29 Mar 4 Essentials to Keep Your Merchant Services Program Growing
From meeting with financial institutions nationwide, the banking team at BASYS has learned a lot about different merchant services programs. We see strategies that contribute to program growth, in addition to a lack of growth strategies, which leads to a low retention rate.
Here are four essentials to keep your merchant services program growing.
1. Merchant Retention
The industry average for merchant retention is 70% annually. Keeping a current customer is easier than finding a new one, so implementing strategies to keep your retention rate above industry average is crucial.
You can keep your retention rate above industry average by:
• Dedicating bank staff to merchant support
• Partnering with a processor that prioritizes customer support
Implementing these strategies can increase customer retention to 90% or more. At that rate, you’ll only need 2 to 3 new merchants per month to keep the portfolio flat.
2. Growth Strategies
Another way to keep your merchant services program growing is to implement strategies like:
• ACH mining of business customers to identify top prospects
• Ongoing bank employee training
• Lead–generating incentive programs for bank employees
• Discussion with new business accounts
• Marketing campaigns to potential merchants
These programs are among the many that are part of the strategy discussions BASYS has with all of our partner banks.
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3. Processing Partner with Great Support
Making sure your processing partner has the same culture and values as your bank is crucial to the health of your merchant services program. If support from your processor does not match your bank’s standard, bank employees will stop sending in new referrals.
When vetting potential processing partners:
• Make sure your processing partner has the same customer service values as your bank.
• Always ask:
• What is your annual customer retention rate?
• What metrics are you tracking to increase customer retention?
4. Merchant Services Goals
• Set attainable goals for branches and bank officers
• Select one person at the bank to own merchant services portfolio growth
BASYS Processing as a business partner
If your processor isn’t delivering strategies to help grow your program and personal service to your customers, please call BASYS Processing at (800) 386-0711. Let’s talk about creating a business partnership that will help you meet and exceed your goals.
BASYS Processing features:
• A friendly, live voice will answer the phone when you or your customers call; no automated phone systems.
• In-house PCI Compliance team to walk your customers through the process step-by-step, improving security and reducing costs.
• Thorough Market Analysis followed by mutual plans and goals to grow your portfolio.
• In-depth initial training and ongoing bootcamp training for bank staff.
• A full suite of turnkey marketing assets that can be customized with your bank branding.
About BASYS Processing
BASYS Processing provides credit card and debit card processing services, plus solutions that include terminals, virtual terminals, e-commerce, mobile, and point-of-sale, customized to fit any need. Banks, associations, and software partners depend on us to strengthen their reputations and relationships with their customers by providing remarkable service paired with ultimate flexibility and pricing. Merchants depend on us to make accepting credit cards and debit cards convenient, safe and affordable. BASYS was founded in 2002 on one philosophy: to take care of our merchants, partners, and employees so they never want to leave. We are dedicated to working one-on-one with our customers to design the perfect solution. BASYS is Personal Payment Processing.
Learn more at basyspro.com, and connect with us online at: