3 Ways to Build Strong Merchant Relationships as an ISO Agent

Whether you’re acquiring new merchants or supporting existing ones, high-quality merchant support is a proven way to make your business more successful. As a merchant level salesperson (MLS), you need to add value and provide tangible benefit in a way that differentiates you from your competition.

Here are three effective ways to build long-term relationships with your merchants:

1) Support your merchants at every stage. If your agent program offers residual income for the lifetime of the merchant account, you need to develop and retain strong, long-term relationships—from introduction to conversion to eventual deployment. Don’t slack on your customer service efforts after you close a deal. Not only do you risk losing existing merchants but you also risk damaging your reputation. According to a study published by Zendesk, 95% of customers (i.e. merchants) share bad experiences with others.

2) Identify and understand your merchants’ challenges. What problem can you solve for a prospective or existing merchant? That’s the question you need to answer. As a merchant services reseller, you need to identify how you can help prospects. You also need to monitor the continually shifting needs of your existing merchants. Whether your merchant needs point of sale terminals or virtual terminals, mobile credit card processing solutions or gift cards, you should understand the solutions you can provide.

3) Choose a merchant-focused provider. As a merchant services reseller, you want to partner with an agent program that provides 24/7/365 in-house client services. If you offer outstanding merchant support but your Independent Sales Organization (ISO) or processor does not, your hard work can be negated in a single phone call. At Electronic Merchant Systems (EMS), our customer care professionals provide prompt answers to merchant questions every single day. You want to make your merchants’ lives easier—you need to find an ISO agent program that will help you do that.

Happy merchants will continue to do business with you. At EMS, we prioritize agent and merchant care—our 4.7 rating on Google proves this commitment. If you want to leverage our supportive infrastructure, check out the EMS Agent Program.

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Electronic Merchant Systems is a leading provider of payment processing & merchant services. For more information please visit our website.