Credit and debit card processing has already established itself as the fastest, most secure and reliable payment systems in business today.
The ability for customers to use their credit and debit cards almost anywhere has provided convenience and efficiencies to almost all industries and business markets. Long gone are the days where a line up of people at the check out counter are paying by cash, looking for exact change and waiting for their respective change from the transactions.
However, as fast and secure as payment processing solutions have become, and continue to improve, the inevitable bottleneck of traffic still exists. Impatient customers can quickly be the downfall of any store or business, especially when it comes to the final step of their shopping experience, the check out.
Longer wait times at your place of business can mean less customers, fewer returning customers and less revenue generated to your bottom line. But it is not all lost, there are always ways to improve your business, and more importantly, there are ways to improve the check out times with your payment processing solution.
Follow these 5 key tips for improving the payment process and start making transactions faster, and even more convenient for your customers.
1 – Multiple POS terminals
The first and easiest way to improve the payment processing speed at checkout is to have a terminal for each wicket at designated payment area. If there are 5 wickets, or 5 areas to pay, each specified area should have access to their own POS terminal.
By having individual terminals for each wicket, no matter how the customer chooses to pay, your staff is prepared and ready to complete their transaction. This helps reduce bottlenecks and keeps each individual line moving quickly.
2 – Wireless Terminal – Mobile Devices
Equipping your staff with wireless terminals, or mobile devices, depending on your industry, or store layout, you can potentially reduce line-ups all together. Wireless terminals, and mobile devices run off a WIFI signal, or a GPRS signal meaning they are completely free of any hard wired cables, providing freedom to accept payments throughout the store, or even on the road.
Whether you have a designated area to pay, or simply small areas throughout your business where customers can pay, having the freedom to walk around or travel from place to place and accept payments will drastically increase the speed of the payment process.
3 – Connection Speed
Whether you use mobile devices, wireless terminal or virtual wallets for your payment processing solutions, you may see noticeable increase in transaction speed if you invest in a quality, hi-speed Wi-Fi connection.
As with any technology, investing in the latest updated hardware will help build your network connection strength, and provide you with the fastest transaction speed for your payment processing. Rather than waiting for a transaction to be approved and having the customer wait while, fast connectivity provides instant approval or decline for each transaction.
4 – Recurring Billing
Although recurring billing does not apply to all businesses, if you are able to implement recurring billing into your payment processing, it is a great way to increase your efficiency and streamline your day-to-day transactions with your customers. Having recurring billing set up will make your customers happy that they do not have to get invoiced each month, or provide their credit card details on a regular basis.
Having a secure recurring billing payment process will allow you to spend more time on your business, and providing great customer service, rather than worrying about chasing after customers for their monthly payments.
5 – Contactless Reader
With the increase in card holders using their tap-and-go feature on their valued credit cards, having a contactless reader on your counter top or mobile terminals will greatly decrease your checkout time with your payment processing solution. Providing your customers with the option to use their tap-and go credit cards, rather than having to insert their cards and entering in their pin will ensure your line ups are short and efficient.
These 5 important tips provide your business with simple, affordable ways to speed up credit card transactions and make payment processing more streamlined for you and your customers.
