6 Things Every Small Business Needs To Succeed
Making it today as a small business can be challenging. Between having to compete with big corporations and the ever-growing online market, it’s never been harder for brick and mortar stores. However, several tools, techniques, and technologies can help you integrate into the modern online market.
Take Advantage Of Smartphone Merchant Services
From taking orders out in the field to having an easy and reliable in-store merchant system, smartphone merchant services allow you to take orders anywhere and any time. The ability to accept payments from a smartphone is invaluable for many small businesses – food trucks, food stands, kiosks, and almost every trade service benefit from mobile merchant services. Even traditional brick-and-mortar stores can benefit by utilizing smartphone merchant services. They can eliminate clunky, costly payment terminals, reduce long lines, make sales anywhere on location, and continue to process payments even when your primary sales system goes down.
Utilize Next Day Funding
Ensuring you get your hard-earned funds is one of the single most crucial facets to a small business. Diligent and timely payment of overhead, daily expenses, employee salary, and inventory costs can make the difference for a thriving operation. The ability to quickly utilize next day funding helps ensure that all your expenses remain paid and that you have a reliable safety net. Outdated, traditional payment depositing structures can take up to 72 hours to process due to hold times, leaving a consistent portion of your profits in limbo as you wait for them to be deposited into your account. So, enrolling in next day funding can be crucial in keeping your money where it belongs.
Have A Chargeback Defender & Dispute Resolution System
Payment disputes happen. From miscommunications and misplaced orders to clerical errors, disputes are sadly just a part of business. Combining this with today’s fast-paced and more widespread methods of communication, ensuring that all disputes are addressed has never been more critical. A single missed or mismanaged dispute can lead to, at best, a lost sale and at worst, a severe hit to your business’s reputation (from both consumers and credit card companies). So it pays off to have Chargeback Defender, a system in place to both protect you from chargebacks and effectively notify you of disputes as soon as they happen. This way, your funds stay safe as you work to resolve the dispute.
Utilize ApplePay
ApplePay is on its way to replacing the American wallet. As of 2018, 45% of all mobile phone users had iPhones, and current estimates put that number closer to 47%. As for ApplePay, it has become a dominating force in the mobile wallet world and is a growing source of POS transactions in the United States. In 2020, 25% of all POS were made with a mobile wallet, of which ApplePay is quickly becoming the most popular. Currently, ApplePay accounts for 8% of global payment transactions, which is estimated to hit 10% by 2025. This abrupt change is believed to have been pushed by the pandemic, as touchless payment methods skyrocketed at this time. ApplePay is not a trend or fad, but instead an industry shift that is expected to increase over time as mobile wallets become more popular. So it should be a priority for small businesses to get ahead of the curve and begin incorporating ApplePay into their POS system now.
Be PCI Compliant
PCI compliance, or The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, is an industry-wide set of requirements that must be met by any business that processes, stores, receives, or transmits credit card information. PCI compliance is mandatory for almost every small business, and failing to meet these requirements can incur legal fines and penalties, as well as create a significant security risk for both your company and customers. For many small businesses, navigating the litany of requirements to ensure your company is PCI compliant can be daunting. Thankfully, there are systems that can help your company become PCI compliant, ensuring your company and customers are safe and secure.
Utilize Reviews, Feedback Questionnaires, And Customer Review Forms
Online presence and credibility are more important than ever. Companies like Yelp and Google create a quick, seamless way for customers to voice their opinions of you online. Modern online reviews can be difficult to navigate if you don’t have a dispute management system. However, it can be equally beneficial if you A) offer excellent customer service, and B) utilize a few simple techniques to get the most out of each customer interaction.
- Optimize for Customer Reviews: Creating a Google My Business profile will allow customers to review your business. These reviews will then display on your business profile snippet displayed on search results. Google My Business also allows you to respond directly, and address bad reviews, building further credibility. Creating additional business account pages for review sites relevant to your industry is equally important (such as Yelp, Trip Advisor, ETC).
- Encourage Reviews Through Surveys and Forms: Utilizing online reviews only works if your customer knows where to review you. Adding a small review reminder at the end of receipts and emails or mentioning it at a POS can help drive customers to your preferred website for reviews.
- Feedback Questionnaires: Ensuring a good customer experience is crucial if you want to get the most out of your online reviews. Adding a small survey at the end of emails or receipts can be a great way to know where your company has room to improve.
Making it today as a small business feels like an uphill battle. Keeping pace with rapidly evolving technology and competition from online retail giants makes standing out and succeeding sometimes feel like a herculean task. Thankfully, BAM is a leader in payment processing and other merchant solutions, and we can help keep your payments secure and save you money.