Many businesses these days have started to accept card payments in order to meet the needs of the rising number of shoppers who prefer not to carry cash. While this is a good step, it also comes with challenges, one of which is being able to process transactions quickly. If you choose to accept debit and credit card payments, the last thing you want is waiting for a slow transaction to go through while numerous customers stand in line. This can cause impatient customers to leave, which is why you need to learn how you can make your card payment processing system to be as efficient as possible. Here are three easy steps you can take to ensure fast transactions when swiping customers’ cards.
Choose Card Readers with Fast Transaction Speeds
There is a wide variety of chip and pin readers that merchants can invest in today. However, these gadgets have varying transactions speeds depending on the technology in use. This means that some card readers will operate at faster speeds than others.
Before buying a card reader, get to find out how long it takes the card processing company to approve payments. Ideally, this should be a time span of seconds, but other factors can also determine the transaction speed.
Use fast Internet Connectivity
When processing card payments, every transaction will be added to your merchant account. This requires constant communication between the card reader and card payment processor when processing a transaction. As such, your internet speed plays a big role in determining how fast sales attendants process card payments at the checkout point.
Many credit and debit card terminals connect to a phone line. Cable communication can process card payments in a span of several seconds to minutes. However, this can be slower if the same line is used for sending fax and providing internet connectivity to your entire business. Should you decide to run your card payments over a phone line, ensure to invest in dedicated DSL connection. Alternatively, consider using a speedy wireless connection with 3G technology.
Integrate Card Payments to Your POS Software
Fast approval of payments is just one-half of the equation when it comes to making card payment processing faster. Keep in mind that all payments made via debit or credit cards have to be included in your daily sales reports. This is why it is important to ensure that the chip and pin readers in use are compatible with your businesses’ point of sale software. Integrating card payments here means that every transaction will be saved in your point of sale system. This is an important part of making card payment processing more efficient and streamlined. Otherwise, you would end up reconciling records and adding them to your sales file at the end of every trading day.
Remember that fast service at checkout terminals helps to enhance the shopping experience for customers. With regard to credit and debit card payments, you can speed them up by making sure your internet connection is fast, investing in an efficient cashless payment system and integrating card payments into your point of sale software.
This article was published by Maya Hamilton, a storeowner and blogger from the UK. She has been doing business for many years and now loves to share her knowledge through writing. You can go here to learn more about the system and fast card payment solutions Maya uses to run her business.
