More Than a Terminal:
Are You Getting Enough From Your Merchant Services Provider?
By Marcia Layton Turner and Gina LaGuardia
When most business owners hear the term “merchant services provider,” they may think of a traditional credit card processing terminal, the same one that’s been on the countertops for years. And yet a good merchant services provider does much more than just help your business process credit cards—the right system can be an engine that fuels a company’s growth.
In fact, explains Jean Chae, vice president of product marketing at Clover, quality merchant services providers “offer everything merchants need to help serve clients better, grow sales, and simplify business management.”
Today’s businesses need to expand beyond the traditional merchant services providers that simply process payments and look to those that can deliver a wide array of important services, from improved security against hackers and fraudulent transactions, to offering insights about clients through data analysis, improving cash flow through improved efficiency, and even generating revenue through promotional programs.
Indeed, the offerings of services merchant providers have come a long way.
The Evolution of Merchant Services
“In the past, traditional terminals were used for one purpose,” says Chae, “to take and process payments. With Clover, a merchant’s POS [point-of-sale] system can be used for so much more, with a range of capabilities to manage many aspects of a business.”
Clover is a platform small businesses can use to accept payments, manage operations, attract new – and retain existing – clients. Better yet, as Chae notes, “it’s all tailored to the merchant’s individual type of business.” Clover offers email and social media integration as well to help business owners operate more efficiently and market more effectively, she adds.
Using Clover, business owners can process all types of payments:
- Process credit and debit card payments, including EMV (Europay, Mastercard, and Visa), as well as checks
- Accept contactless payments through digital wallets, such as Apple Pay®, Android Pay™, and Samsung Pay
- Issue and accept gift cards, coupons, and promotional offers
- Use Virtual Terminal to accept payment for phone and mail orders as well as send a payment request for invoices
Clover can also help manage and run their businesses:
- Protect themselves and clients from unauthorized transactions
- Manage their product inventory to see what’s selling, and what’s not
- Track sales, transactions, and clients with robust reporting
It can grow their businesses as well:
- Connect with clients and drive more revenue through a loyalty program and promotions with Clover Rewards and Clover Promos
- Receive direct feedback from clients with Clover Feedback
- Offer gift cards, both physical and digital, to drive loyalty and new revenue
- Use Clover Capital to turn future sales into working capital to use toward buying more inventory, expanding to a new location, and more
Merchant Services — There’s an App for That
In addition, the Clover App Market features nearly 500 apps designed to streamline and improve many business functions, including:
Analyzing client and market data
Tracking associate time and associated labor costs
Processing associate payroll
Calculating and filing automated tax payments
Many of the apps in the Clover App Market have been customized for particular types of businesses. These include beauty salons, retail stores, restaurants, clubs, and event concessions, among others. For example, there’s an app that can manage a waitlist so clients can be sent a text when their table is ready, eliminating the need for the restaurant to purchase pagers.
With a more sophisticated merchant services engine, businesses can also choose the best hardware option that meets their needs and budget.
- Retailers might find the robust Clover Station the best solution for managing everything from inventory to people to client data.
- Food trucks and other businesses that need to take payments from their clients, wherever they may be, may find the portable Clover Flex or the smartphone- or tablet-enabled Clover Go gives them all the flexibility they need.
- Clover Mini, which is a compact countertop POS device and Clover Flex, an all-in-one handheld, round out the array of product options.
And while many of these high-powered features were once available only to companies willing to invest in higher priced platforms, they are now affordable for even the smallest of businesses.
Valuable Insights Built In
“At the core of what a good merchant provider can offer is business intelligence beyond pure data to real insights about how their business is performing,” says Chae. “With the business analytics solution, Main Street Insights, for example, merchants are able to track many aspects of their own business and how they stack up against the local competition.”
This information can help business owners:
Bring in new business
by analyzing clients’ spending patterns in order to find more like them.
Improve target marketing
by categorizing clients by factors such as frequency of purchase, distance to location, or “new.”
Monitor results
to track the impact of particular marketing efforts, so that they can be replicated or adjusted as needed.
Understand the local economy
by being able to see where clients live and shop to better target clients and to assess where future locations should be established.
“The best merchant providers offer powerful all-in-one solutions, such as Clover, that actually help merchants run their businesses better and more easily,” says Chae.
The Clover-First Horizon Relationship
Clover teams with First Horizon Bank to help business banking clients transform their businesses. “Clover offers powerful tools for both online and in-store payment acceptance that work seamlessly to help the merchant manage and grow their business, regardless of how they acquire clients,” says Chae.
First Horizon Head of Merchant Services Autumn Tinnel speaks highly of the relationship. “Fiserv [Clover’s parent company] has been a valuable partner to the bank for over 20 years. Fiserv not only offers our merchant clients competitive products and services, as well as a consultative sales model that ensure sales executives have a full understanding of not only their business clients’ current needs but expectations of where the business intends to be in the future.”
First Horizon Merchant Services is ready to put our business technology experience to work for you in finding solutions that make your life as a business owner/operator easier.
Apple Pay is a trademark of Apple Inc. Android, Android Pay, and the Android Logo are trademarks of Google Inc Samsung Pay and the Samsung Pay logo are trademarks of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
