August 8th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Visa Inc., the global leader in payments, is helping U.S. fuel retailers prevent credit and debit card fraud at the pump with intelligent analytics that identify higher-risk transactions that may be fraudulent. Visa Transaction Advisor uses sophisticated analytics based on the breadth and scale of VisaNet data to flag the riskiest transactions by working with fuel companies to understand their needs, creating a new service that builds on Visa’s predictive analytics capabilities, providing fuel merchants with more intelligence to prevent fraud and improve their bottom line. While global fraud rates across the Visa payment system remain near historic lows, less than 6 cents for every $100 transacted – fuel pumps can be targets for criminals because they are often self-service terminals. The new solution, Visa Transaction Advisor (VTA), enables merchants to use real-time authorization risk scores to identify transactions that could involve lost, stolen or counterfeit cards. A pilot test of the new service showed a 23 percent reduction in the rate of fraudulent transactions – all without costly infrastructure upgrades or disruption of the customer experience.
How It Works
After a cardholder inserts the card at the pump, Visa analyzes multiple data sets such as past transactions, whether the account has been involved in a data compromise and nearly 500 other pieces of data to create a risk score. This allows merchants to identify those transactions with a higher risk of fraud and perform further cardholder authentication before gas is pumped. The time and costs associated with resolving fraudulent transactions can be substantial for both merchants and financial institutions and inconvenient for cardholders, which is one of the reasons why fraud prevention is critical. Visa’s solution is easy to implement, using existing message fields and formats as well as pump software or hardware to ensure minimal impact to merchants and acquirers. Several fuel merchants who piloted the technology over the last several months noticed a decrease in fraud, without negatively impacting their consumers’ experience. VTA as a tool help mitigate fraudulent transactions. A 23 percent reduction in the rate of fraudulent chargebacks during a pilot program in Los Angeles. This was done with minimal impact to the customer experience, making secure payment at the pump as convenient as possible. Providing fuel to millions of customers each month through approximately 15,000 service stations in the United States, said US Credit Card Operations Manager, from Shell, considering new solutions and technology it has to have a clear business benefit, be customer-centric and easy to implement. With no infrastructure investment, testing VTA as part of proactive fraud prevention tool-set to better identify fraudulent card activity earlier in the transaction cycle, without inconveniencing customers.
Visa Transaction Advisor is available to merchants through participating U.S. acquirers. Visa has partnered with Vantiv and is also working with other acquirers to offer the service to its fuel clients. Ease of implementation is a critical requirement whenever talking about a new merchant service. Visa Transaction Advisor builds on existing payment infrastructure, is easy to implement and flexible enough to allow customization by merchants.
Posted in Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: account, acquirers, analytics, authorization, card, cardholder, counterfeit cards, credit, Credit Card Operations, customer, data, debit, financial institutions, fraud, higher-risk transactions, Merchant's, payments, Rates, retailers, terminals, transactions, visa, Visa payment, Visa Transaction, Visa Transaction Advisor, VisaNet, VTA
June 30th, 2014 by Elma Jane
The best way to grow your business is to grow your customer base, but finding the time to round up new customers can be a challenge. What time-strapped business owners need is a strategy that lets them attract more customers without logging in more hours at work.
Here are steps that will allow any small business to set up a marketing system in a hurry.
Address specific concerns – Businesses also have to have a component in place that tracks customers who don’t opt in for a free consultation or other service right away. If someone does not sign up to discuss your services, then you need to prepare a series of messages that addresses their specific concerns, along with the call to action that repeats the offer of the free consultation. If repeated messages don’t inspire a customer to buy what you’re selling, you still get to add another name to your weekly newsletter or list of potential leads, which you can come back to later. To make follow-up messages and further communications most effective, using a tone that is a mix of personal and professional. In other words, don’t be too formal, but do make sure you explain why your business is worth patronizing.
Get to know your customers – Most of us who have been in our respective businesses for any length of time know the fears, hopes, dreams and aspirations of our clients. If you don’t do a great job of communicating benefits to prospective clients based on what you know they want, then your prospects won’t be willing to spend even a dollar. Knowing what concerns and challenges your prospects face should be at the heart of your business marketing strategy. Once you have this information, you can use technology, sales and marketing software for small business to create a powerful and intelligent marketing funnel system.
