Mary Beth Stenzel with MersaTech Payment Processing Discusses Options for Denver Colorado Small Business Owners

Mary Beth:    Actually, it’s not. Merchants, and not to speak for all of them, but their number one concern is that they want the machine to work. They want zero downtime. That’s what we make sure. We don’t bring a new machine out or deliver one and take away their old one without any, we make sure everything is belt and suspenders. You’re not going to have any downtime. I want to clarify that. With MersaTech, we don’t have a setup fee, or initial fee to be able to have the right to process with us. It really comes down to the cost of the equipment, what type of equipment they’re going to be using. If they’re using their computer as a gateway, there’s no setup fee at all.

                        I would encourage them not to. It’s seamless. It’s very easy that way. Of course, we have the quick reference guides and all the technical support and people to talk to. There’s a lot of hand-holding. I’ll just say that. We’re a little different that way too. There’s not an 800 number anywhere. We’re able to process and set up accounts nationwide. We have 24/7 phone numbers and everything too. You get a live person. You’re not on hold, and you’re not going to a call center far, far away that you don’t quite know what to do with.

                        I would encourage people, it’s really not bad. It’s not as bad as it used to be, and maybe that’s where some of the thinking has been. That, “Oh, they’re going to hijack me for an expensive lease and I’ll be stuck in it for 2 years or 4 years.”, or “There’s this up-front fee.” If, by chance, they have been with a processor that they’re currently with, and they have an early termination fee, it’s like cellphone plans, nobody wants you to leave unless you’ve been there 2 years or more. We’re able, at our firm, to say, “Great. If you’re actually charged that fee, and if we agreed to the beginning, we will pay that for them.” We want this to be as easy or painless for as possible. Then, they stay with us. That makes us happy.

Mike:              What kind of obligation, contract obligation, is there? What if, a year from now, someone else comes along and they want to change out of your plan? Is there some commitment that way?

Mary Beth:    We have a 3-year contract. Our offer or our request is, say your brother got into the business, or sister, and they’re basically going to give it away to you for free. All we ask is that, if you do get a bid from someone else, show it to us. If we can’t beat it, we’ll tell you, “I can’t beat it.” That has happened.

Mike:              There’s only so much you can do.

Mary Beth:    Right, there’s only so much, to use a phrase ‘meat on the bone’. There’s only so much. VISA and MasterCard get 90% or more of everything. The only time I can think of for some of my clients that happened, is, God bless them, they were a family-owned business and started expanding and grew to 5 and 6 locations. The Monster Account people that can basically, super, super-slim margins can pick them up. We say, “Thank you. I can’t help you.”

Mike:              You win because you save a couple of pennies, but you lose because maybe the personal touch is not there. Maybe that one idea that you personally might think to give them that would help them increase their business a small percentage, that’s going above and beyond the expectations, and you’re not going to get that with the big guy. There’s always the give and take. One question that I wonder is, when you’ve done these comparisons, what’s the biggest amount of savings that you’ve seen? Have you been able to save people how much per month?

Mary Beth:    I actually had, I don’t want to say a new winner, but the person I’ve saved the most was just this summer. Nice, 2 small towns, have a nice, 2 restaurants. I saved them $1,000 a month at one location, and $500 at the other. I was choking. I had my office manger, we looked at this, are we reading this right? If you’re making $30,000-$40,000 a month, that’s $18,000 a year. I was just stunned.

Mike:              You know what? It’s like this. It doesn’t matter whether you’re making a trillion dollars a month. If someone knocked on your door, and you opened it up, and they pulled out this briefcase with $1,500 in cash and said, “Have a nice day. I’ll see you next month.” The next month, they show up with the same … It doesn’t matter. You’re going to find a use for that money, and that is money that is yours that you should be accessing, but you can’t access now, because you’re in a different plan. I just think that is amazing to be able to show people. Do you have to change your processes? Nope. You’re still swiping the card or doing whatever you’re doing. It’s nothing new. There’s no re-training to the employees. It’s just that now you’re paying a smaller bill in your processing fee.

Mary Beth:    I want to give a shout-out or a congratulations to, I work with a lot of accountants, bookkeepers and accountants. People that are already looking at the Profit & Loss, P&L’s, and they can see, I said, “Take a little snapshot in your mind. You can do a quick math. If they’re paying anything over 3%, send your people to me.” I’ve got accountants sending me 2 to 5 people at a time, because they don’t need to be an expert, but they can sure look like a hero to their clients.

Mike Saunders, MBA

Mike Saunders holds an MBA in Marketing and serves the small business market. In addition to coaching and consulting clients in his firm Marketing Huddle, he teaches Marketing as an Adjunct Marketing Professor at several Universities.
Mike is a published author and contributing iReporter for National publications covering business professionals in a variety of industries.