Merchant Services CRM – What to Look For When Shopping for a New Customer Resource Management Platform
Adopting customer resource management software is one of the simplest and most affordable ways independent sales organizations can enhance their merchant acquisition, improve service delivery, and grow residuals. But not all CRMs are created equal, so when shopping for a new system for your ISO, it’s crucial to look for one that offers a wide set of features in five key areas – sales, operations, customer support, residuals, and communications. By finding a CRM that meets your needs in each of those five areas, you can ensure your ISO will enjoy the full benefits of customer resource management across the entire organization, and, equally importantly, the maximum possible return on your investment.
Merchant Services CRM: ISO Sales Tools
Advanced Lead Management:
Lead management is at the core of your CRM’s sales functions, so it’s crucial to choose a platform with the most advanced and most widely integrated lead management possible. It should be fast and simple to add new leads manually or import leads from external systems, and, ideally, the system should also enable leads to be generated automatically from email, text conversations, telephone calls, and all other communication methods built into the CRM.
Live Visitor Tracking:
One extremely valuable tool included in the most advanced CRM platforms like IRIS CRM is the ability to track your leads’ interactions with your website in real-time. That enables your agents to build a profile of a lead’s interest level and their business needs before in-person contact has even been made. The result is a faster sales process and more tailored solutions, right off the bat.
Merchant Services CRM: ISO Operations Tools
Advanced Boarding Automation:
CRMs are all about automating and streamlining common tasks to help your ISO work smarter instead of harder, and boarding is one area in which a good CRM can make a huge difference. For instance, IRIS CRM’s TurboApp boarding application can reduce the boarding process from 20 to 30 minutes for experienced employees to five minutes or less for any employee, thanks to its advanced automation and direct integration with the major processors’ boarding portals.
Enhanced Dispute Management:
Disputes are costly for everyone involved – your merchants, the processors, the card companies, and you. That makes keeping your merchants immediately apprised of all emerging disputes a key to protecting their revenue and yours. When selecting a CRM, you should keep an eye open for options that offer instant dispute notifications and CRM-based electronic response options. Those features represent major value-added for your merchants and peace of mind for you.
Underwriting Automation:
Wholesale ISOs looking to really take things to the next level can engage automated underwriting through services like IRIS CRM’s integration with Conformance Technologies. That integration enables you to run all of your underwriting tasks directly through the CRM and to have 70 or more key checks performed automatically as soon as your prospects hit your predefined underwriting status. Not only does CRM-based underwriting save an enormous amount of time, it also ensures more consistent and more accurate risk assessments – the two keys to successful risk mitigation.
Click here to learn about the full suite of operations tools included in IRIS CRM.
Merchant Services CRM: ISO Customer Support Tools
Integrated Merchant Tracking and Support:
Merchant services is a cut-throat industry, and the key to maintaining a strong residuals portfolio is keeping your merchants happy and, in turn, loyal. Your merchant services CRM should help you accomplish that task through advanced reporting and integrated service tools. At the very least, your CRM should provide extensive and easy-to-use reporting to ensure you always have complete awareness of your merchants’ health and operations. On top of that, look for systems that offer an integrated merchant support portal to make it as easy as possible to maintain a constant open line of communications with each of your merchants and to ensure help is available whenever it’s needed.
Easy Helpdesk Deployment:
A built-in helpdesk system is an ideal tool to ensure merchant support requests are dealt with quickly and efficiently. CRM-based helpdesks automatically log all new tickets created by your merchants and automatically track those tickets as they’re updated and moved towards a solution. Instant notifications within the CRM ensure no ticket or issue ever slips through the cracks, resulting in happier merchants and a deeper level of trust.
Click here to check out all of the ways IRIS CRM can help you provide better customer support.
ISO Residuals Tools
Seamless Residual Reporting:
One thing top ISOs all have in common is that they work with a variety of payment processors to ensure they can always match new merchants with the best possible services (and get the approvals!) But working with all those partners means half a dozen or more discrete residuals reports each month – each with their own layout and formatting. A good merchant services CRM will import all those reports and automatically compile them into a single, easy-to-use residuals reporting dashboard. The amount of time and headache that saves can’t be overstated, and the result is that management can spend less time juggling reporting data and more time steering the ship towards growth.
Automated Residual Calculation:
In addition to eliminating manual residuals data management, advanced tools like IRIS CRM will enable you to enter the splits for all involved agents and partners directly during the boarding process. As a result, when your residuals drop each month, the CRM will automatically apply those splits and provide you with exact calculations on the payouts owed to all involved parties. That enables lightning-fast residuals calculations and more prompt payouts – a big factor in attracting top talent to your ISO.
Click here to learn more about IRIS CRM’s advanced residuals tools.
Merchant Services CRM: ISO Communications Tools
Integrated Email and Scheduling:
Part of a CRM’s job is to minimize the number of platforms your staff has to juggle in order to perform their daily tasks. As a result, a good CRM should integrate your email communications no matter what service you use – Gmail, Outlook, or a self-hosted system. That email integration and two-way synchronization not only ensures that your team can manage all their email through the same platform they use for sales and operations tasks, but also that the important data from each email exchanged with your clients and leads can be automatically logged to the lead management system.
Built-In Power Dialing:
An uncommon, but extremely valuable tool to have built into your CRM is a full-featured power dialer, like the one that comes with IRIS CRM. Having a power-dialer integrated into your CRM ensures that all of your telephone operations feed into your lead data. It also enables your sales team to make instant use of that data, both in pre-sales prep and on the fly. Finally, it eliminates your monthly phone bill along with the need for anything but a headset and an internet connection, simplifying your telephone ops and saving you money in the process.
The features mentioned above represent a combination of must-have tools and value-added nice-to-haves that can ensure your ISO extracts maximum value from your new CRM platform. Few merchant services CRMs can lay claim to all of them, but one can – IRIS CRM. To find out more about the complete list of advanced sales, productivity, communications, and residuals management tools offered by IRIS CRM, click here to book your free guided demonstration of the platform today.
