Keeping You In The Know

Welcome to the inaugural post of the North American Bancard blog! As our organization has experienced explosive growth, the need for effective communication has become that much more critical. My hope is that this electronic publication will ensure that every member of the North American Bancard family feels connected and well informed. I want everyone to know what we are working on, what is around the corner and how it will impact the entire company.

Despite our progress, we are not resting on our laurels and are constantly making improvements to processes, procedures, technology and service. Yes, we are happy with what we have accomplished so far but we are nowhere near the finish line. This newsletter will communicate both short term and near term objectives and how these enhancements will benefit all our sales partners.

“In The News” will highlight the latest developments at North American Bancard as well as the industry in general. “Tech Talk” will be hosted by our resident IT guru, Gordon Rimac, and will focus each month on a particular product or service that North American Bancard is introducing or already has in place that will make your selling experience that much more profitable. “Selling Smart” by Rita Feldman, National ISO Recruiter, is all about winning ways to increase your sales and boost your selling I.Q. And to provide an added tool for success, we’re encouraging dialogue with the “Feet On The Street Forum.” This column is designed exclusively with our hard-working sales partners in mind. Here’s an easy way to get your questions answered and your opinions heard as well as a vehicle to share success stories and inspire fellow North American Bancard team members.

Also, check out four columns written by department leaders to gain valuable company insight. In this month’s issue, “From The Terminal Desk” by Usman Ibrahim, Manager of Technical Services, keeps you up to date on the newest processing technology and provides you with a useful tip of the month. “Risky Business” by Randy Lobban, Director of Risk Management, outlines a few ways in which you can spot and prevent processing fraud. “Customer Connect” by Kim Tippin, Director of Customer Contact, lets you know how to make sure that our customers are always comfortable, secure and satisfied. Then, to round it all out, Chief Operating Officer, Gary Rutledge, brings you “Managing Operations” – an overview of how our commitment to customer service makes us one of the industry’s best.

Rest assured that everything we are doing at North American Bancard, whether from a technological standpoint or from a customer service standpoint, is all for the benefit of our customers – and our customers are our sales partners as well as our merchants. It is imperative that all our agents realize how much they are appreciated and the reason we continue to devote considerable resources to improve our systems is so we can continue to earn their business. Unlike many of our competitors, our relationship with our sales partners is non-exclusive. We know that if we don’t impress you, we open the door for someone else to. At North American Bancard, we are dedicated to achieving advancements across the board not only to enhance our sales partners’ tool sets and offerings but also to express our deep gratitude for their ongoing support.

I hope you enjoy the blog and look forward to your comments.

Best Regards,

Marc Gardner, President
North American Bancard

In The News

Through the outstanding efforts of the entire North American Bancard team, NAB has reached unprecedented growth this past year. As a result, we’ve purchased a new office building! Located at 250 Stephenson Highway in Troy, Michigan (less than ½ mile away from the existing North American Bancard offices), this state-of-the-art modern facility will afford us tremendous opportunity for growth with 105,000 square feet of space. One of the biggest benefits of this new building is immediate additional space for customer care and tech support operations that will ensure better call metrics. In other words, your calls and those of your merchants will be answered faster and more efficiently. Eventually, North American Bancard’s entire operations will be housed at this new location.

A critical issue that is making news across the country is the current economic crunch. It is being felt in every aspect of the business community and North American Bancard sales agents have the ultimate weapon to combat this liquidity void – our Capital for Merchants Cash Advance Program.

In the eye of this perfect financial storm, there is no better door opener than asking a merchant if they need access to quick capital. This past year, we partnered with Capital for Merchants, a leading provider of merchant cash advance programs. As a result, you can offer your merchants the ability to secure funding up to $500,000 for whatever their business needs may be, whether it’s expansion, remodeling or purchase of equipment and inventory. Our Capital for Merchants Program gives your merchants the opportunity to leverage their greatest untapped asset – their future credit card sales – without the hassle of dealing with lending institutions, supplying detailed credit history or tax returns and costs associated with application or hidden fees. For more information and details about Capital for Merchants, go to www.SellCashAdvances.com.

Tech Talk - Take Total ControlNorth American Bancard recently conducted a survey in order to determine what would make our systems more user-friendly

North American Bancard recently conducted a survey in order to determine what would make our systems more user-friendly and improve the overall merchant experience. One thing always received first mention – installation issues. “When I go out to do an installation, it seems I may have misunderstood exactly what the merchant wanted” or “they told me one thing and asked for another” were common comments. The solution to these challenges – allowing sales partners to make changes in the field in real time by accessing the Internet!

