Evaluating the Best Merchant Service Provider for Your Business

Merchant service providers work as intermediaries between the bank and a business wanting to receive funds.

The merchant service provider ensures the transactions are completed securely from the moment your customer pays to when the funds appear in your merchant account.

The merchant service providers will provide businesses with the requirements to accept credit cards, debit cards, and other forms of electronic payment for transactions to take place.

Every business needs a merchant service provider to enhance the payment infrastructure, including yours. 

Since an MSP (Merchant Service provider) plays a vital role in the safe management of your funds, it’s only logical that you’d want to choose someone you can trust. 

But, among the sea of merchant service providers, how do you know which service provider best fits your business needs? This step-by-step article will help you understand what to search for in a merchant service provider.

How to find the best merchant service provider?

Rather than compromising for services that don’t fit your business, you need to evaluate your options. When finding a merchant service provider that provides suitable products for your business, many factors are to consider. 

Here are factors to hold into account when choosing your merchant service provider.

Transaction reports and analytics

The MSP should provide you with a dashboard that delivers a detailed breakdown of transactions done throughout your business working days.

MSPs should also provide an easy to read and access analytical report to evaluate daily business performance.

Analysing the data provided helps you make relevant decisions for your business to flourish.

Security centred

Owning a business means storing your customer details — Name, Phone number, payment details, etcetera. You need to ensure that the customer data is safe and secured without data theft.

Your MSP should provide security certificates such as SSL, 3D secure, PCI compliance, and tokenisation to secure the data.

MSP’s payment processor platform should also equip your business with fraud prevention tools helping authenticate the customer’s identity and card details when paying. 

Also, the transaction should automatically terminate if insufficient funds are in the customer’s bank account. If otherwise, the transaction should get completed smoothly.

Smooth checkout process

Customer convenience is a crucial factor for your business growth. Therefore, you should always provide them with multiple payment methods that smoothen the checkout process for your customers.

A good MSP should deliver a payment gateway with multiple payment methods – Mobile wallets, QR codes, credit and debit cards, etcetera so that your customers pay the way that is convenient for them.

Offers Contract flexibility

An excellent MSP provider should not bind you with a contract policy or offer you a contract policy with a short period contract. 

Before getting involved with any contract merchant service provider, you should know how efficiently their service platform works. 

Try out their service for a month or so before the commitment; if you found no issues while using their integrated platform, then you can look for a more extended period contract. If not satisfied with the services, you have an option to terminate the benefits immediately.

Cost-Efficient

The MSP’s payment processing platform charge different fees for different products — ental card terminals, card payments, faster payments, PCI compliance, etcetera.

Service charges can be set based on per transaction depending on the mode of payment you choose.

Compare different merchant service providers to find a payment processing platform that offers services within your business budget.

Some merchants even add additional fees in the invoices that you are unaware of. Ask them to walk you through the breakdown of their service prices for complete transparency so that you pay what you opted for. 

No additional charges should be involved.

Excellent customer support

The merchant service provider should have customer support information on their website. Ensure they are available to provide support and advice around the clock, and your business is their top priority.

They should have phone calls, online chat, and email to answer all the doubts you have.

For additional queries, look at what other businesses say about them. That can give you a brief idea of their services and attentiveness towards your business problems.

Existing software compatibility

The payment processor platform should be easily configurable with your existing website without making any changes. 

Their services should provide scalability so a seamless transition for your business.

They should also provide an integration support team to operate efficiently without costing your running business downtime.

Key takeaways

Use this post as a checklist while looking for the best merchant service provider for your business. Also, keep in mind that merchant service providers have years of knowledge assisting businesses to thrive financially.

For further queries about the merchant service provider, you can get in touch with Omnipay’s team.