Monthly recurring EFT transactions for tanning memberships have been a standard in our industry for a long time, and contactless payments are becoming increasingly popular not only for membership subscriptions, but for point-of-sale transactions, as well.
If you haven’t already implemented a “card on account” option for your customers allowing for the processing of touchless transactions, you may want to do so sooner than later. Not only does this minimize the physical handling of credit cards or cash, it will also encourage additional purchases. What if one of your members would like to upgrade their session to a higher-level unit or purchase a product during their visit but they left their wallet at home? If you have a “card on account” function available within your current system for your EFT members, you can easily charge the service or product to the customer’s account on file!
When it comes to credit card payments, either via an EFT or card on account, there is a downside of potential declined payments, however. There are several different reasons for credit card declines that include cancellation due to theft or loss, outdated cards due to expiration or a change of account info due to fraud experienced by the provider, to name a few.
Does your salon management software have an integrated option that accommodates an automated card-updating service?
The process of obtaining updated info from customers with a declined payment is very manual and costly, especially from a time perspective. If you have multiple locations, this may even deem a full-time staff position. Obtaining updated account info can require calling customers or sending email and/or postal mail communications. Not to mention that if you actually do reach a customer in arrears, when they receive your call they may opt to cancel their monthly recurring membership altogether.
What is your average monthly decline rate for memberships? Want help with decreasing this average in a way that will surely minimize the time you spend attempting to collect updated credit card info from customers whose cards have declined? If your salon management software program has an integrated option that accommodates an automated card-updating service, then you are in luck!
An account-updater payment technology connects to credit card companies on a daily basis to fetch updated account info and if available, will automatically update your customer’s account on file. This means that the customer’s membership will process without interruption even if there was a change to the card. We all know what this means: fewer declines, more revenue and less time spent contacting customers (with the worst-case scenario of proceeding to the collections process).
There is also a substantial benefit to your customers. When they subscribe to one of your monthly recurring EFT memberships, they tend to “set it and forget it” and as a result, it’s not going to be on the top of their mind to contact you (and other vendors for which they have similar subscription-based products or services) with updated expiration dates, as an example. Having an account updater program in place will ensure that they can continue to take advantage of their EFT membership, avoid rejection fees, and also prevent an understandably awkward position of visiting your salon to be told at the front counter that their membership is on hold – all without having to contact you to manually update their information.
Now more than ever, we need to provide a positive experience for all salon guests. Offering monthly recurring EFT memberships, the ability to securely charge items to a card on file and implementing the account update feature are easy to do. Not only will your bottom line benefit, but you can be confident in knowing that the customer journey is a pleasant one.
