Last week, I received a phone call from my business bank that handles my business checking account for Ark. The lady on the other end of the line identified herself and then asked if I had authorized a charge. I told her that I had authorized Verizon to auto-debit my checking account for my cell phone bill. She went on to say that the bank was going to go ahead and pay Verizon despite the fact that I had inadvertently added an extra digit to my checking account number when setting up auto-pay with Verizon. She said her call was just to let me know, so that I could fix the account number with Verizon for next month's billing.
Now, what you have to understand about this local community bank is that they do not offer business debit cards (due to risk) and they use an older Jack Henry private labeled online portal that I use to look at my account online. The technology is something that I'm sure they will upgrade at some point, but honestly, I could care less if they upgrade it or not. I received a personal phone call that alerted me to something very important and their service is beyond stellar when it comes to my business! I doubt a large mega bank would have personally reached out to me.
So this begs the question....Which would you rather have? Technology that works & excellent service? Or the latest and greatest technology but horrible service? I think I know which one I would pick! Service, service and service.....all day long!!
As of February 2018, I started to use ONLY Apple products. I have an iMac for my business, an iPhone and an iPad. If Apple had horrible service but still had these great products, I would never buy it no matter how cutting edge the technology was. If it can't be supported, how would that work? I would need to look elsewhere and I would even settle for lesser technology to get excellent service.
Luckily, Apple has some of the best service I've ever received! Not only do you get amazing technology but amazing service that motivates me to keep buying their products over and over again. The Apple Care warranty is money well spent and I've never felt like I've bought a warranty that I will never use. There is always something to learn on an iMac, an iPhone or an iPad.
How I see this relating to credit card processing is simple. Let's say a processor has a great merchant statement or a new Point of Sale system that looks sleek and cool, that's wonderful, but do they have excellent service to support it? If you have questions, can you call someone on their cell phone? Typically, the answer to that is no, you can't. So again, I would say service is most important! Not only that but I would argue that most businesses leave their current vendors when service starts to go down. I find this to be very true in my industry where sometimes just picking up your phone and being available can be the difference between securing a contract or it going to your competitor.
DeeAnn Bennett is the President of ark Payment Solutions and a veteran of the merchant services industry. DeeAnn can be reached at info@arkpaymentsolutions.com or 702-257-8295.
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