I get calls from local businesses all the time. Every call is about something broken or something that is needed. One of the nice things about providing a good solution is having a positive effect on people. If your working with a business your success impacts the staff and the people it serves. That’s a great experience!
Today I finished implementing a credit card processing solution for a new business in Marion IL. This project has lasted a few weeks. Sometimes getting computer software to work well with credit card processing networks isn’t easy.
Let me explain how that works. Commonly a Point Of Sale (POS) system will be designed in a proprietary fashion. They brand it and build it in a way so there are controls in place on how their product is used and by whom. This sometimes forces a merchant to purchase credit card processing through the proprietary vendor who sold the POS system. Proprietary vendors almost always charges higher rates on credit and debit card transactions than the market is offering. The vendor will have larger profits this way as long as they keep getting new customers on their contracts. Most new business owners just don’t know the details and they get whatever they sign up for. I think sometimes the programmer just picks one processor to limit the chaos of having to provide a payment interface to multiple different networks.
My processor reseller, Linda, is a free agent who I trust to offer credit card processing solutions to my customers. I normally have several suggestions on what POS software solutions will work well with each business. I provide that information to the owners and when they have had time to look at the options and make a choice I have them take their decision to Linda. Linda works out the CC processing accounts. She does a great job getting the best deals.
The POS software purchased at this new business uses a 3rd party software solution to interface with the “non-proprietary” credit card networks. The network Linda provided has discount rates that are less than 2%. Unfortunately, the first day we connected the POS system and programmed it to use that network there was a problem. All of the credit card and debit transactions were taking 80 seconds. There is one stand-alone credit card machine on the counter that is also used to accept checks electronically. They were using it to process credit and debit cards since the POS card swipes were so slow.
During the troubleshoot I looked at the local network, the operating systems, the antivirus solutions, I tried using a different router, I ran the 3rd party app from a completely different system, and I tried running a different version of the 3rd party app. No change that was made on site had any effect on the slow speed of these transactions. So I could prove the problem was not on site. It is important to do that. In situations such as this I am working through three degrees of separation from the credit card processor. Every vendor associated with the credit card system is blaming another vendors system. You have to be able to isolate who’s system is not performing. This was a bad configuration for the account the business had on credit card processors front end network.
As soon as the troubleshoot was done I ordered a pin pad for the stand-alone credit card machine so they could run debt transactions from there also. A day later Linda and I set the 3rd party app to temporarily use a different network. The business needed to use that solution until a new permanent credit card processing account was ready. It takes about a week for a merchant credit card processing account to be created. They have a lot of security and regulations to take into consideration. They have to interface directly with the merchants bank account.
Monday I received a call from the processor that the account was ready. This morning I went over to the store and spent an hour on the phone with the credit card processor and the support team for the 3rd party software. We re-programmed the 3rd party software to use the new account that was built. I am excited to say it worked. Both credit and debit cards are running as fast as 2 seconds from the POS system. They are very happy and so am I!