MLSs Respond to a Previous Article –
Here Are the Answers They Requested

By: Biff Matthews, President, Cardware International

Following my article in the August 27, 2007 edition of The Green Sheet, titled
“Certify the Good, Blacklist the Bad,” I received numerous phone calls and e-mails
saying, in essence, ”OK, we agree that the MLS community needs to step up,
but what, specifically, needs to be done?”

I appreciate that every MLS hates paperwork and would rather be out selling. 
However, time invested on the front end, ensuring that those responsible for
implementing your new merchant can complete their work quickly and accurately,
is time well spent and will substantially contribute to a positive experience for
new merchants.  The happier they are, the more likely they are to provide a good
referral and remain customers when market conditions become tenuous.

Let me restate a well-known fact – It costs two to three times as much to fix a
problem than to have prevented it.

It’s understood that boarding and implementing a new merchant can require
hundreds of individual data elements.  The MLS must provide those elements in
order for installation to be successful.

As I outlined in a previous article, a formal checklist is imperative because it
eliminates the #1 cause of error – simple, everyday forgetfulness.
Here are the basics:

1. Ask the stakeholders, those responsible for boarding your merchant
   and building the download file, what they each need.
2. Obtain a copy of the forms and paperwork used to board your merchant,
   build the download file and configure the POS devices.
3. Compose your checklist with questions and responses in the order in
   which data is input, even creating separate sheets for the separate
   input sources.  Imagine the hazards inherent in shuffling back and forth
   between 10-15 pages in order to fully board and implement a merchant,
   and you’ll understand why the process can be so time-consuming and
   errors are so commonplace.

Always use multiple sources for critical information.  Typically, the owner or
contract signatory is the person least likely to have all the answers.  Even if they
insist they do, confirm all information they provide with other responsible individuals
within the organization who have direct responsibility for those functions.

Ask questions and confirm information with accounting, operations and telephony. 
Sales clerk and service people often have the data you need as well. This step is
critically important when an IP device or PC application is being implemented.

I’m sharing here a form that was part of a manual input we used years ago. 
At the time, this was comprehensive and relevant to staging any merchant. 
Obviously, it does not reflect all the fields that apply to every merchant now,
though it is still a good starting point for your checklist.

Why is having the right data so very important?  An ISO client of ours didn’t
have a checklist and forbade us from contacting their merchants directly. 
(These are two very bad signs, as you’ll see in a minute.)

This ISO ordered configuration and deployment of a standard high-speed modem
device.  Upon receipt, the ISO told us the device “didn’t work.”  A few days later,
after much effort on the part of all parties, they called saying the merchant needed
an IP- configured terminal, which we configured and shipped.  That device also
failed to function as expected. 

Our senior technician devoted three full days working with the processor and
re-boarding the merchant.  He also got the equipment manufacturer involved in
testing different configurations, and the processor involved inrebuilding and
downloading files into the IP device at the merchant location.  Still, the
solution eluded us all. 

Finally, with no practical options remaining, we contacted the merchant. 
We learned immediately that the IP connection was to be from the terminal
to a wireless router.  This required, obviously, an entirely different set of
specifications and questions!  All of the work done to that point had been
a total waste of everyone’s time. 

We faxed new specification questions to the merchant and our ISO client. 
The silence was deafening.  Two week later, we followed-up with the merchant,
and learned that they had taken their sizeable processing business to another
company out of frustration with the careless ISO.

The take-away:  It is lunacy to invest time to make the sale, then activate a
merchant without taking the time to understand his requirements.  Here is
my thinking.  This is not akin to the seven wonders of the world, the seven
wise men of ancient Greece, or the seven days of creation, but . . . 

• Be observant; look at the area where equipment will be installed. 
  Note the area where help desk calls will be placed.
  
  An MLS recalled recently discovering a hodge-podge of service and
  authorization stickers on the wall near the telephone, along with others
  scrawled on the wall.  Some “information” dated back to the first Bush
  administration.  She said she “cleaned up” the wall so that her new
  merchant had only the correct service and authorization information
  for her installation.  Imagine the time and money she saved her new
  customer and his employees, not to mention the help desk and
  authorization entities.  As a bonus, she also saved herself
  unnecessary service calls.  Truly a triple win – just for paying attention.

• Make an outside call to determine if a dial prefix is required. 
  Follow the telephone line to determine if a fax or extension is attached. 
  Ask a sales person if the line for the terminal has an extension or
  another device attached to it.  (They’ll know.)

• Determine if there are sufficient outlets where the new POS device is to
  be placed.  Are those outlets permanently “on” or connected to a switch,
  and if a switch, when and why is it ever turned “off?”

• Fully communicate to all stakeholders all the services you sold that the
  new merchant is expecting. Beyond the obvious of check guarantee,
  other card types and debit, are credits to be password-protected? 
  Is a spill cover required?  How many rolls of paper are reasonably
  needed for the first few months of transactions?

• Obtain the contact name, phone number and e-mail at the
  one-time use “ship to”address. 

• Find out who, In addition to the contract signatory, is the next primary
  contact, also their phone number and e-mail.

• Fully communicate the lease or rental timeframe and payment amount.

• Identify any extra-ordinary item(s) required for this particular installation. 
  Which items are purchased, and at what price?  Is payment being made
  via credit card, check, ACH, COD?  If by card, provide the account number,
  card name, and complete billing address (a legible photocopy is preferred)
  If payment is by ACH, supply a voided check.  Triple-check for omitted or
  added digits, (especially zeros) and number transpositions.  Simple errors
  such as these are more common than anyone would imagine. 

The form I’ve shared is the best tool for creating your checklist, though it
only applies to a staging and fulfillment company such as ours.  You still have
all the rate and fee items to be determined and communicated. 
But those are blanks you can easily fill in.

Biff Matthews is President of Thirteen Inc, the parent company of
CardWare International.  He is one of 12 founding members of the ETA,
serving on its board, advisory board and committees.  (740) 522-2150

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