In our world today, every cent counts so by adding them to your bottom line is also a big contribution. These steps can help you you increase your profit, lower your expenses and protect your business from theft.
In the food service industry, if you’re running a restaurant point of sale system then this simple tips can greatly help you grow your business!
Take Checks
Checks may not may not seem appealing to younger customers, but their still widely used especially among older customers. If you haven’t been accepting checks, start soon. You will be able to find a good equipment that can scan checks as fast as credit cards, check out and measure them against a nationwide database of bad check writers, transfers the money to your account electronically, and guarantee you receive your funds within a few days. In addition, it costs less than for credit cards and could add 10%-15% of your sales—and possibly more if you have many senior customers.
Cards
If you do accept credit cards, you’re probably accepting Visa and MasterCard already. But what about Discover and American Express? The latter, in particular, generally accompanies larger transactions. You might have felt hesitated because of the fee, but reconsider—the difference might be a paltry one percent or so, and because American Express transactions are often larger than those of other cards, you’ll make it up in gross profit. Furthermore, customers may keep coming back because they’ll know that your business accepts all forms of credit cards.
Researching For Alternatives
Most merchants think their fees are 1.69 percent plus an additional $.19 because that’s their qualified rate on a pricing program tier. Though fewer than 20 out of 100 transactions receives low qualified rate and all the rest downgrade and cost one, two, or even three percent. By researching for alternate programs that offer different interchange rates could possibly help you more than you think.
Insist on Understanding
Neither you nor your bookkeeper would have to scratch the back of your heads over complex credit card statements that just doesn’t fit. There are several companies that have made far more than usual efforts to simply their reports. You should be able to come into terms with your statement and rates within 15 minutes or less.
Get Reports by Internet
You’ll never have to wait for the post office to deliver a letter disputing a charge. With Internet reporting, you will know within 24 hours, allowing you to aggressively defend against chargebacks. With this kind of quick response, it can increase your success rates and reduce your losses.
So there will be no more scratching of the head for both you and your bookkeeper over complex credit card statements.
Using Card Validation Value and Address Verification System. These highly effective fraud screens can reduce losses, and by using them the right way, you obtain the lowest possible discount rate.
One more thing, avoid by being PCI compliant. Hackers can cause you huge fines, and drive them out of business. It’s always a good time, so you’d always be alert.
Reduce Chargebacks
For Internet and phone orders, implementing the “Verified by Visa” or “MasterCard Secure Code” plug-in on your web site eliminates all cardholder nonauthorization chargebacks. Liability for these chargebacks will be shifted away back to the issuing card bank, and you qualify for the lowest discount rate available. By doing so, you could possibly eliminate up to 80% of all chargebacks and increase your profits.
With over 20 years of restaurant point of sale experience and helping businesses in the food-service industry nationwide increase their efficiency and bottom-line profits, the author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants.com.
You may visit POS-For-Restaurants.com for further understanding of how our national network of restaurant point of sale professionals can help your business achieve greater success in these difficult economic times.