As of July, agents have the opportunity to personally modify/edit/change terminal profiles and configurations post enrollment on site, in real time. This new technology offers a much bigger enhancement than one would perceive at first look. Imagine you are onsite, reprogramming a merchant’s existing terminal and you forgot to designate on the original paperwork that the merchant was retail with tip. Now you’re stuck there waiting for someone at tech support to make the change, wait for the change to cycle and then commence another download. With this new system, you now have all the control. “We have included an additional feature on our website at www.agentinfocenter.com that will allow agents to modify their terminals without contacting us,” says Gordon Rimac, VP of IT. “No matter what the change may be, agents can access this tool in the field via the Internet 24/7, modify the terminal and in a couple of minutes complete the download – all without opening a ticket through the Agent Info Center.”

This new technology will work for any terminal that North American Bancard has built in-house, whether it’s Hypercom, VeriFone, Nurit, etc.

“In the future, the grand vision is to give all our sales partners “read and write” access to quite a bit of merchant information, not just downloads, verification and change requests,” says Gordon. “The program is yet to be named, but look for the upcoming announcement that will be sent to all sales partners. It will detail the offering as well as training info. Once this new offering is up and running, if an agent needs additional help, they can contact their ISO support person.”

Selling Smart - Say Yes to Selling

One of the key factors in maintaining a positive sales experience is maintaining a positive attitude. Wake up, have a cup of coffee and start your day the right way by saying “YES I CAN.” Have an organized list of goals you would like to meet that day and keep track of how much you have accomplished.

One of your goals is undoubtedly to boost sales. Broaden your horizons and create business relationships. Tap into the power of associations, bank referral partners and get involved in charity events that local businesses are sponsoring. Use these relationships to drive business to you while still utilizing your proven sales methods.

Persistence will boost your motivation as well, especially when combined with knowledge and expertise of the industry. The key to successful selling is educating yourself and knowing how to combat any objections. Utilize the benefits of the North Americna Bancard advantage, including an early termination fee reimbursement to the merchant of up to $295.00 and no cancellation fees within the merchant’s first 45 days. And don’t forget - North American Bancard offers PCI compliant equipment as part of our Free Terminal Program to Place, Sell or Lease.

These offers can be used to attract merchants, but keep in mind that each merchant’s needs are different – listen to them! Offer value-added products to differentiate yourself from the competition. Don’t underestimate the power of a check service program or a gift and loyalty program. In the month of August, North American Bancard teamed up with Valutec and is offering NAB’s exclusive 100-card Valutec program with NO Set up Fees!

Each success, no matter the size, will keep you going on the right path!

Feet On the Street Forum - Speak Up For Success

In the fast-paced arena that is payment processing, the most successful sales professionals know that knowledge is power. “Feet On The Street Forum” is your ticket to that knowledge. Every day across the country, our sales partners are faced with similar issues and challenges. Because of that, we’ve created a place to acknowledge and address them. This column will serve as a safe and secure place for each of you to come and voice your opinions, share your concerns and make suggestions. No matter what the subject, we want to hear from you.

Please send your comments and/or questions to us. Depending on the topic, the most appropriate and experienced member of the North American Bancard management team will respond each month. Remember, in order for the “Feet On The Street Forum” to be successful, there must be dialog. Please take a few moments and send us an email. You are important to North American Bancard and your voice needs to be heard.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.” - Albert Einstein

From the Terminal Desk - Introducting the Nurit 8020

Our department has just finished in-house testing on the Nurit 8020 and we’re exceptionally pleased with it thus far. It supported all of the applications tested and is poised to quickly become a best-seller.

The NURIT 8020 is a PCI PED approved secure handheld device that enables fast, secure, error-free transactions for merchants “on the go.” The sophisticated multi-application platform supports a range of payment options including credit, debit and EBT. It also supports a variety of cellular networks, including GPRS, which North American Bancard primarily uses. With an easy-to-load thermal printer and built-in PIN Pad with touch screen and electronic signature capture, this machine is at the front of its class.

The powerful new Nurit 8020s are now available to any merchant. We’re confident that you’ll get a great response with this exciting new product offering.

Extended hours:
In order to better serve our merchants and sales partners, we’ve extended our Saturday hours as well as added ones on Sunday. Tech support’s new hours (all times Eastern):

Mon - Fri	8am - 12am
Sat	9am - 8pm
Sun	9am - 6pm

Tip of the month:
When you sign up a new merchant, double-check if they have a traditional analog phone hook-up or a newer high speed one. Making sure the terminal department knows whether to program the terminal for high speed or traditional will save everyone time and ensure the merchant begins the relationship issue-free.

