For businesses with subscription services, the transition over to accepting credit cards for their small business brings with it additional concerns, as well as additional benefits. Are my customers ready for that kind of thing? Will they have questions? Will I be able to answer them? Will my business be able to handle that responsibility, and is it more risk than it’s worth?
For businesses that can benefit from it, recurring payments are an incredible way to streamline work flow, cut overhead associated with invoicing, and notably, make your customers happy. Still, you want to ensure that you find the right solution for your business.
One of the biggest benefits that recurring payments solves is the common problem of human error. If you’re repeatedly doing the same process over and over again, for multiple customers, as is the case with invoicing, the likelihood of an error increases. Automation eliminates this possibility.
As a business owner, have you ever had to wait and wait and wait for a payment? Most commonly, that lack of payment on your customer’s part wasn’t because of a financial concern. Most probably, they simply were held up by any number of the little hurdles that get in our way each day—they misplaced the invoice or they couldn’t find a stamp to mail their payment. Still, when it’s your livelihood that they are dragging their feet about, you feel the sting. When payments are automatic, it’s one less thing for your customer to have to do, which add to their simplicity of life. But most importantly—you get paid faster!
Moolah uses Authorize.Net to process our payments. An additional benefit of this is that Moolah customers can use ARB, Authorize.Net’s Automated Recurring Billing Software. It comes with everything you would expect from an Authorize.Net solution, including time-saving features like Account Updater, which automatically updates expired cards, eliminating any hiccups caused by the need to update payment information.
The most useful thing about ARB is how it keeps you and your customers in the loop about their automated billing. Automated updates keep both parties informed about upcoming card and subscription expirations. Meanwhile you have access to a Customer Information Manager (CIM) that allows you to access any necessary information. You’ll be able to change payments if needed, and offer trial periods effortlessly, if that fits into your business model.
In short, if your business has recurring payments, your business is ready for recurring billing. Worries about a learning curve are handled by the simplicity of the systems that are out there. If you’re gearing up to begin accepting credit cards for your small business, be sure to take a good look at the recurring billing options from Moolah and Authorize.Net.