The Problems ISOs and MSPs face regarding Internet merchants.

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Does your current Internet Gateway solution contribute to your Merchant attrition or retention?
Most industry experts agree that ISOs and acquirers lose an average of 20% of their total portfolio each year due to attrition. What do you think the number is for Internet only accounts? If your gateway is confusing to your Agents, how do your merchants feel about it? The truth is - there is a lot of wonderful new technology around, but it is worthless if no one can figure out how to use it.

Do your Agents sell Internet accounts on price or value?
The typical Internet Transaction Gateway can be a confusing beast to use and even more difficult to sell. Do your Agents completely understand your current Gateway offering? If not, are they still trying to sell on price rather than value? Due to the ever increasing competitiveness in the ISO market regarding discount rates and transaction fees - your agents must be able to sell value! Rates can only be cut so low before there's nothing left. If your current Gateway provider has not taken the time to help your Agents understand and sell their product, we will.

Traditional POS terminals are usually setup, programmed and then sent to merchants ready to use. You may do this in-house or you might pay extra to have your equipment provider do it for you. However, with Gateways there is no equipment provider to do this for you. They've cut the margins so low to you as a reseller that they can't afford to offer deployment or 1st tier support. Your deployment staff probably set up the new accounts and then send the merchants a confirmation e-mail and hope they don't call for support. How long does it take your merchant to then set everything up start processing transactions? Do you provide a mechanism to support your merchants in interfacing the gateway, like a shopping cart application. Could you?

If your gateway does not enable the merchant to quickly and easily start selling online then you can be sure it's only contributing to your merchant attrition, rather than adding value to your proposition!

How many of your current Internet merchants ever really generate any Money for your company?
It costs you time and money to deploy and support an Internet Transaction Gateway for your merchants. Have you determined the break even point for your Internet merchants? Is the small discount most Gateway providers give you on the monthly fee as a reseller worth it? A lot of ISOs mark up the Gateway setup fee and just pass through the monthly costs to the merchant. When your merchants find a web designer or whomever to finally set it up for them, how many of them ever exceed their monthly minimum? Most ISOs split the minimum with the Agent. Is a whopping $12.50 or less, per month, per merchant what you expected when you got into this business? How many of these merchants never process more than the monthly minimum? How long, on average, before these merchants simply drop their merchant account? Have you covered your costs before they drop?

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