If we told you that your business is leaving money on the table and you don’t even realize it, would you believe us? How about if we said that your credit card company may not have your business’ best interest in mind?

The merchant services industry can be confusing and unforgiving. Many business owners are unaware of the different ways that credit card fees can be assessed, and how they can tailor them to your business. Imagine, the positive impact on your business’ bottom line if your service provider put you first and helped find the most beneficial solutions for your needs. In this post, we’ll review what merchant services are, how to identify a reputable vendor, and how to use them to grow your business and control costs.

What Are Merchant Services?

Merchant services refer to the financial services that enable businesses to accept payments from their customers electronically. Think of it as the behind-the-scenes magic that happens every time a customer buys something from your store. Here’s how the process works:

1. Set Up: As a business owner, you’ll need to set up an account with a service provider. They handle all the technical stuff needed to set your business up to accept electronic payments.
2. Secure Data Transmission: When a customer makes a purchase using their preferred payment method, their payment info is securely transmitted to the service provider for processing.
3. Payment Processing: The service provider then verifies funds availability and ensures the legitimacy of the customer’s payment method. If approved, funds are transferred from the customer’s account to yours within seconds.

Choosing the Right Provider

Ending up with the wrong provider can result in unnecessary work & frustration for you and could result in lost sales or poor business performance over time. One of the most common issues faced by merchants is that they often don’t know what services are available to them and are unable to get the support they need to keep their business running smoothly. Consider your specific business needs and do your research to find the right fit.

BankGloucester has partnered with Serve First Solutions, an independent merchant services provider, to give our business customers access to quality tools and resources. Support is easily reachable by phone or email if and when you need it, and as an independent firm, you can be confident that they care about your business’ success as much as you do. We’re happy to review your benefits and help you take advantage of them to control cashflow, eliminate yearly cost increases, and more.

The cost and availability of services can vary by provider, so it’s important to consider your business’ budget and desired options. BankGloucester provides the following essential tools to our customers.

Payment Processing

At BankGloucester we offer a wide range of innovative and secure processing services to help meet your growing business needs including:

• Credit Card and Debit Card Acceptance
• IP Point of Sale Solutions

• Mobile & Wireless Solutions

• Virtual Terminals & Gateway Solutions

• Gift Card Program

• Electronic Check Service

Data & Reporting Tools

Our sophisticated online reporting tools provide access to critical information that can help you manage virtually every aspect of your business anytime, anywhere.

• 24/7 access to detailed and summary transaction data reporting online
• Variety of available reports — from simple summary snapshots to highly-detailed reports.
• Access a summary of settlement rejects
• Review all authorization requests
• Manage disputed chargebacks and retrievals
• Reconcile gift card transaction totals DES and SSL encrypted in accordance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards for information storage
• Set user access based on specific needs, job roles, or responsibilities
• Level 2 and level 3 data

Additional Security Features

We understand that card data security can be intimidating, especially for smaller merchants. We offer an innovative bundle of solutions to help protect your business.

• PCI Assist – Adopt best practices and simplify PCI DSS compliance and validation
• Encryption – Protect customer data from your point of sale to our systems for processing.
• Tokenization – Render important card data useless in the wrong hands
• Cardholder data truncated for added security

24/7 Merchant Support

Our merchant support team is always available to assist you and answer any questions you may have. This service is free for all BankGloucester business customers because we care about the success of your business as much as you do, and we appreciate your decision to choose us for your business banking needs.