Risky Business - Keep Your Eyes Open

As the economy slows and whispers of recession bounce among boardrooms, many people are looking for ways to keep their bottom lines in the black. For some businesses, that may mean letting employees go or eliminating non-peak hours. For others, it can be looking for ways to increase income through illegal means.

A slow economy increases the temptation for business owners to stretch the rules with their credit card terminal. Merchants can create cash advances through refunding or processing sales to their personal cards, both of which are not allowed and can be a financial risk to North American Bancard. Others may manipulate their business type or records to help get themselves a better rate.

Be on the lookout for inadequately explained ownership changes and liquidation sales. This can signal the end of a credit card processing relationship – a time when the business owner may try to defraud, not satisfy customer complaints and then cancel their service. Also watch for potential personal expenses (such as travel) and any bizarre discrepancies of sale amounts or products sold on a merchant account.

Recently, we saw a net deposit to a merchant of $.10. This raised a few flags. As we looked through the transactions, we realized that the merchant had issued $500,000 in refunds to foreign debit cards, while charging $500,000.10 in sales to credit card numbers that he had compromised. His plan was to have his friends in England withdraw the $500,000. We were able to contact Visa and MasterCard to freeze the funds and then pro-actively work with the banks to ensure the proper refunds. If someone hadn’t said “hey, that doesn’t look right,” we would have lost half a million dollars to fund the fraudulent intent by this international group of thieves.

So if something looks suspicious, be proactive and tell somebody. Maybe you could be the one saving the company a whole lot of money.

Customer Connect - Starting Off On The Right Foot

We get a lot of questions from merchants after they receive their first statement. Many are confused as to why the rate for different transactions isn’t always the same across the board. The key to solving this confusion is early education of merchants during the agreement phase. In-depth training during the agreement process is not always necessary, but offering a few pointers will ensure that the merchant isn’t surprised by that first statement.

Here are a few key points to pass onto your merchants:

• Certain business and reward cards result in higher rates than the qualified rate. There’s unfortunately nothing the merchant can do to avoid this, but they should be aware of it to minimize confusion upon receipt of their first statement.
• Make sure they know to never bypass or disregard terminal prompts. Sometimes the terminal will ask for address information. If the merchants skip it or enters their own zip code instead of the customer’s, it may be viewed as a higher-risk transaction and therefore be charged a higher rate. In addition, merchants should know how to, and know that they should, contact our help desk any time a message is presented by the terminal that the merchant is not familiar with.
• Remind them to batch daily. Daily batching will keep their rates as low as possible and allow for quicker payment. If Auto-Batch is selected, they should be educated to verify that a successful batch settlement report is printed daily.

With these few tips, we’ll make sure that the merchant is getting their absolute best rate and assure that this new relationship begins on the right foot.

Managing Operations - It's All About Service

When people ask what my business does, I always answer, “We are a service company that happens to be working in the credit card processing industry.” I think that’s the attitude this company has. In our industry, everyone is offering very similar products. Yes, we differentiate ourselves by offering top-of-the-line equipment and great bonus plans, but the biggest key to our company’s success is service.

Great service is our mission. Who else can say that every service call is answered within 30 seconds by a real person – not a machine? The dedication to our customers also extends to our agents. Any time a merchant contacts our office, we make sure to e-mail the agent with all of the information regarding that contact, including the resolution of the problems. This commitment to keeping agents informed is part of our goal to provide the preeminent service in the industry.

With that goal in mind, we’re working on a number of ways to improve service. Our sales partner support team has been expanded to make sure we have the proper ratio of support staff to sales partners. We’re enhancing our systems so that agents can make changes to customer terminals via an online portal, without the need to call our technical support help desk. Also, there is a new merchant-facing website that is in development which will have FAQs, tech-support chat, supply order forms and other resources to deal with services issues.

At the end of the day, our business is built on retaining customers. I read somewhere that a customer who has had a problem resolved is more likely to stay a customer than one who has never had a problem. We obviously strive to get things right the first time, but we also want to make sure that we’re always there for our customers and agents, resolving issues quickly and accurately. And with our continual focus on service excellence, I am confident we will be.

I sincerely thank you for all your hard work and dedication to North American Bancard. Our continued success is a direct reflection of your efforts.