Different businesses have different needs. If you run a service business with one or two transactions a day, you’ll require different processing and equipment than a retail location that runs hundreds of transactions a day.
If your business falls into the high volume category, here are six areas that require special attention.
1. Room for growth. High volume merchants will very likely have peaks and valleys in their business model. Seasons, days of the week and times of the year can all play into overall sales. And because a high volume merchant may increase business quickly, they must have a merchant account that can add additional services and resources quickly, such as increasing bandwidth or system memory.
2. Processing speed. With a long line of customers waiting to check out, the last thing your business needs is a slow processor. To achieve sufficient processing speed, make sure your business can dedicate resources to real-time transactions, followed by daily batch settlement processing and other functions during the slower or down times.
3. Security. While every dollar is important to a business owner, the higher the volume, the greater your risk. Customer data needs to be protected from hackers by using a variety of preventative steps, including virus detection, storage encryption, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and audit logs. You should also secure your data from physical harm such as theft and fire.
4. Uninterrupted service. While speed is important, the risk of downtime during your busiest timeframes can be an even greater factor in the success of your business. The higher your volume, the more need you will have to avoid interruptions due to external causes, such as software and hardware failures.
5. Lowering your fraud risk. Thieves and hackers target high volume accounts because of the bigger potential reward. The provider you choose should be well versed in fraud protection and reduction, and have many systems in place to avoid theft through a variety of means, including employee, purchasing and online risks.
6. Customer support. When you have a security issue, you need immediate help. If you detect a problem on Saturday afternoon, you can’t leave yourself exposed until Monday morning. The more customers you have, the more customer service you will need. And if you are receiving questions from your customers, chances are you will need the support of your merchant account. Verify you will have access 24/7 – during the times you need it the most.