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• Dual pricing and surcharge. Stop fining mer-
chants. ISOs, POS providers and reps cannot be
the merchant police and get merchants to price
things the way the card brands want it done.
• Reps paying merchants part of their residu-
als. This is just wrong and needs to stop. Many
do not agree with me, but it makes us look like
a bunch of scammers.
• CPP Program from ETA. They can do better. Do
something so that reps will want to participate.
I wrote an article about this too ["Let's level-up
payments industry certifications," published by
The Green Sheet in June 2025, https://www.green-
sheet.com/emagazine.php?article_id=7906].
• Embedded finance. ISOs need to get with the
program and figure out how to build friendly
portals, offer loans, credit cards, payroll and
more. The competition is doing it, and our part
of the industry is falling behind on this.
the money hits their account, how much they're really
paying, and that someone's there to help when some-
thing goes wrong," he said. "Being able to get through
to their processing company and/or agent and not wait
on long hold times is very important. Getting their
problems and/or questions resolved quickly is HUGE.
They don't have time to deal with complicated setups;
they just want things to work."
Midsize merchants, on the other hand, have a little
more structure, and their frustrations shift toward in- POS systems with semi-integrations, ecommerce, in-
tegrations and control, Sinovois pointed out. "They're
the ones calling about syncing their POS with Quick-
Books or asking why their reporting doesn't line up
with deposits," he said. "They've outgrown the "basic"
solutions and are starting to look for systems that actu- Processing, Sills added, should be as natural as an au-
ally make their operations smoother."
Larger merchants and enterprise accounts are all about
optimization, Sinovois added. "They're watching every
basis point, thinking about security, scalability, and
how to handle payments across multiple locations or
even countries," he said. "They expect customization
and reliability, not just a rate quote. And then you have
the vertical differences—restaurants care about tips
and payroll while retailers are focused on omnichan-
nel consistency."
At the end of the day, Sinovois stated, every merchant's
pain point comes down to the same thing: they just
want to get paid faster, easier and with fewer surprises.
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"The key is knowing how to meet them where they are,
not with a cookie-cutter pitch, but with real solutions
that fit their business," he said.
Baxter and Laszig both commented on distinctions be-
tween large and small merchants. "Smaller merchants
typically prioritize a solution with easy onboarding
and a fully managed experience for payments, often in-
cluding an integrated point of sale," Baxter said. "Larger
merchants prioritize control, wanting to gain the func-
tionality and flexibility of a payments organization
without the overhead of bringing payments in-house."
Laszig stated that large enterprises "tend to process re-
turns efficiently; small and midsize merchants feel the
loss of revenue acutely and are more likely to fight re-
turns and chargeback requests. Ways in which SMBs
discourage returns include posting return policies at
the cash register and on printed receipts and advising
customers at checkout of final sale restrictions."
According to Kahn, merchant expectations vary wide-
ly by size and complexity. "Mid-market and enterprise
organizations tend to want a more concierge, strategic
partnership and hands-on support during integrations
or system changes," Kahn said. "They expect proactive
service, data insights, and a partner who understands
how payments fit into a larger customer experience
strategy.
"Smaller merchants, meanwhile, emphasize respon-
siveness; they need quick resolutions to technical or
funding issues and clear, direct communication. Both
groups want reliability; they just define it differently."
"All merchants process via different ways," Sills said.
"Regardless of whether the business is using mPOS,
voicing with payment links, or other means, all mer-
chants just want the process to work. The moment they
have to think about it, the value declines."
tonomic process like blinking or breathing. "Once the
breaks are put on those, it becomes a focus and then a
concern and pulls the merchant away from their true
focus on focusing on what makes their business excep-
tional," she said. "It's important that processing does
not become a distraction and that ultimately the ser-
vices provided are viewed not only as necessities, but
as being feature-rich.
4. Beyond speed and payment options, what
improvements would make the biggest difference
for your merchants (e.g., lower costs, fewer
disputes, easier integrations, better service)?
"In addition to providing a secure environment that
protects customer data, offering data analytics would
help merchants deepen customer relationships and per-