Your Payment Processing Solution and Security
In the ‘real world’ it’s fairly easy – and painful – to discover that you’re dissatisfied with your security arrangements: your home gets robbed. It may mean you left a window open, a door unlocked, or the dog unfed (making that sedated chunk of beef the thief tossed over the fence look extremely tempting). In an online business setting, poor security is less a party story and more a disaster. It’s not something you want to find out the hard way. Luckily, you can reassure yourself of your processors’ security credentials by asking a few simple questions.
Who are their customers?
They say you can judge someone by the company they keep. For B2B entities, ask to see testimonials from satisfied customers. If those customers trust your payment processor, then you can too. You can also check whether they have any industry-recognised awards.
Are they PCI Compliant?
You might not know what the PCI Council is. It stands for Payment Card Industry, and it’s a body that has established universally recognized recommendations for credit card security processing. Abiding by PCI terms isn’t mandatory, but companies like Visa swear by it. Make sure your payment processor is PCI compliant.
Are your customers happy?
The customer is always right – except when they’re repeatedly triggering chargeback fees, in which case your system may need a little tweaking. Still, as an online store, you’re answerable to your clients at three levels. The baseline is the quality of your product or service. Is it what they paid for, and has it met and/or surpassed their expectations?
Of course they won’t know this until they receive or experience it. So, two: how good is your delivery service (or service delivery)?
And three how was the purchase process? Were there any delays, duplication, or clarity issues? Did the invoicing entity match the purchased brand or was there confusion and momentary panic? Was the checkout process easy? If (m)any of your customers are complaining, it may be time to find a good merchant processor.
For more information on reviewing your payment processing solution’s security, or to sign up for a merchant account, please call (888) 924-2743 or go to Charge.com.
