Chargebacks and retrievals are part of doing business, and no merchant can avoid them in the long term. But, while the card issuers require merchants to submit a thorough and timely defense, the dispute response process is not designed to be merchant-friendly. It isn’t designed to work against merchants either, but the unfortunate reality is that it just isn’t very well designed at all. As a result, friction points arise that can cause even the best-intentioned merchants with the most unimpeachable sales processes to get hung up. Unfortunately, when it comes to disputes, hang-ups mean lost cases, and lost cases mean lost revenues. As an ISO, anytime your merchants lose revenues, you lose revenues as well. Too many lost disputes also have the potential to damage your reputation and relationships with your processing partners. In both cases, you have as much to lose as your merchants. 

So, why is the traditional dispute process such an issue? It comes down to two major factors: time and complexity. 

The Dispute Response Process is Both Slow and Time-Limited

Responding to a dispute through traditional means is a slow process, almost by design. For one thing, most processors actually handle disputes via snail mail. That means even if a merchant can somehow get their end of the process done quickly, they still depend on the postal system to alert them to the dispute in the first place! The problems that can cause – from delivery delays to outright losses of notifications – are all too familiar to anyone that regularly sends anything the old-fashioned way. 

That might not be a big deal if not for the fact the dispute response process has a very strict time limit on it. Most disputes offer merchants 45 days or less to file an appropriate response, and if that time-limit is broken, the dispute automatically closes in favor of the customer. That means any delay, either on the merchant end or during the journey through the postal system, has the potential to be exceptionally costly. 

The Dispute Response Process is Tedious and Extremely Detail-Oriented

On the merchant end, getting an effective response put together is tedious and time-consuming. Assuming the merchant even finds out about the dispute in a timely fashion, they then have to go to work compiling the necessary evidence to show that the chargeback isn’t warranted, and they met their end of the bargain in regards to the transaction in question. That’s much easier said than done.

First and foremost, not all disputes are the same. Depending on various factors, including the industry and the associated reason-code, the evidence the merchant needs to compile changes. That makes it easy for merchants who don’t understand the reason codes to waste their time either compiling the wrong evidence or including additional materials they don’t need. Merchants who do understand the codes are faced with digging through old records and hoping they can find the documents they do need. Overall, the general complexity of the process is a major contributor to slowing things down, and it’s also a huge headache-generator. 


How IRIS CRM’s Dispute Responder Changes the Dispute Management Game

IRIS CRM’s Dispute Responder is a new feature designed specifically to eliminate the big problems with dispute resolution, ensuring that both your merchants and your ISO no longer need to worry about the consequences of unnecessarily lost disputes. 

Dispute Responder accomplishes that by offering improvements in three key areas of dispute management:

  • Ensuring ISOs and merchants find out about disputes faster and more consistently.
  • Ensuring merchants understand their disputes and know what they need to include in a response.
  • Making it faster and easier to file the response to ensure deadlines are always met. 

 

Instant Dispute Notifications on Day-Zero

The first key to ensuring successful responses is to ensure the interested parties find out about disputes in time to meet the relevant deadlines. That might sound simple, but it’s shocking how often dispute responses are delayed because the merchant didn’t even realize the dispute had been filed. 

IRIS CRM Dispute Responder solves that problem by providing instant, “day-zero” notifications to ISOs and Fiserv merchants of all new chargeback and retrieval requests. Notifications are delivered both in the CRM and via email. If a response isn’t filed right away, automatic follow-ups go out on day one and day three of the response window to ensure everyone involved is aware of the pending dispute. 

The result is that merchants and ISOs will always be aware of new disputes and, equally importantly, will have the entirety of the dispute resolution window to ensure a successful response – a huge benefit when the clock is ticking and every day counts.

 

Checklist-Based Response Management

With the relevant parties aware that a dispute has been filed, the next step is to ensure that they can put together a compelling response. Traditionally, knowing what to include in a response meant looking up reason codes and trying to figure out what specific information was required to beat the charge. But that’s a tedious and error-prone process, so IRIS CRM’s Dispute Responder has automated it. 

With Dispute Responder, the system uses each dispute’s reason code to automatically generate an easy-to-use checklist outlining everything the merchant needs to include in order to successfully beat the claim. That takes the burden off the merchant and ensures that their time and effort can be spent on compiling and submitting the dispute response rather than trying to figure out what’s required of them in the first place. That not only eliminates headaches, but it also helps ensure that no dispute will ever be lost due to failure to submit the correct evidence and supporting material. 

 

Electronic Submission

With a strong defense compiled, the final step in IRIS CRM’s improved dispute management process is to make it as easy as possible for merchants to submit their responses. With IRIS CRM Dispute Responder, there is no longer any need for paper document wrangling or transmission, no need for clunky faxes, and no real need to leave the CRM at all. Merchants (and ISOs acting on behalf of merchants) can simply upload electronic copies of any evidence they want to submit right through Dispute Responder, add a custom message with any text they’d like to include with their submission, and then send everything off to the processor right through the CRM. 

That makes Dispute Responder a complete, end-to-end solution that takes the user from the first notification on day-zero all the way through to submission with a single system. Effectively, Dispute Responder completely eliminates both of the major problems with dispute management by making the process both fast and simple.   

If you’re ready to find out more about how IRIS CRM can help your ISO improve the way you and your merchants handle dispute management, a member of our team would be happy to answer any questions you may have about the platform. Or, better yet, to check out IRIS CRM’s Dispute Responder in action first-hand, along with the platform’s full set of sales and productivity features, schedule a live demonstration of IRIS CRM now!F