Looking Beyond Fees: Evaluating Payment Processing Services

Looking Beyond Fees: Evaluating Payment Processing Services

Companies often shop for payment processing services based on cost. For many businesses, especially those in regulated industries, using this criteria may not lead you to the best payment software for your company.

This is because not all payment processing services are the same. Some payment softwares are designed with specific industries in mind and don’t offer the payment processing services your consumers and your office require (or include features you’ll never need).

Different Industries Have Different Payment Processing Service Needs

For high-risk industries like debt collection, your payment processor should offer tools that:

  • speed up workflows.
  • keep agents in control of calls by letting customers input their own payment details while still on a live call.
  • simplify compliance with Regulation F and the FDCPA.
  • provide digital payment methods like an online payment portal and recurring payments.

For regulated industries like law offices, your payment processing company should be able to:

  • Set up funds to deposit into multiple accounts based on your office's needs.
  • Send a contract or retainer agreement and collect a deposit or payment agreement in one simple workflow.
  • Allow flexible setup of payment portals, documents, and payment workflows to be organized by location or groups to meet your law firm’s needs.

For medical billing and healthcare organizations, your payment processing service provider should:

  • Let you customize your payment portal to match your corporate identity and provide a better user experience for patients.
  • Offer a variety of payment options so patients can use the one they prefer – HSA card, debit or credit card, ACH payment, or even Paypal and Apple Pay.
  • Give you the flexibility to send billing statements through email or text to patients who have questions about their bill or can’t find their statement.
  • Offer customized QR codes to billing statements that let patients click and pay, eliminating the need for a username and password.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Payment Services Vendor

Choose the payment processing services that will work best for you.

Besides knowing what features and functionality your business needs to meet industry requirements and the cost of using the software, here are additional factors to keep in mind.

Vendor Quality and Experience

Picking a quality vendor with industry experience is just as valuable as finding the lowest priced payment processing service. After all, you want a partner that understands the internal and external concerns your business faces.

Think about all the ways your relationship with your payment processing software can impact your business. Choose the company that has your best interests in mind. Ask yourself:

DO THEY UNDERSTAND THE CHALLENGES, REQUIREMENTS, AND CURRENT TRENDS OF YOUR INDUSTRY?

Perhaps the top concern for your business is finding a payment solution tailored to your unique industry concerns.

  • Does the payment company you’re considering understand the internal processes your company follows?

  • Do they know what external factors are affecting your cash flow?

Ask how they have helped others with the same pain points you are looking to solve. The right payment software company will have unique insight to help you improve operations.

DO THEY OFFER INTEGRATION OPTIONS?

Payment software isn’t the only tool you’ll need for your business. You may need your accounts receivable software (ARM) or customer relationship management (CRM) to work with the payment features you choose.

Find out what the solution integrates with or look for an option that allows you to integrate through open APIs.

Collect payments and get signed consent on recurring payment schedules while your agents have consumers on the phone.
PDCflow can help. Add secure payment management directly into your system of record to track all your customer payment interactions.
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DO THEY HAVE ACCESSIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE AND ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT REPS?

There are many factors to payment processing. It’s important to not only trust the organization as a whole but to know the actual people who manage your account and help you with customer support.

A solid relationship with the account managers and customer service staff shows confidence in the payment processing services the company offers. This relationship is crucial when:

  • New regulations are introduced to your industry and you need to know if your software complies.

  • You are considering adopting new technology in your business and have questions about simplifying your processes.

  • You are considering different merchant service providers or want to use multiple providers and need to know if you can maintain the products and processes already in place.

  • You need hands-on support for training and an employee adoption plan for implementing the new software into daily operations.
Payment Processing Services: How To Measure Efficiency

Efficiency, User Experience, and Scalability

New tools should simplify your life, not make it more difficult. Consumers need a system that is easy to understand and can bring them to a payment resolution quickly. But efficiency can be measured in many other ways too.

  • Is it easy to get started? How long does it take to get up and running with new software? Once you’re ready to make a change, you likely want systems available as soon as possible.
  • Is it easy to train your employees to use? Once management has been onboarded to a new system and it’s ready to use, a big hurdle is passing knowledge on to frontline employees. Employee training and adoption can take a lot of coordination and time. The easier it is to learn the new system, the better. Companies that offer free training can make the transition go even faster.
  • Does it simplify interactions with consumers? Positive customer experience is an important factor in keeping escalated calls and consumer complaints low. Customer experience statistics also show the better the experience, the higher your revenue.
  • Does it allow customers to easily self-serve? Can they pay through an online portal or set up their own recurring payment schedule? Other self-serve channels to consider are pay-by-text or via email.
  • Does it improve cash flow? Features in your payment system should make it faster and easier for consumers to pay their bills, speeding up the amount of money your business brings in.
  • How easily does it scale as your business grows? Can you add new users without a significant cost increase? Look for cloud-based solutions and understand their data storage policies.

PDCflow can complete simple consumer setups in as little as 24 hours. Once your desired back-end features have been chosen, our customer success team will set up a personalized training session for you and your staff.

PDCflow’s Flow Technology makes it simple for your customers to complete payment requests through email or text, increasing your cash flow.

By guiding consumers through the payment process while still on the phone, employees can provide excellent customer service, remove risk, and build trust, since the customer enters payment information themselves.

PDCflow

Flow Technology for PCI Compliant Staff-Assisted Payments

Flow Technology for PCI Compliant Agent-Assisted Payments

Payment Compliance and Security

High-risk or heavily regulated industries are tasked with a host of compliance regulations and hurdles. Taking payments also comes with its own regulations to follow. You must align yourself with payment processing services that make it easy, as well as compliant.

PCI compliance is essential when taking credit card payments. However, achieving and maintaining that compliance can become costly. At a time when many employees have shifted to remote work, finding payment processing services that facilitate remote PCI compliance is essential.

With Flow Technology, PDCflow allows businesses to take payments from consumers while limiting PCI scope. Agents never need to see sensitive card data from consumers, but can still guide them through the payment process to ensure payment is made before the call ends.

Other security options to consider include payment detail verification for both credit cards and ACH payments. When staff or customers type incorrect credit card or bank account information to be stored and used later in your sales process, you won’t know until the day the payment comes due. The time and resources needed to follow up eat into the pursuit of new business.

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- ABOUT THE AUTHOR -
Hannah Huerta - PDCflow Marketing Specialist
Hannah Huerta, Marketing Specialist

Hannah Huerta is a Marketing Specialist at PDCflow. She creates content for the accounts receivable and payment industry.

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