Wireless Handheld Credit Card Terminals
Open new doors of opportunity
BY ERIC GENSHEIMER
Welcome to the brave new world of wireless, handheld credit card terminals — the fastest, easiest, most secure method of completing credit card transactions in the field. It’s a relatively new technology that’s enhancing customer service on commercial airplanes, speeding up curbside service at national restaurant chains, and dramatically improving the payment process for a wide variety of businesses that operate in the field and on the go.
Now this technology is available to the storage and organization industry and can be immediately deployed “out of the box” with no formal training needed to get started.
It’s a quick, efficient process that customers appreciate. It also makes the businessperson look thoroughly professional and up-to-date with the latest consumer technology. Being able to process payments in real time in the field means no more calling in credit cards by phone or making unreliable imprints of credit cards, which are often difficult to read and keep track of. An additional benefit of physically swiping the credit card: having real-time authorization with the card holder present results in lower merchant fees from credit card companies. Customers also feel more secure with the process since their card never leaves their sight.
These devices are available in many forms, ranging from simple clip-on credit card scanners that attach to cell phones and only offer authorizations to fully loaded, sleek and ergonomic handheld designs that come complete with on-screen signature capture and online reporting.
With these more complete systems, your merchant receipt is transmitted to secure servers for storage and retrieval via wireless networks, so you can have real-time authorization in a totally secure environment. Transaction reports are immediately available from any Web browser, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You then receive bank payment within 48 hours.
Perhaps best of all, you not only save time at the point of payment, you save time and money by not having to deal with the administrative hassles of handling, reconciling and storing checks. You don’t have to pay non-sufficient-funds fees or worry about late payments and bounced checks. And your “chargeback” risks are greatly reduced.
Simply put, “chargebacks” occur when a customer disputes a credit card transaction. When credit cards are “swiped,” specially encoded data is transmitted with the charge record. When this data is coupled with electronically transmitted signatures, charge-backs are significantly reduced. If the card has not been swiped, a contested transaction is immediately charged back to the merchant until the dispute is resolved. Unfortunately, in mobile industries, 90 percent of all non-swiped credit card transactions that result in charge-backs remain unrecoverable by the merchant due to the lack of a valid signed receipt. Also, you must respond to a chargeback within 10 days or you automatically incur the loss. Fortunately, with the online reporting offered by some wireless credit card processors, you always have a valid signed receipt that’s instantly available and easily retrievable for chargeback resolution.
You can view or download records to popular accounting and spreadsheet software formats for printing, backup archiving or reconciling. You can view transactions by day, month or statement period and retrieve signed customer receipts instantly. All of this typically runs about $600 to $1,000.
Wireless credit card processing is designed to virtually pay for itself by delivering improved payment processing and management along with greater speed, efficiency and customer satisfaction. Now credit cards may be accepted as payment by companies that previously could not justify the risk or cost associated with it. Companies that already accept credit cards have a new solution that addresses many of their issues and concerns.
Mobile business just became easier. Wireless handheld credit card terminals represent a big opportunity, opening new doors and improving bottom lines.
Eric Gensheimer is the vice president of sales for Commerciant L.P., a Houston-based company that manufactures and distributes wireless handheld credit card terminals. Commerciant was founded in 2000 as a technology innovator in mobile, wireless credit card processing. In October 2001, a strategic partnership was formed with EDS and in December 2002, Commerciant formed a bandwidth, marketing and cobranding relationship with Sprint PCS. Commerciant was awarded the PTC Industrial Design Award in June of 2002. For more information, contact 713.735.5504 or egensheimer@commerciant.com or visit www.commerciant.com.
