Small businesses may find a lot of success taking their wares to local fairs, trade shows, farmers markets or other events where they can attract foot traffic and people who are likely to buy on the spot.  These cash-and-carry situations can be a great way to sell, but how many people carry cash?

Sellers may significantly increase the number and size of their sales by making sure they can accept cards at the event and clearly displaying it to the customer.  A few more (or bigger) sales may come simply because you accept plastic.  Someone may not have enough cash, they may want to spend it elsewhere, or they may have forgotten their checkbook.  Accepting debit/credit cards makes it easy.

If the event has power and Internet available, sellers can use a laptop to key-enter or swipe transactions.  However, if the venue does not have power or Internet, customers might have to fill out sales receipts or have their card imprinted, and the seller wouldn’t know if the transaction was good until they processed on their terminal later.

However, with cell phones, and now with web-enabled phones, merchants can get authorizations virtually anywhere, making it easier to sell confidently.  Any touch-tone phone can be turned into a credit card terminal, smart phones can navigate on the web to a virtual terminal, and card readers and smart phone applications can be used for quick, efficient and secure processing. 

Events can be a great way to reach customers you would otherwise never meet, spread your business and make some money.  Being able to accept credit cards anytime, anywhere at these events can make it easier for a customer to buy and spend more, making a big impact on the seller’s success.

Tanner Olsen | Account Executive

Several years ago, I read a great book authored by Michael LeBoeuf titled, “How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life.” The book contains a story and lesson about customer service that all of us can learn from. The story goes like this:

A young boy entered a drugstore phone booth and the druggist overheard the following conversation: “Hello, is this the Smith residence? . . . I would like to apply for the opening you have for a gardener. . . What’s that, you already have a gardener? . . . Is he a good gardener? . . . Are you perfectly satisfied with all of his work? . . . Is he not doing anything that you would like to have done? . . . Do you plan on keeping him? . . . I see. . . . Well, I’m glad you’re getting such excellent service. Thanks anyway. Bye.”

As he left the booth the druggist remarked, “Johnny, I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation. I know it’s none of my business, but aren’t you the Smith’s gardener?” To which Johnny replied, “That’s right. I just called to find out how I’m doing.”

We can all learn a valuable lesson about marketing and customer service in this story. Daniel Scoggin, former President and CEO of TGI Friday’s said, “The only way to know how customers see your business is to look at it through their eyes.”

LeBoeuf’s book outlines five ways to serve your customers and keep them coming back:

1.       Be Reliable – Without question, consistent performance is what customers want most.

2.       Be Credible – As customers we all willingly go back to people and businesses who sincerely want to help us and have our best interests at heart.

3.       Be Attractive – Customers draw a lot of conclusions about the quality of service on the basis of what they see. As one airline chairman put it, “Coffee stains on the flip-down trays mean (to the customer) that we do our engine maintenance wrong.”

4.       Be Responsive – This means being accessible, available, and willing to help the customer whenever they have a problem.

5.       Be Empathetic – Be willing to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Listen, ask questions and speak their language.

Good luck with your customers. Take a moment or two during the upcoming week and talk to your customers and find out how you’re doing.

Scott Nelson

VP Marketing, ProPay

One of my favorite childhood books was Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls.  In this book, Billy is a little boy who hunts raccoons.  At one point in the book, Billy and his grandfather manufacture a very clever raccoon trap.  The trap consists of a hole in a log with nails driven into it at an angle, with a shiny object placed at the bottom of the hole.  The raccoon comes across the log and sees the shiny object in the bottom of the hole and without any thought or thorough inspection; the raccoon reaches his hand down into the hole and grabs the shiny object.  With his paw clenched around the shiny object, the raccoon’s fist becomes too big to get past the nails driven into the log.  Once caught with a hand in the trap, the raccoon will not let go of the shiny object in order to free itself.  Eventually the raccoon’s need to have the shiny object leads to its capture.

All too often, while working with merchants, I come across people who, like excited raccoons, grab at a shiny object without further inspection.  It is easy for a merchant to get caught up in the excitement of a large sale and overlook the warning signs or dangers that may accompany a high risk or potentially fraudulent transaction.

On the other hand, I am told that a coyote is one of the most difficult animals to trap.  The reason a coyote is so difficult to trap is because a coyote uses all of its senses and intuition to avoid being trapped.  A coyote will not go near a baited trap if it catches any human scent, sees any human, or hears any human.  People attempting to trap a coyote will need to wear gloves when touching the trap and bait in order to mask their scent.  A coyote will notice if anything is awry with the location of the bait, such as if it sees parts of a metal trap coming up from the ground around the bait.    A coyote will take many factors into consideration before going after the bait.

