Please call us first

I read with great amazement in the New York Times last week that Netflix was being complimented for improving its customer service. How? By adding humans in its Washington state call center rather than outsourcing to another company or to another country.

I was amazed because, as a service provider, Netflix decided adding a more human touch was important and Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm, confirmed this suspicion: people hate customer service that seems not to be connected to them or to the service.

Here's a quote from a Booz Allen representative: "There’s so much more competition, this is something they’ve done to get closer to the customer, because without that, there’s really no connection a customer has to Netflix.”
(New York Times, Business section, August 16, 2007 "At Netflix, Victory for Voices Over Keystrokes " by Katie Hafner)

As my kids would say, DUH! How much did Netflix spend to come to that conclusion?
How many times have we all spent hours waiting on a queue to speak to a human only to find that the human had no idea what we needed or we wanted in order to solve the problem?

We have a vested interest in your being satisfied. Our clients get us as the first level in solving a problem. If we cannot figure it out, we will find the right person at the right level at the vendor(s) that can, often without taking any more of your time, saving you the headache, and later we confirm the solution has been finalized. This is one thing that separates us from our competition. Call us first, please.

I get by helping my friends a little

Perhaps the Beatles said it better, but sometimes I help people and they let me know I made a difference.

The other day I ran into a friend who is starting her own company. She was waiting for the verdict from a soon-to-be client, she hoped, who was deliberating over her price and proposal for a piece of business. She was a bit scared she was going to be pushed into a corner, the client knowing she had just started out on her own, and the negotiation was going to go against her. He may have figured she's hungry for the business and he had the upper hand.

She asked my advice. I told her stick to your guns and your price and tell him "you get what you pay for." Quality costs money. Schlock costs a whole lot less. She did just that.

She won the business at her price (she was smart to add a small sweetener to the deal for the same price, which cost her very little and won her the business). You get the point.

The moral? Never buy services from the cheapest guy in town. Some corner is being cut and you will regret it. I will never be the cheapest but I will strive to be the best. You will never regret paying for my services. If you do, I want to know about it before any regret starts. It takes communication on both sides. I will quote you a price that will make you happy and earn the position of an effective provider.

Finally, and best of all, I am truly glad I was able to help her.

It's easier now being "green"

Poor Kermit the Frog. He thought it wasn't easy being green. Now we all strive to be "greener" by saving gasoline or adjusting our thermostats to run less air conditioning, especially at peak demand times.

Have you thought how to make your business or nonprofit greener by using new payment technologies?

Here are a few observations:
1) stop mailing invoices. It takes gasoline and electricity to process the mail and it takes days (sometimes a week) for delivery; use electronic invoice presentation with a link to your web page to accept the payment far faster.

2) start accepting credit card and/or checks by phone, by fax or on your website; easy to implement in your office and makes your staff far more efficient. No more running to the bank (eats gas) by 2pm to make a deposit.

3) if you must process checks, do so electronically by feeding them through a specialized check reader and converting them to a data file. Then let your computer send them to a processor for clearing. It's called Remote Deposit Capture. No more adding machine tapes, deposit slips or trips to the bank, saving electricity and gas as well.

That's just three ideas. Let me know if we can help you think and act more green.

Lucy! You got some 'splainin' to do!

I just visited with new prospects, a husband and wife who run a business. Each is very intelligent and articulate. Unfortunately when I asked to see their credit card month end statement. they were amazed when I told them how high their rates for nonqualified transactions were.

Why is this?

I believe the card industry as a whole does a poor job of providing a statement that is legible and understandable even to intelligent people. Statements should be, and in some isolated cases, are easy to read, not computer-generated data reports. After all, they ARE invoices that are paid by you automatically so you should be able to quickly understand what is being charged and why.

I am fortunate to be able to represent one such processor who has spent a lot of time making the statement understandable and clean.

If you need someone to translate your statement from jibberish to English, let me know. Just fax it to me at 203.549.0406 and I will walk you through it.

A little education can be helpful. That's what this blog is all about.

