Shopping around to get the best deal is in our DNA – but when it comes to EFTPOS, how do you know you’re getting the best deal? By understanding what is included in your EFTPOS contract, you can make the right decision when selecting the perfect solution for your business.
If you’re accepting EFTPOS payments, your EFTPOS solution is as critical as power; without the ability to accept payments, your business is disrupted. An EFTPOS solution is on-going service for your business and is a combination of a reliable product, prompt service and accessible support often for an extended period of time. There are options for value added services which can be included based on your business needs.
Let’s look into what’s included when you lease an EFTPOS solution from a provider so you can better evaluate and compare EFTPOS contracts from different providers and choose what’s right for you.
Your EFTPOS contract should include:
Support
The EFTPOS terminal might appear as the most important part of the contract with your provider, however, we have learnt what truly matters is reliable, prompt and useful support given in a timely manner.
Being able to reach out to get the help you need, when you need it, is absolutely essential to a dependable EFTPOS solution. Hence choosing a provider that offers dedicated, helpful, round-the-clock support is key.
With your EFTPOS lease, you should have access to a dedicated 24/7 help desk to call anytime. The support should be reliable, prompt and useful; if and when it is required. Dependable support also includes quick product delivery, easy set-up, replacements for faulty devices and experts to answer your questions along the way.
Smartpay has a NZ based support team who are available 24/7 all year round. We pride ourselves on industry leading service with a 90% first call resolution, same day call back service and an average talk time of 4 mins to resolve most issues – more than anything, we are always keen to help. We also have an online Help Centre with plenty of useful resources such as user guides and account queries.
EFTPOS machine
The EFTPOS machine is the customer interface that helps you to take payments at your place of business. Hence, an EFTPOS machine should be easy-to-use and suited to your business needs. A mobile terminal with a SIM card may suit those who do business on the move whereas a hard-wired countertop model would work well for a convenience store.
Choosing a provider who guides you through the selection process is quite critical to ensuring you start off right and avoid the need to make changes to your EFTPOS contract later on.
Smartpay provides a range of reliable and feature-rich terminals and expert advice based on your nature of business.
Security
If you are renting a terminal, your EFTPOS contract should include regular security and compliance updates to ensure your transactions are secure at all times. These updates should be planned, timely and done behind-the-scenes. Meaning, in most cases, these are applied remotely and automatically by your EFTPOS provider without disturbing your business operations.
Smartpay has our own in-house tech teams who work around the clock to ensure that our EFTPOS terminals are compliant and secure. Regular software and hardware updates are provided as part of the EFTPOS contract, with least disruption to business to ensure that our merchants’ terminals meet the latest industry standards. This is in addition to the continuous product improvements and new payment features that we regularly add to our EFTPOS solutions.
Payment features & Value add-ons
As the ways to pay grow, your business and EFTPOS solution should be able to accommodate these needs. Payment features include the kind of payments your terminal can accept (cards, schemes and contactless methods) and value add-ons usually correspond to your unique business needs (like surcharging, tipping and multi-merchant facility).
It is best to check with your provider, what your options and costs are. For certain activations, you may also need to discuss with your bank.
Smartpay have a range of features and add-ons that we usually provide as a standard with your EFTPOS contract. We also develop our features in-house and are happy to talk you through the process of getting set-up with your choice of EFTPOS features.
Point-of-Sale (POS) integrations
A Point of Sale (POS) system is popular with businesses in the hospitality, retail and medical industries to name a few. If you use a POS in your business, you want to ensure that your EFTPOS terminal will integrate with the POS to streamline your payment transactions and improve financial reporting as well as the customer experience.
Smartpay integrates with many of the leading POS providers in NZ and Australia. If you like the sound of integrated payments and don’t have a POS, we offer our free Till2Go solution.
How would you choose your EFTPOS contract?
As you can tell, EFTPOS contracts can be specifically tailored to your business needs and costs can vary depending on how you tailor your contract. Your provider should also be able to provide the security and support services needed as part of the EFTPOS contract.
Taking all these things into consideration, it is worth doing a cost/benefit analysis when choosing your provider as saving a few dollars on your EFTPOS contract each month may seem like the best idea at first, but not at the cost of greater downtime and additional stress for your business, if you don’t get the prompt and accessible support you need at a future time.
At Smartpay, we have a service first approach to business. Meaning we put our customers needs first and ensure that we are providing the best in-market services and support and fully-featured, reliable terminals so you can take payments your way.
Talk to us today to discuss an EFTPOS solution that is perfect for you.