Part of my job at ProPay is to help merchants become more like astute coyotes instead of raccoons when accepting payments.  Listed below are some tips for checking out a transaction before and after processing so that you can ensure you will not become trapped like the raccoon.

1.  Know your customer: You aren’t as likely to be defrauded by a long time customer as you are by someone you have never met.  Try to have phone conversations with your customers instead of email conversations.  Check if their phone number area code matches their billing address.  Don’t let the size of the transaction overpower your common sense.  If something seems out of place or doesn’t feel right, don’t hesitate to look further into the transaction and get more information that will help you determine the legitimacy of the transaction.

2. Check shipping and billing addresses: Pay attention to the addresses the customer gives you.  Often a fraudster will use a stolen card with one address, but will want the product shipped to a completely different address.  If the billing address and the shipping address are completely different, you may want to ask the customer why they are having the product shipped somewhere else.  When you process a transaction through ProPay, the confirmation screen will tell you if the address you entered at processing matches the address on the card you used.  This information will be found in the “AVS Code” line.  Please see this blog post for information on AVS codes.  These codes can help you determine if the customer gave you the correct address.

3.  Large transactions for high risk items: Generally, fraudsters want to find a way to use someone else’s money to get your product so they can either resell or use your product.  If you sell products that have a high resale value, then you may be more susceptible to fraud.  Pay attention to transactions that are higher than your average transaction, and transactions that are for large amounts of the same type of product.

4.  If you don’t feel comfortable with it, question it: A major factor that gives us an advantage over the raccoons (other than the opposable thumbs that we are so proud of) is our ability to reason and listen to our common sense.  If you feel that anything could be wrong with the transaction, get more information from the customer.  The more information you have, the better (or worse) you will start to feel about the transaction.  With more information, you can make a better educated decision.  Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it is too good to be true.

When organizations consider the protection of data, it is often the data at the core of the enterprise that is being considered – the data that is resident in the corporate systems and subject to the protections of corporate network and the corporate information security policy.  Increasingly, companies are depending on mobile devices (eg: Smartphones, tablets, etc) to carry out their business.  Yet, just as these devices are on the periphery of the network, they are often on the periphery of the information security program, as well.

It can be particularly difficult to  conceive of Smartphones as an extension of the enterprise, but they certainly can be.  In fact, Massachusetts’ Data Security Law requires “encryption of all personal information stored on laptops or other portable devices.”  Other states are following suit and with good reason.  As business becomes more mobile, so does data.  As data breaches have extended to the mobile device, so to must the information security program.

Malware has infamously been found in at least one major application market place, and one must assume that data thieves and hacker are even now conceiving of new ways to compromise these device.  In fact, a story in CNet news today highlights a vulnerability in Mac laptop batteries.  This newly identified vulnerability highlights the importance of ongoing risk assessments and adjustments to security policies as technologies and their associated vulnerabilities evolve.

It is important to be aware of the risks posed by mobile devices.  While steps can be taken to mitigate these risks, they can only be applied if the organization is aware of the risks.  It is suggested that businesses inventory the devices on their network, or associated with their company, and their interaction with potentially “toxic” data.  The resulting assessment should be used to help create an information security policy that is appropriate for the size and complexity of the organization, and the sensitivity of the data involved.

Dr. Heather Mark, PhD, SVP Market Strategy

There are many features and options associated with your ProPay account. All of these features can enhance your business opportunity and allow you to process transactions in a myriad of different ways.  One common way is to send an email invoice.  Sending an email invoice conveniently allows your customer to enter in their credit or debit information and securely pay you via email interaction.  To receive a step by step tutorial on how to send an email invoice, please visit the link below:

 http://www.propay.com/propay-support/tutorials/tutorial-email-invoice/

Once you submit the invoice through your ProPay account, your customer will receive an email with a secure ProPay website link to enter in their card information.   The payment will then be processed through your ProPay account. 

Sending an Email invoice is just one simple way you can process card information through your ProPay account.  For additional explanations on processing cards and other ProPay account features please visit our tutorial page.  Or, to get answers to some our most common questions by visiting our FAQ page .  However you need to process a card, ProPay’s simple, safe and affordable solutions are there to help create success for your business.