card payment convenience

For today’s consumer, card payment convenience is key

Did you know that there are still three million businesses in the UK that don’t accept payment by credit card? A risky decision when the recent study also showed that one in six British shoppers now choose only to pay by card*. While making it easier for your customers to pay is an obvious way to secure sales and maintain your place in the market, it is clear that there are still many businesses for whom there is a barrier to allowing card payments in store.

Keeping a competitive edge isn’t just about IF you take payments by card, it also matters HOW. Today’s consumers are time poor; they want convenience and hassle-free transactions wherever possible, be it paying for items in person as well as over the phone and online. Guaranteeing an easy and pleasant buying experience is likely to ensure that customers return in future and refer you to their friends. Phone transactions in particular are considered to be the most profitable if achieved quickly and easily as customers have less time to ponder their purchase.

To many small businesses, the process of setting up a card payment process can seem daunting and complicated with many compliance hoops to jump through. As the recent data breach at British Airways shows, even the biggest of companies can fall victim to a cyber attack so it is unsurprising that many smaller businesses are overwhelmed by the prospect of taking customer card details and processing them securely.

In reality, the process of securing card payments doesn’t have to be complicated at all. Here at PCI Telecom we have created card payment processing solutions for payments made over the phone and online that are simple to set up, easy to use and affordable for SMEs. For small businesses, we know that an off-the-shelf card payment product from one of the larger suppliers won’t always do what you want it to do so we tailor each system we create to suit the exact needs of your business, whether it’s integration with existing back-end systems or being flexible with the number of users. Plus, because we’re a small business too, we can provide the personalised technical support as and when you require it.

If it’s the data protection and compliance obligations that you’re concerned by, rest assured that our solutions are all compliant with the latest PCI DSS guidelines, set out by the major credit card brands to ensure that card transactions are processed safely and securely. And because our solutions are all cloud-based, should there be any updates, we deal with them remotely.

More about our PCI DSS compliant card payment solutions:

PCI Agent ™, PCI Agent™ Outbound, PCI Agent™ TFR, PCI Agent™ Advance – whether you’re a one-man-band business, an SME of up to 100 employees or a larger organisation, we have a variety of solutions for card payments made over the phone.

 Auto IVR solutions enable fast, effective payments to be made automatically by callers any time of day without the need to speak to a person or wait in a queue.

Our ONLINE card payment solutions come with EV SSL and 3D-Secure processes as standard so you and your customers can rest easy that personal and payment data is protected throughout the transaction.

 PCI MOBILE™ chip & pin solution means you can take payments from customers in person while out and about and on the move. Fully secure with end-2-end Level 1 accreditation.

For more information about these or if you have any other queries, please do get in touch.

* https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/10/01/three-million-small-businesses-still-dont-accept-cards-despite/