Often Wrong, Seldom in Doubt

Each credit card or e-check transaction depends on all systems being at "go" all the time. The fact is, errors and glitches sometimes happen.

When they do, merchants suddenly are aware of the mechanics they think are at work in a transaction. It can go on for a few days unless we are notified of a potential problem. Or in a few cases, they get mad at the messenger. Then we are the ultimate bad guys.

It takes a dedicated customer service team to monitor all systems, even if the systems are fully not under our control. The fact is, once the card transaction is released to the "system" many parties are involved that we are not in charge of. We coordinate with banks, data centers, "front ends", "back ends," gateways, shopping carts, web developers of varying expertise, the Federal Reserve Bank (yes, they have problems from time to time too) and so many others.

So if something goes wrong, as the first level of customer service, we take the heat. That's OK, that's what we do.

We also provide the solution. We know who to ask for assistance. We get it done. So if one transaction goes wrong in any way, it is remembered by the merchant for a long time. But it was fixed, according to the rules and regulations.

Once resolved, there is no doubt, at least in our mind, that we have provided the best level of support and customer care. We check back to be sure.

We want to rekindle that confidence again in our merchants' minds. We are responsible for your cash flow. We take that very seriously.

Now, being pragmatic, let's remember all the transactions that went right too.

Demystifying Plastic Payments

Plastic Cards: credit cards, debit cards, ATM cards, EBT (aka food stamp) cards, gift cards, loyalty cards and others.


Is your business already accepting plastic cards? If not, have you been tempted to accept cards but was told it's too confusing and expensive?

Mastering cards (no pun intended) is easy when you know the basics. The program needs to be tailored to your specific needs. Believe me, if landlords in NYC are accepting cards for rent payments and fast food stores are accepting cards for a $3 sandwich, there's a program out there that you can fit into! The card payments industry is amazingly resourceful when it comes to accommodating a business's need to accept plastic. Not a surprise.

The major card brands advertise like crazy to entice a consumer to use one card brand vs. another. Merchants accept them all, typically, so differentiation isn't the issue to the merchant. It's price. No surprise.

Today it is not uncommon for me to see a merchant have a MasterCard transaction priced differently than Visa. Close to each other but nonetheless differently. American Express has its own pricing model, and Discover prices based on the previous month's average ticket. Confused? Again, no surprise.

Basically, the pricing model is something along these lines: for a single credit card transaction, the merchant is charged

1. a certain percentage of the face amount of the transaction
2. plus a few cents per transaction.
3. There are other fees such as statements, monthly minimums, batch fees, address verification, additional fees for certain types of cards, etc. and it's not the time to get into these right now. We will.

The merchant receives the cash proceeds from the card sale in about 2 or 3 business days from the date the authorized transactions are batched together and transmitted electronically to the processor. The fees are either deducted upfront and the proceeds paid net of fees to the merchant, or accumulated and charged at the end of the month. Confusing? It can be.

The good news is that like many new things, eventually we all get used to the rhythm and timing of how credit cards work even if you have never accepted cards in your business before.

Next time, swiped vs nonswiped. "Swiped" is not a police term for larceny. Some might disagree..I'll tell you why in another blog posting soon.

Pertinent Negatives

You don't feel well and some of the symptoms could at the worst case be serious. You decide this is worth going to the doctor.

After a series of questions and other examinations, she or he tells you what you do NOT have first, to ease your mind. Whew!

What the doctor tells you next is what you have is not serious and can be treated.

The expert tells you what you do NOT have: the "pertinent negatives." You just need adjustment of some sort.

Using this analogy, is your business cash cycle running slow and you do not know what to do?

Chances are your situation is not lethal and with a little treatment, the cash flow can be treated. Velocity of cash is essential: a factor of size and speed.

Ask an expert who has at least a few options to help you, not just "one size fits all," because a real professional knows that no two cases are alike and each needs the right type and amount of TLC to nurse the cash flow back to health.

Ask for help-there's nothing wrong with getting the help of a pro. Many times, the diagnosis is not serious and can result in improved cash flow.