According to one analysis, approximately 21 percent of merchants change Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs) or Acquirers each year. Losing merchants is costly. Not only do your current merchants provide residual income and referrals, the cost of merchant attrition is expensive accounting for everything from advertising to travel costs. As an ISO Agent, you know how important it is to retain your current merchants. How can you retain your merchants for the long-term?
Establish your reputation. If you’re familiar with the payments industry, you know at times, merchant level representatives deal with negative salespeople stereotypes. This makes it increasingly important to create and maintain a positive reputation in every merchant interaction. Build trust with your merchants by being honest, transparent, and credible. Listen to your merchants’ needs and concerns and respond with well-informed solutions. As discussed in The Green Sheet, if you want easy sales, you need to make things easy for your merchants. Provide examples to illustrate how your services meet the needs of your prospects.
Choose a provider with high-quality customer service. Your positive reputation and customer service efforts should be echoed by the customer service efforts of your provider. Look for a provider with happy merchants and 24/7/365 in-house customer service. If you establish a positive reputation as an individual, but your processor is plagued by negative reviews and complaints, those negative reviews will undermine your hard work.
Educate yourself and your merchants. While you can’t change the fact that merchants don’t enjoy paying for credit card processing, you can influence your merchants’ perception of you and the service you provide. This means you need to possess an in-depth understanding of your business and industry. One way to demonstrate your credibility is to review your merchants’ statements with them. Explain what they’re paying for so you can analyze and remedy any inefficiencies. When you provide valuable customer service by answering merchant questions, you strengthen your credibility.
As an ISO Agent, customer service is two-fold: you need to provide quality customer service to your merchants, but your provider also needs to provide reliable client support. Agent support impacts the retention of your merchants and ultimately, your bottom line. Take time to establish a positive reputation, partner with a provider that offers 24/7/365 customer support, and take time to educate yourself and your merchants. You have the power to retain more merchants as an ISO Agent.
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As a leading provider in the payment processing & merchant services industry, Electronic Merchant Systems (EMS) supports prospective ISO agents and industry professionals. Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. For more information please visit our website.
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