For small businesses, the owner is often also the person
greeting customers at the door, tending to clients, taking payments and
scheduling the next appointment. While juggling an incredible number of
responsibilities, it can be a challenge for business owners to stay visionary,
creative and entrepreneurial while dealing with clunky tools of the past like
cash registers and siloed credit card processors.
Small businesses that are ahead of the curve are investing
in modern payment processing systems that communicate with all other critical
software their businesses use in order to keep up. Bringing a fintech mindset
to the business—whether the business is a bank or a pet groomer—is central to
streamlining transactions and eliminating inefficiencies like manual errors,
time consuming processes and costly fees.
In this article, I’ll discuss why I advocate for integrated payments,
and share some of the benefits I’ve seen for small businesses over the years.
Why integrated payments?
That’s easy—it simplifies and speeds up checkout, reduces
human error, improves customer experience, lowers rates and increases profits.
It’s clear that businesses still using cash registers are
losing time and money. They are also increasing the likelihood of human error
by manually tallying up services and add-ons. As credit card processing options
evolve, such as portable POS systems, small businesses can start to feel like
their payment options are modern enough to keep up—but they won’t be as effective
if they aren’t integrating their payments into their broader business
management systems.
Often strapped for resources, small businesses need to get
the most out of their customer’s payments, and an integrated payment processor
is the way to do it. Integrated payment processing link programs and update
automatically, saving employees time spent tallying up transactions between the
POS systems. Really, small business owners are the people balancing their own
books at the end of the day, so an integrated system that operates seamlessly
while the doors are open, should also be able to store all of their financial
information in one place to easily access payroll, bill payments and financial
reports.
Modernizing operations has become essential for today’s small
businesses that are confronted with more and varied operational challenges than
they were even five years ago. Businesses have had to change the way they run
because of the effects of the pandemic (contactless is a must), evolving
consumer expectations (cash, who?) and technological advancements. Implementing
a modernized payments system that syncs with all aspects of the business—from
the scheduling and customer profiles, to the payroll and membership
billing—means the owner and employees are freed up to focus on important
things, like customer service and growth pathways.
Benefits for the front desk and back-office
More business typically translates to more money, and an
integrated payment processing solution can simplify solutions both in front of
and behind the desktop to ensure that money turns into profit.
Today’s customers want convenience and speed, so the faster
a checkout is, the happier customers are. Using an integrated payment system
can facilitate quicker, touch-free transactions by securely storing card
information for future visits, providing more convenience to loyal customers.
It also allows small businesses to easily charge for no-shows or cancellation
fees and use the checkout time to ask clients about their experience, suggest
rebooking times or upsell products. Rather than copying data from one system to
another, double checking the amounts and asking the client to authorize the
purchase on another machine, employees should be able to make checkout a
value-add experience.
Aside from customer interactions, an integrated system also
makes back-office operations easier and more efficient. Receptionists, or
business owners depending on the size of the small business, no longer have
to manually enter charges or reconcile bank statements with closed tickets.
Without integrated payments, employees are forced to multitask checking out
customers, answering questions and more. A $112.70 charge might become $11.27,
and after the transaction closes, no one notices the error until days or weeks later,
and now there is no card to run for the correct amount due. Removing
opportunities for mistakes helps to reduce financial loss.
Payments can no longer be a passive part of a small
business’s operation or the customer experience. In a Mastercard study of small
businesses across North America, 76% say the pandemic prompted them to become
more digital, with 82% changing how their business sends and receives payments.
Integrated payment processing provides an opportunity to add value to the
business and to customers by taking advantage of the increase in digital
payments, leading to the profit a small business needs.
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original article.