Businesses can significantly reduce payment acceptance risks by using check verification tools to verify that a customer has an active bank account with positive funds status in real-time.ACH Check Validation Services allow merchants to reduce check acceptance risk at the point of sale (both online and in person).

Available options include automated routing number checks, negative database options, and near real-time inquiries into current checking account status. Checking account balances inquiries can be made, but require the customer to log-in or provide credentials to their online banking system.

ACH payments lack the authorization component present with credit cards, which can be authorized at the time of payment to ensure that the customer has the requisite funds on their cards. ACH Payment Gateway This reserves the funds for capture and settlement, and allows a business to know that they are being paid at the point of sale. The lack of an authorization means that the ACH Check Validation system is necessary to mitigate payment acceptance risk.

ACH Check Validation will also make it easier for new customers to obtain correct or valid checking account information. Likewise, when that new customer’s payment fails because of bad checking account data there is financial loss and more potential for losing that new customer. This makes check verification tools even more important. A checking account verification system will help eliminate much of the “after the sale” work that arises when a payment fails, and can help save a sale.

The majority of the time payment rejects are accidents, and making customers go through the hassle of the sale process again will undoubtedly lead to a fraction of those sales being lost. By leveraging checking account verification tools businesses can reduce the chance of losing customers over simple data entry errors. Businesses that rely on future billing are especially vulnerable to bad check data, but utilizing the ACH Check Validation Service can dramatically reduce bad check acceptance and the subsequent workflow problems.We are also read for Quality Legal Translation Services In Dubai

Call center payment processing varies from organization to organization in terms of how it is managed, but the most used methods are from one of the following methods:

• Software application integration
• Interactive voice response (IVR)
• Web based payment portal (Virtual Terminal)

Software Application Integration

There are a number of available call center SaaS applications available from third party providers, but larger organization typically have their own internal application that is used by employees for managing phone calls to and from their customers for payment acceptance. 

No matter the application that is used, any organization that has technical resources at their disposal probably has the ability to integrate payments functionality within the application that they use for enabling payments. Bill Presentment and Payment Solutions Integration is accomplished by the payment processor’s API integration tools. 

When live customer service agents are receiving calls for payment acceptance and manually entering the payment data into the application they use, how sensitive data is handled becomes important. First and foremost, sensitive data like credit card numbers and checking account information needs to be tokenized. A proper integration API will provide this. 

By integrating payments into a call center application, external applications are eliminated from use and all payments management and reporting can take place within the application that the organization already uses.

Interactive Voice Response

Also known as IVR, this technology has been around for some time now and just about everyone has experienced one type or another of an IVR system call. Large organizations have been using IVR for customer service related inquiries for a long time. 

Using IVR for payments has been exploding in recent years because of the savings it can provide and the newer technology that some IVR systems can supply the using organization. 

No longer does an organization who accepts payments over the phone have to have an IT staff to employ and manage an IVR Payments system. Customer data such as account number, name and amount owed can be called via API if the using organization has one available, or in the case of a smaller organization that doesn’t have an API available, and external cloud based spreadsheet application that has an API available can be used. 

In the cloud spreadsheet example, a using organization would upload csv files on the timetable that best suits their receivable needs and the IVR system communicates with the cloud application via it’s own API to populate the IVR system data. Providing this functionality enables a low-tech organization to receive payments just as efficiently as some of the giants of industry.

Moreover, IVR Payments can facilitate more than just inbound payment related calls. The same system technology can provide automated outbound messaging, whether via and outbound IVR phone call, an SMS text message or email messaging. 

Case in point: An IVR system can initiate an SMS message (ideal for late payments) that lets the customer know that a payment is due and provide them two options for payment remittance:

• The same SMS message can provide the option to have the IVR system initiate an outbound call to the customer by replying to the SMS message with something like “call.” This provides an alternative to the microsite portal, which some customers prefer for their personal security mindset reasons.
• The SMS message can provide a clickable hyperlink that when clicked on it renders a micro payments page for the customer to enter their credit card or check account information and submit the payment.

Web Based Payment Portal

Also referred to as a Virtual Terminal (VT), a web based payment portal provides a SaaS application that is provided by a payment processor to originate, manage and provide reporting for payment processing. 

Virtual terminals are a great fit for organizations that don’t have the technical staff to perform an API integration to enable their internal application to manage payments, yet wish to have live customer service agents accept and enter payments from customers who call-in to remit a payment.

Because virtual terminals are provided by the payment processor that you choose to obtain a merchant account from, they are generally built on a PCI compliant system which should reduce your scope for PCI compliance.We are also read for How Does CBD Work With Your Body?

Agile Payments has been providing call center payment solutions to organizations of all sizes for more than 20 years. Give us a shout and we’ll be happy to discuss your call center payments needs.