing, numerous service offerings are in the market,
each claiming to be simple, safe and easy, but legality and
Unattended solutions compliance are also key considerations.

Most traditional processors, ISOs and merchant level The best cash discount programs charge a flat monthly
salespeople (MLSs) understand that merchant services has fee for a POS terminal, without transaction fees, batch
always been a relationship business, and most of us are fees, interchange fees or card brand fees, and a one-time
here for the long ride. Merchants who think of payment PCI compliance fee to confirm a system is validated as PCI
processing as a plug in the wall have never experienced compliant at the time of installation.
the concierge-level service, dedicated relationship
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