When you open a business, depending on what your business does, you may find yourself wondering whether you NEED to take credit cards. What you may not realize is that looking at the expanded possiblities for electronic payment solutions beyond just debit and credit cards could give your business an edge over your competition.
Most businesses look at credit cards and other payment solutions as a necessary evil for their business because of the profit lost from credit card fees. Very few businesses look at the ways that payment solutions can help them better manage and promote their business. Every business wants to increase their revenue and reduce their costs, here are some ideas to do just that:
- Pay customers to visit your store – Thats right, I said pay them to visit your store. You can probably afford to make a slightly lower profit on your goods or services if you are increasing your sales volume and adding new customers. Using a gift card and/or loyalty card solution, you can give away store credit using gift cards which will drive business directly to your location. In addition, those gift cards can be set up to double as loyalty cards, which means that when your customers come in to redeem their store credit, you can capture their information for futher marketing and notification of special offers. Gift Card solutions can be custom designed for your business with your logo and store information, so every one of your gift card/loyalty card holders is walking around with a piece of your company’s marketing. Gift card solutions don’t have to cost a lot of money and can typically be implemented for about $100. (See my previous article on Gift Cards for more information)
- Incent those that bring you business – When you have customers, clients, or colleagues that bring business your way, you are increasing the chance that those new customers will be with you for the long term. Referral customers already trust your business more than a typical customer because they trust the source that sent them your way. So how do you create a system of rewarding those sources of quality referral business? One way might be to put together a solution that allows for you to give a visa gift card depending on how much business they bring you. By sending them a prepaid visa gift card, you are rewarding them for their help and allowing them to spend those funds on anything they want. Sending a gift basket is nice, but allowing your referral to take their spouse out to dinner or choose their own gift is thoughtful and memorable. Similar to gift cards or loyalty cards, visa gift cards can be custom designed to your business so that you are promoting yourself every time that gift card is used.
- Offer convenient ways for customers to pay - These days, customers are just as appreciative of convenience as they are of price. Businesses like Amazon.com allow you to purchase almost anything and for a small annual fee you can get free 2 day shipping on all of your purchases through their Amazon Prime program. When you get to the checkout, you can pay by debit or credit card, amazon gift card, or check. With customers feeling the negative effects of a tough economy, some merchants are offering payment arrangements including recurring billing and even layaway. The easier you make it for the customer to purchase a good or service from you, the more likely they are to return. Electronic payment solutions like recurring billing, ACH, e-check, and others allow you to provide a convenient payment solution while still ensuring that your business is protecting your cash flow. Regardless of whether you do business in person or on the web, technology is making it easier than ever to let your customers pay how they want without requiring you to have a full time IT staff.
So what are the first steps towards looking at these solutions and how they might help you manage your business better? Here are some suggestions:
- Make sure that you have a trusted advisor who can help you look at all of the options, not just what they are pushing this week. (See my previous article on how to find a trusted advisor)
- Figure out what the goal of the solution will be. Is it attracting new customers or encouraging current customers to visit your store more often? What kind of customers do you want to attract and what motivates them?
- What is your budget for a new solution? Never get into a new solution without figuring out how much you can afford to spend and what you would like to see as your return on investment. Start simple so that you can figure out what works for your business.
Expanding or establishing new solutions like these might help you distinguish yourself from your competition and provide cost-effective ways for you to increase your sales without killing your bottom line.
Thank you for reading, I hope that this information is helpful to you and your business.
Do you have an idea for a new article or a question about your business? See the “Contact Me” tab above or just leave a comment below.
Have a great day,
Ben Wallace
Posted by Ben Wallace 
