Taking Credit Cards And Other Forms Of Payment To Boost The Bottom Line Of Your Restaurant!

Sept. 1, 2009 - PRLog -- Taking credit cards and other forms of payment to boost the bottom line of your restaurant!

Charging Up Profits

As of today, every cent counts and adding them to your bottom line is possible in the middle of economic crisis. The steps here will increase your profits, either by boosting sales, reducing credit card fees and expenses, or blocking theft.

In the food service industry, if you're running a restaurant point of sale system then this tips can greatly help you grow your business!

Take Checks

Checks are still widely used, especially among older customers. So if you're still not accepting checks, start soon. There’s equipment that will scan the check as quickly as a credit card, measure them against a nationwide database of bad check writers, electronically transfers the money to your account, and can guarantee that funds will be delivered to you within a few days. In addition, the cost is typically lower than for credit cards and could add 10-15 percent to sales—maybe more if seniors make up the majority of your customers.

Credit Cards

Of course, you're already accepting cards like Visa and MasterCard. What about Discover and American Express? The latter, in particular, generally accompanies larger transactions. You might have felt hesitated because of the fee, but reconsider—a 1% difference may not look worth it for you, and since American Express transactions are often larger than those of other cards, you’ll make it up in gross profit. Furthermore, customers may keep coming back because they'll know that your business accepts all forms of credit cards.

Researching Helps

Most merchants think their fees are 1.69% plus $.19 because that’s their qualified rate on a tiered pricing program. Though fewer than 20 of 100 transactions receives low qualified rate and all the rest downgrade and cost one, two, or even three percent. Researching alternate programs that offer different interchange rates could end up saving more than you think.

Insist on Understandable Statements

Neither you nor your bookkeeper would have to scratch the back of your heads over a complex credit card statement that just doesn’t fit. There are several companies that have made far more than usual efforts to simply their reports. You should be able to come into terms with your statement and rates without exceeding 15 minutes.

Getting Your Reports Online

Don’t wait for the post office to deliver a letter disputing a charge. Using the help of online reporting, you'll exactly know what's up within 24 hours, allows you to aggressively defend against chargebacks. With a quick response, it can help increase your success rates and reduce your losses.

So you won't have to scratch a head over a complex credit card statement, as well as your bookkeeper.

Use the Card Validation Value and Address Verification System. These highly effective fraud screens can reduce losses, and when you use them correctly, you can get the lowest possible discount rate.

Also, you need to avoid hackers by being PCI compliant. There are mammoth fines charged to merchants who are hacked, and drive them out of business. Take the time to read Visa’s report on noncompliant systems, you need to be alert in order to protect your business.

Reduce Chargebacks

For Internet and phone orders, implementing the “Verified by Visa” or “MasterCard Secure Code” plug-in on your web site eliminates all cardholder nonauthorization chargebacks. The state of being legally obliged and responsible for these chargebacks will be shifted away from you to the issuing card bank, and you qualify for the lowest discount rate available. Just by following this simple step, you could possibly eliminate up to 80% of all chargebacks and increase your profits.

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With over 20 years of restaurant point of sale experience and helping businesses in the food-service industry nationwide increase their efficiency and bottom-line profits, the author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants.com.

You may visit http://www.pos-for-restaurants.com for further understanding of how our national network of restaurant point of sale professionals can help your business achieve greater success in these difficult economic times.

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