Prepare effective content – Once your prospective customers have completed your short survey, they’ll be entitled to the information they came to your site to receive. To effectively engage these customers, preparing a video based on each of the answers customers might have chosen during the survey. What kind of video you produce is up to you, but there are two main types: “The talking head and the narrated PowerPoint”. As you might guess, the talking head video is preferable, since it enables prospects to get a sense for who you are as a person. Next to seeing you live, it’s the next best thing. When it’s done right, it’s very effective. If you’re uncomfortable in front of the camera, you might want to opt for a narrated PowerPoint or Keynote for Mac users presentation. It’s not quite as effective in building rapport as the talking head video, but prospects will pick up a lot of your personality simply by hearing your voice. Regardless of which format you use. Keeping each video under 10 minutes and using the opportunity to really provide prospects with valuable information like a useful tip, perspective or idea. At the end of the video should be a call to action to go to a specific page on your website that offers a free consultation.
Start with a survey – Any marketing funnel begins with the challenge of how you get people to enter it, adding that small business owners can attract prospective clients by offering worthwhile information that their customers want access to, preferably in the form of videos, articles or other easily digested media. Once a prospect opts into receiving free content, it’s the businesses turn to find out more about who that customer is and what they need. One way to do this is to ask visitors to your website to complete a simple one-question survey. The survey you build should be based on the three to four biggest challenges you know your customers face, which is why step one “getting to know your customers” is so important. To create a survey that will point prospective customers in the right direction, you have to ask the right questions.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: customer, customer base, free consultation, Keynote, leads, marketing software, marketing system, newsletter, PowerPoint, prospects, software, survey, technology, website
June 24th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Compliance with a single set of regulations is often taxing enough, without other regulations causing a conflict, but this is exactly the situation that the insurance industry finds itself in with its contact centres.
PCI-DSS compliance insists that sensitive information in particular credit card numbers, must be protected and cannot be stored. However, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK regulator for the financial services industry, demands that insurers keep sufficient detail of their transactions.
In insurance contact centres, FCA recommendations are met by recording calls. So in order to comply with PCI-DSS regulations, some contact centres simply pause recordings while the card information is read out, and resume recording once the payment process is complete. There’s a very big problem with this method, it undermines the very reason calls are recorded. The call recording is there to provide an unequivocal record of the circumstances under which the policy is granted. A gap in this record creates doubt. What was said during this time? If a customer is claiming a policy is mis-sold or they were misinformed in some way, a complete record to refute this claim no longer exists. Because of situations such as this, the insurance industry has an inherent dependence on contact centres and person-to-person interaction when selling policies, though in the process has to somehow comply with both regulations. But how? One way is to get the sensitive card information directly and securely to the bank’s payment gateway without storing it. Online, this is done quite easily, insurers can embed a secure payment page into a website and the customer can enter information securely that way. By phone a similar method can be used. A caller can input information directly on their telephone keypad and the tones are only transmitted to the credit card payment gateway not the contact centre. This solves the paradox of the conflicting regulations.
Insurance contact centres need to walk a very fine line, ensuring that they comply with all of the relevant regulations from multiple regulators – even those that, at first glance, contradict each other.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, Payment Card Industry PCI Security Tagged with: (FCA), card information, compliance, contact centres, credit card payment, credit-card, customer, Financial Conduct Authority, financial services industry, insurance industry, payment gateway, payment process, PCI-DSS, phone, regulations, secure payment, taxing, telephone keypad, transactions, website
June 17th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Sales is like acting: You may have something great to offer, but no matter how hard you try, some people just aren’t going to like it. Just as actors don’t nail every audition, a salesperson won’t close every deal or chase down every lead. Dealing with this kind of rejection day after day can really wear your sales team down if they don’t have the right mindset.
One of the most crucial skills you can help your sales team develop is the ability to effectively manage adversity and overcome rejection through the power of positive thinking. With rare exceptions, a salesperson faces more losses than wins. As a sales team leader, you’ll need to find a way to keep your group motivated and focused on overcoming the many obstacles they’ll face in the course of cold calling and pitching proposals.
Inspiring optimism in your sales team isn’t always easy, but you can do it with the right techniques.
Encourage team members to share success stories. Gather the team and have all sales people share stories about how they overcame obstacles and reversed setbacks. By learning how other team members succeeded after initial adversity, sales professionals can learn to be more optimistic in their own thoughts. You can also review one of the most impressive wins your team had for the quarter and outline what enabled that sales representative to win the deal. This is a great way to build confidence in the company’s product and service, and do some team building at the same time.
We’re not 100 percent in control of our circumstances, but we can control the attitude with which we confront them. A prospect can tell in just a few minutes if you are confident and passionate about what you are selling and if you are prepared. Your confidence often breeds confidence in the prospect, which more often than not leads to winning the sale. By choosing to see the glass as half full, we can position ourselves for greater success.
Meet one-on-one with your sales staff. It’s important that your sales team recognizes the direct connection between their attitudes and their results. As a leader, you can help by assessing individual performance and talking through how each person’s perceptions affect his or her results. Different techniques will appeal to different individuals, so it’s best to take a personalized approach.
