Your customers value nothing more than their own security.
Unfortunately, most credit card users feel anything but secure. With the advent of technology, hackers are slipping passed firewalls and security checks with ease. Some people even distrust these security systems enough to avoid using credit cards altogether.
Enter you, the merchant – the one whose business depends on its ability to accept card payments from customers. Your job? Alleviate any anxiety your customers have about credit card fraud and electronic payments. Luckily, we’re sharing our top 3 business security tips with you in this blog, so read on and take some notes!
Use Electronic Invoicing with Private Checkout
Transactions between businesses often involve large sums of money. It’s crucial you do everything in you power to secure any B2B payments you make (or receive).
So what’s the most secure and efficient way to handle B2B transactions? Electronic invoicing, of course! It’s simple. You manually key in the other party’s information via a virtual terminal. Then, once you’re done, you send them a private link to an SSL-secure checkout page where they can complete the transaction on their end.
Why does this work so well? You don’t have to send over any credit card authorization forms, which, if stolen, could compromise the purchaser’s confidential information. Instead, each side fills out information on their own end, reducing the chances of fraud. Even your employees won’t have access to the purchaser’s complete credit card info!
Open a Vault for Recurring Customers
It’s one thing to accept a one-off payment, but how do you handle recurring payments? You know, when your customers commit to paying you on a regular basis. That’s when a credit card vault comes in handy.
Use a secure customer vault that can receive and save credit card info, then automatically process future B2B transactions without having to receive card info every time. Your business creates a profile for every new customer you do business with, yet no one on your team has access to these profiles because they’re locked in a vault. Once inside the vault, card data is tokenized for an added layer of security. Again, this eliminates employee card handling and thus the chances of those employees stealing your customers’ sensitive data.
Make sure your payment processor sets you up with a payment gateway that’s Level 1 PCI-compliant. None of these best practices can protect card information if a business’s virtual terminal isn’t fully secured.
Encourage Pre-Loaded Payments
How can someone steal your credit card info if you don’t even pull your credit card out? That’s the advantage of mobile payments – you skip the swiping process entirely.
Encourage your customers to pay using their mobile wallets. How do you do that? You can create an app that allows customers to enter their credit card info (and even order) before walking into your store. Done right and your customers won’t have to do anything more than hold their phone up to a QR scanner. You can also let your customers know that you accept Apple Pay and Android Pay as well – both card-less options.
If you host the app that your customers use to purchase, make sure that app integrates with a secure payment gateway that’s Level 1 PCI-compliant. Credit card fraud happens both in person and online, and it’s your duty to prevent hackers from using either method to steal your customers’ info. Also, keep in mind that you’ll need a POS system that is NFC-enabled to accept mobile payments.
A Step Further…
So you’ve read through all these strategies and feel confident you know what to do to protect your customers’ data. There’s just one last thing – a big thing, really – that you need to make sure is in place before you accept a single credit card payment.
You have to choose a reliable payment processor.
In particular, you want to make sure the processor you choose is PCI-compliant and has a solid reputation when it comes to security. Remember, your customers’ data still needs to safely pass through the proper channels after you relay it to your payment processor.
We’re ready to bring peace of mind and reliable security to you and your customers. Click here to request a complimentary merchant statement analysis today!
