MERCHANT BROKER TACKLES PAYMENT PROCESSING PAIN
PAYMENT PROCESSING or merchant services is crucial to a dealership’s daily operations, yet it can cause a huge headache to manage.
But Merchant Broker said it can take away some of that stress.
“We realized various businesses did not fully understand how merchant services work and the options available,” said Alexander Taskey, Executive Director and one of the founding members of this Canadian company, “so we created our brokerage firm with the goal of educating and counseling our customers while offering access to all major providers of merchant services.”
Taskey said the company has created a win-win formal qualification process that allows payment processors to bid for a dealer’s business weighing price, service contracts, product offerings, compliance and security.
“Our role is not a hard selling one like other calls you may frequently get. We are much different and unbiased to which provider suits your needs best. We work with you,” said Taskey. “Our main objective is to find the proper merchant services provider for the business.”
The company has created a win-win formal qualification process that allows payment processors to bid for a dealer’s business weighing price, service contracts, product offerings, compliance and security.
To do this, Taskey said Merchant Broker holds a discovery meeting in which the company wades through a list of questions with the dealer, weighs all of the pros and cons of the existing relationship, and then picks the option that makes the most operational and financial sense.
“As advisors, 75 per cent of our role is education,” said Taskey. “Once a solution is selected, we manage the implementation and act as ongoing advisors as needed by the dealership.”
Operating in a highly regulated industry, Taskey said he makes sure all of his employees are certified payment professionals.
That also means each new employee spends a minimum two week training period with Taskey to become a full-fledged team member. “We don’t just hire anybody that needs a job,” he added.
The cost structure works just like that of an insurance broker, said Taskey. “Merchant Broker is paid by the processor company, meaning there is no fee for the dealership. On the other hand, we help dealerships lower their yearly credit card processing fees by five to 45 per cent.”
Merchant Broker will also follow strict compliance standards.
“The information provided to us by businesses is confidential and the financial information being handled by dealerships during a transaction is also highly confidential. We make sure every aspect is handled following the highest compliance standards,” said Taskey.