Owning a restaurant comes with a multitude of responsibility and obligations, not only for yourself and your staff, but for your guests. Providing your guests with an experience that is second to none can set you apart from the herd.

The same type of experience that you are providing to your guests, you should also expect from your merchant account provider. Accepting credit and debit cards in your restaurant is an absolutely necessity, but doing it efficiently and securely cannot be left to just any merchant account provider. Your restaurant needs a merchant account that:

• Adds value to your customers
• Does not draw unnecessary cost
• Is efficient, reliable and secure

Merchant services are therefore modeled to respond to these needs, but how do you know which to select? Are there any outstanding features or characteristics of a merchant account provider for your restaurant that would influence your decision?

1. Reliability of Service

For services like payment processing, there is no tolerance for downtimes or technical issues, especially since restaurant patrons rate restaurants poorly due to delays in any part of the service, including paying the bill. It is therefore a critical service feature in a merchant account provider, the services need to assure of operational redundancy to mitigate possible downtimes and technical issues.

2. Security and Privacy

Your customers will be persuaded to transact more with guarantees for security and privacy. This is established through a merchant account provider who offers global standardization and certification in securing your customer's financial information and protecting the transactions from deliberate manipulation, without such assurances as PCI compliance and EMV certification, you may be met with a lot of skeptical conviction when offering your services. This essentially means that you do not want to subject your clients to risk merely because they ate at your restaurant, their interests and desires should be yours as far as they engage the services of your restaurants.

3. Scaling and Integration

Since any solution is a matter of cost and service, you do not have to be stuck with a merchant account provider that does not work for you, have the merchant services work around your requirements, integrating existing services and offering the required features that are to improve your profitability and efficiency in service delivery.

In fact, most restaurants require that they manage existing financial management infrastructure as the merchant service provider integrates features without the need for equipment replication, or the change of banking facilities. This means that you may be allowed the opportunity to chose how to scale in the merchant account provider features that are offered with your restaurant operations.

4. Mobility

This is a trending service that uses virtual and wireless terminals to process payments for clients. This means that your restaurant patrons pay at the table through a secure system that is subject to their approval of the transaction, for instance, after establishing your commitment to the client's privacy, you may have them approve of the transaction electronically through a mobile device you will hand to them when they request for the bill.

5. Accessibility to E-Commerce

With the rise of on-line communities, your orders may vary from eating in, delivery or take-out, and this can be established through your on-line portal when ordering, reserving or making on-site payments. This flexibility gives your customers confidence that your are an established and reliable restaurant service, apart from access to unreached market segments where many people prefer orders  to dining in. Look for a merchant account provider that has the right eCommerce solutions for your business needs.

Considering that a merchant account provider is a business entity, their product is therefore meeting your specific needs, which is why you must match your requirements and priorities to the features and services merchant offer, without which, it might prove an unprofitable business relationship. n the services you offer.