Retrain worn-down employees. Constant rejection when making a few dozen calls a day can take its toll on even the most optimistic person. The first sign that sales representatives are struggling comes when they claim that the product is too expensive or does not provide the functionality customers are looking for. Those sales people then expect rejection from every additional call. This may mean they require more training on what differentiates the product from the competition. If this is the case, it’s best to get those representatives off the phones and into a training session, where you can fine-tune their approaches and rebuild confidence.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: customer, lead, product, proposals, sales, Sales Representatives, sales team, salesperson, training
June 12th, 2014 by Elma Jane
About 5.5 million family-owned businesses operate in the United States, according to Family Enterprise USA. The secret to their success? It just might be the family aspect that makes these organizations thrive.
The business world knows that if you take care of the customer, the bottom line will take care of itself. Family-run businesses take it a step further, if you take care of your employees and treat them like family, they will take care of your customer and treat them like family. The business will thrive with loyal patrons and employees and continue to grow and be profitable even during tough times.
What truly drives many family businesses is the sense of connection and identity the owners and their family members feel with the business.
In family businesses, the founder and employees have an incredible passion for the business, a focus and energy that you’ll never find in a non-family employee. They’re so focused on the business’ success that it’s part of their identity. The business isn’t the life of non-family employees. In general, they won’t identify themselves with the business being part of who they are the way family members do. Non-family businesses can learn a valuable lesson from this family business attitude.
The core values of a family-run business are based on the core values of family life. Every member of a family is there for the other members in their time of need, no matter how big or small that need is. A non-family business can benefit from applying family values to their operations by creating a culture that has people wanting to work harder for them because they feel like family not a number.
A family business attitude makes all employees feel like part of the business. You watch out for each other and make sure all customers are treated the same every day, every time, by everyone. Like family. A dad expected more from a family than the employees because they had to lead by example and being more than just an employee working a job. Family is expected to do more and be better. That behavior flows into all employees and helps meet daily goals.
Despite the strong company culture typically found in family businesses, not all of them succeed: Thirty percent of family-owned businesses are passed down to the next generation, and only 12 percent remain viable into the third generation. A recent TAB survey found that lack of succession planning is one common reason that family businesses fail to stay within the family. Twenty-nine percent of business owners do not have a succession plan. Without one, it’s easy to understand how owners of family businesses can lose the legacy they’ve worked so hard to build.
Family business succession also faces the issue of a lack of training. Although 45 percent of owners say their children are involved in their business, 62 percent say it’s unlikely their business will remain family owned when they sell or retire.
A lack of confidence in leadership abilities could account for this gap. Training family members early and thoroughly can go a long way in building that necessary confidence. The perceived special treatment of related employees and the mixing of family and work issues can also cause points of contention in a family business setting. To ensure the success of any family members hired, family business owners should operate with a certain level of objectivity. If you bring a family member into the business, get them to work outside the company first. Make him or her learn how to take direction from others, so the family dynamic is neutralized. If spouses work together, make sure your roles are separate. Don’t discuss family matters at work or work matters at home.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: business world, company culture, customer, loyal patrons, organizations
May 8th, 2014 by Elma Jane
National Transaction Corporation Receives 2014 Best of Coral Springs Award
CORAL SPRINGS April 23, 2014 — National Transaction Corporation has been selected for the 2014 Best of Coral Springs Award in the Credit Card Service category by the Coral Springs Award Program.
Each year, the Coral Springs Award Program identifies companies that have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and the community. These exceptional companies help make the Coral Springs area a great place to live, work and play.
Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2014 Coral Springs Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Coral Springs Award Program and data provided by third parties.
The Coral Springs Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Coral Springs area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.
The Coral Springs Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in the community. The organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Their mission is to recognize the small business community’s contributions to the U.S. economy.
Posted in Credit card Processing, Merchant Account Services News Articles, nationaltransaction.com Tagged with: Credit Card Service, credit-card, customer, data, marketing, National Transaction Corporation, ntc, program
December 20th, 2013 by Elma Jane
Third-party Cookies vs. Consumer Privacy
Some interesting tools that consumers and businesses should be aware of. As consumers, we will likely see more opportunities to opt out of online activities that collect data about our behaviors. We could also see more tools that allow consumers to provide more accurate information.
The Drive to Personalize
Most every ecommerce merchant uses data to personalize shoppers’ experiences. Some common personalization tactics are:
Present upsell and cross-sell offers.
