Nine reasons why YOU should start taking mobile card payments!

Today I’m on a mission! A mission to encourage all of us to start taking card (credit and debit) payments instead of just cash! I’m thinking here about the times we maybe sell jewellery at markets or when customers come to our home to, say, collect a cake. The occasions when we ask to be paid in cash.

This post is sponsored by MYOB PayDirect but the opinions are all mine!

While there is nothing wrong with taking cash, accepting credit card payments is good for business. VERY good! It can help customers buy more and feel happier! Totes bizarre but TRUE! And taking card payments can make your life easier TOO! What’s not to love about that?!

I’ve popped below nine ACE reasons for offering customers the opportunity to pay by card. But before I dive in……. I know you may be worried about the cost of taking card payments and the whole how-you-actually-do-it thing. Look, it’s really not as painful as you might think but I know it IS a worry so I’ve put together a few thoughts on THAT down at the bottom too.

9 reasons why taking card payments instead of cash is a GOOD idea!

 

1 When customers pay with a card the price feels lower!

Isn’t this bananas?! But that’s the funny thing about pricing: the same price can feel more or less expensive depending on how it’s charged. And paying with cash makes something feel more expensive than when you pay for it with a card. Gah!

You can try this for yourself! Pay for something that you’d normally pay by card, with cash instead and see how you feel. I did this experiment again last week to check it was still true. I bought a top from Zara which felt quite cheap at $40 but when I got to the till and counted out my notes it started to feel quite pricey!

As I said it’s totally bananas but if a customer pays you by credit card rather than cash they will leave feeling that they got a better deal. Good eh!

2 Customers feel happier when they pay with a card!

There is a pain to making a purchase! The pain of spending money! Some people (like my husband!) feel that pain more acutely than others but we all feel it a bit.

But here’s the thing! That pain largely goes away when we pay with a card. Why? Because handing over a card doesn’t feel like making a payment.In fact you don’t really feel the pain of the purchase until you look at your credit card statement!

Why is this a good thing for you? Well your customer gets all the pleasure of her purchase without the associated pain of paying. So she leaves you feeling super -happy and because it was such a fabulous experience she is more likely to buy from you again!

3 Customers make more impulse buys with a card

Some people feel a LOT of pain when they pay. Behavioural economists call them ‘tightwads”. They’re the ones that are super-careful with money and you rarely see them buy on impulse!

The good news is though that tightwads are twice as likely to make an impulse buy if they can put the purchase on a card! So they’re still stingy but kinda less so.

4 Customers can delay the cost of Christmas!

How are YOU feeling right now about the cost of Christmas?! Yup – many of us need to spread the cost of Christmas presents over a few months and when customers pay by credit card you give them that option!

5 Customers find paying with cash annoying!

Gah! We’re a lazy bunch. We don’t like going to ATMs! We like to keep our cash in our wallets in case we need it for something!

This is the kind of conversation our brain has when we’re thinking about buying something for cash:

“That’ll only leave me with $40, what if I need it for something else?”

“If I spend my $20 I’ll have to go to the ATM. What if I can’t find one?”

“I better keep the cash for the bus, coffee, parking, emergencies…”

Mad yes. But that’s what we do! So if you’re, say, selling at the market wondering why we’re not buying, it’s not that your jewellery is too expensive, it’s just that we don’t want to give YOU our precious cash!

6 YOU get paid quicker than if you send an invoice

Sometimes we don’t expect customers to pay in cash. Maybe it’s because the purchase is a large amount or simply because it’s not the usual way of doing business. Instead we send an invoice, and Holy Moly,  this is not a very efficient way of doing business.

Invoicing mostly happens in service businesses. Plumbers, music teachers, business coaches…..and we waste so much time chasing, chasing, chasing customers to pay. Offering an on the spot credit card payment option is sooooo much simpler.

7 It makes it easier to update your financial records

I know there are some, ahem, benefits to taking cash payments and keeping them, ahem, outside your accounting records, but I think it’s super important to have good financial records which accurately reflect the business you’ve done!

I think it’s hard to keep good cash records. But if you take credit card payments it’s simps. You automatically get a transaction history so you can see every sale that you’ve made. Hurrah!

8 It’s more secure for you

If you’re doing a lot of cash sales in one day you could end up with quite a wad of cash to carry around. And that’s just not very safe. Is it?!

9 You look more professional!

Some people are a little untrusting of small business. Gah! But funnily enough customers are inclined to trust you a wee bit more if they see that you take credit card payments! Although it is easy to get a mobile payment device if you are a proper business (like YOU), there are a few hoops to jump through (like having an ABN). Maybe customers know this and that’s why they trust you more?!!

BUT…!

Ok so they’re the benefits. But what about the COST of accepting card payments?!

Well yes, there is a cost. For a small business it usually hovers around 3% of the purchase price (MYOB PayDirect’s most expensive rate is 2.8% for the casual mobile payment user). So if you charge a customer $50 for an item and they pay by card you’ll be paying about $1.50 in card processing fees. I know that’s not insignificant but I think it’s worth it if it helps you get the sale. Yes?!

You also need to think about the cost of the device (the thing that reads the card!).  Yup, you need to pay for that TOO! Look closely at this as some card readers are shockingly expensive! You usually get the option of paying an upfront fee (cheaper) or renting it on a one/two year contract (easier on cash flow). But my tip here is to make sure you get a card reader that’s simple! It’ll be cheaper, easier to use and you won’t find yourself paying for whizz bang functions that your little business doesn’t need! The MYOB PayDirect reader is a good example of a simple device. It’s super-simple, costs just $199 (excl GST) and there are no ongoing fees if your transactions are less than $3,000 a month.

Getting started with Mobile Payments!

Fancy taking mobile payments? I’ve just got my new MYOB PayDirect thingo and next week I’m going to tell you how I’ve used it, how it works and how to get started! And on that last point, let me just say that if I figured it out EVERYONE can (I’m not great with gadgets) !

Can’t wait till next week?!

Want to know more about MYOB PayDirect now? You can! Here! Or just fill in this form and the lovely people at MYOB PayDirect will help you!

Very good final TIP!

You might have guessed this. But when YOU are the customer (rather than the business owner), re-read points 1, 2 and 3.  If you want to save money, pay for everything in cash! You’ll save heaps!

PS This is part of a series I’m doing about taking mobile payments! If you don’t want to miss one you can get them all in our weekly FREE Snacks email!

This post is sponsored by MYOB PayDirect. I only accept sponsored posts from products that I think are useful to you and that I would use in my business. Sponsored posts make a valuable contribution to the upkeep of The Business Bakery and enable us to continue to provide you with fabulous free content!

 

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