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How important is credit card processing time?

Posted by Michael | Point of Sale | Wednesday 12 October 2011 4:34 am

Who has the fastest and best payment merchant account services?

Credit Card Processing time is defined as the time it takes to run your  transaction once a credit card has been presented and charged. The bigger picture is total transaction item which starts from the time your customer starts the order until the completion. Obviously the importance increases with increasing volume and also on how busy you get. As an example, a coffee shop runs many more transactions that a restaurant; however, the same applies. Why?

Credit Card Processing Time

In a coffee shop, the customer comes up to the counter, places the order, and payment is rendered. You employee has minimal movement. In a restaurant, the bill is given to the customer who then presents payment.  The waiter then takes the credit card or payment to the POS station for processing. If the process is quick (within seconds), then the waiter can immediately return the receipts to the customer for printing.  If it take some time, then the employee is forced to either wait or tend to other matters and return. This case would substantially increase the timing. If each transaction is increase by only 3 minuets and the average waiter tends to 8 tables an hour, that is an extra 3 hours per day!!! Wow!!

Now back to the coffee shop example whose transaction is similar to frozen yogurt shops, and all other counter service uses. The main issue with increased transaction times is loss of customers. Lines in your store can be a good sign, but can also deter would be customers, so increasing the speed of each transaction is vital. The average Credit card transaction takes about 15 seconds. So what would happens if you could cut that time by half over 200 typical transactions each employee runs at a counter-service establishment.  That is about 200 times 7.5 seconds. That is 25 minutes of saving. How about if cut it down form 15 seconds to 3 seconds, that is now 45 minutes.

The point of this story is that transaction times are the mos important factor and that is why

  • Merchant account fees should not be the sole determinant of your merchant service.
  • You credit cards and gift card services should be integrated with the point 0f sale systems.
  • Increases customer service.
  • Increases customer retention.

Below is a comparison of two credit card processing services:

Read more about this topic and others at our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section.

Sintel Systems understands your business from A to Z. Contact us with any questions.

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