Online merchants use first-party information from their own databases and cookies to track shopping behaviors. They also purchase third-party databases that help predict behavior and products that will appeal to a specific target shopper. Similar methods have been used with offline direct marketing for years. Online tools like third-party cookies…i.e. cookies left by a domain other than the one a user is visiting…and deep data mining have made the practice easier.
Retarget shoppers who have visited a store but did not make a purchase; Segment and personalize merchandising offers in your online store. Target emails at selected consumers who are more likely to buy a certain product;
When used properly with ad networks and ecommerce personalization and recommendation engines, third-party databases increase conversion rates and average order values. They also increase customer loyalty by providing a better customer experience.
Data Collection
Most of the data is now collected with third-party cookies or other means that consumers have opted into, even if they did not necessarily think of it that way. Every time you agree to a license agreement, for example, it’s likely that you are agreeing to share your data in aggregate and anonymously with third parties. Most companies put that in their agreements to protect themselves in the future, regardless of whether they collect the data now.
If third-party cookies are eventually eliminated, there will likely be some type of replacement system that will provide similar functionality. In fact, there’s already a scarier method of tracking consumer behaviors…using digital fingerprinting techniques that profile your computer.
This technique is virtually impossible to block as other devices can see things like your operating system, browser type, your fonts, screen size and depth, time zone, cookie settings, browser plugins, and http header information. The good news is that the use of fingerprinting is relatively small. But, some observers believe this will be a future alternative to third-party cookies.
Tools for Consumers
Axciom, one of the larger data providers, is now offering a tool at AboutTheData.com that allows consumers to see information that Axciom has collected about them and actually correct it if they choose. The bad news is that you have to provide Axciom with even more information than it already has to view the information it has on file. However, you can also choose to opt out of its databases.
You will need to create a login and answer a series of questions to verify your identity. Once that is done, you can review your data, which is broken into several categories.
You may be surprised by the amount of information Axciom maintains. Realize that this is just one of many databases that have information about you that is used in online and offline applications.
Posted in Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments Tagged with: anonymously, average, browser, cookies, customer, data, data mining, databases, digital, domain, ecommerce, fingerprinting, identity, license agreement, loyalty, offline, online, operating system, opted, order, privacy, purchase, Rates, shoppers, values
October 21st, 2013 by Elma Jane
Retailers today collect email at every point of interaction. Collecting customer information in the store at the point of sale (POS) offers the greatest potential to build retailer’s email list quickly and to drive timely offers and communications that increase customer loyalty and retention.
The practice of collecting email addresses at the point of sale (POS) isn’t a new one. However, more companies are embracing the trend, and they’re doing so with increasing regularity.
E-Receipts
One popular technique among retailers is to ask shoppers if they would like a receipt emailed to them. It is important to note that an agreement to receive an e-receipt should not be necessarily interpreted as consent to be added to a commercial email list unless this intent is adequately communicated to the consumer and they consent. It always best practice to reference their consent to marketing emails at the same time as the e-receipt request.
It is possible to collect (PII) Personally Identifiable Information at the counter in a
careful and conscientious manner if you follow guidelines.
1. Be transparent about the commercial intent. A consumer who feels misled is more likely to complain and to seek redress under the consumer protection laws. If following different scripts is a challenge, apply the same disclosure/request script for both credit and cash transactions.
2. Consider using the credit card terminal or other touchpad device for customers to enter their email rather than using the sales associate. The device should first prompt the customer to consent to receiving an in-store e-receipt and/or marketing communications, ideally before proceeding with the transaction, it could be after as well.
3. Decouple PII collection from the credit card purchase. Ask customers for their email addresses before taking their credit cards or after they sign off on the purchase so it is clear that email is not required as part of the transaction.
4. Fulfill any incentives offered at the counter through email. Provide each consumer with a dynamic and unique link. A consumer will have less of a reason to give you a valid email address if you offer and fulfill the incentive at POS. Limiting the use of the incentive to email will help you avoid incentive abuse.
5. Send a welcome permission pass. Don’t assume that the customer wants anything more than an in-store e-receipt even if you can legally claim to have this right. Let the customer make an informed decision at the counter or in a subsequent email.
6. Validate submitted data. Ask customers to verify the accuracy of their PII before submitting. Use appropriate list management tools to prevent avoidable domain errors.
Clients that take the proper steps to overcome POS challenges and risks will reap the rewards of subscriber loyalty, a stronger reputation and better inbox performance in the long run.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Point of Sale Tagged with: associate, best practice, cash, commercial, communications, companies, consumer, credit, credit-card, customer, e-receipts, email, emailed, incentive, interaction, list, loyalty, offers, personally identifiable information, pii, point, point of sale, POS, retailers, rewards, sales, script, subscriber, timely, touchpad, transactions, transparent
