The rise and rise of the chip and pin machine
The rise and rise of the chip and pin machine
The chip and pin machine continues to change businesses and the way business owners approach card payments. Small businesses are realising that even they can take advantage of this evolving technology to attract customers that were previously the reserve of the bigger, more established businesses. Contrary to past norms, the size of your business does not really matter when it comes to accepting card payments.
A chip and pin machine is vital for all businesses
As long as you have a smartphone, a chip and pin machine, which is the card reader, you are good to go. Although initially many businesses were reluctant to embrace this technology, they are now realizing that every penny counts in today’s highly competitive market. Consumers no longer carry the amounts of cash that they used in years gone by.
In the past, conventional card terminals were not considered to be a big part of small businesses strategies to broaden their revenue base. The monthly fees and rental costs, together with low transaction numbers meant that it was not feasible for a small business to add new expenses in their books in the name of having a card terminal.
But as society reduces its interaction with cash and embraces the use of debit and credit cards, smaller businesses are coming to the realization in order to get their share of the cake, they have to adapt to the new trend. This has also been influenced by the fact that a chip and pin machine is no longer as expensive as card terminals were in the earlier stages.
Is using the chip and pin machine a big challenge for you?
The chip and pin machine is quite different from the card readers that were there before the chip and pin technology. The chip and pin machine is definitely affordable for most small businesses as compared to the traditional card readers. Customers also have to enter their pin number in order to authorize any transaction. This means that transactions are generally more secure with the chip and pin machine.
Preparing for the switch to chip and pin
You cannot start accepting chip and pin cards without having the updated chip and pin machine. The advantage of having a chip and pin machine is that it can read both chip-and-signature and chip-and-pin cards. This means that once you upgrade to a chip and pin machine, you don’t have to worry about how you will handle customers who still use chip-and signature.
All you need to do is to ensure that your staff members know how to use the chip and pin machine. They should know how to process transactions, make refunds and cancel transactions.
Educating consumers
As the proprietor, you should strive to educate those customers who are not conversant with chip and pin machines or the new technology in general. These transactions are not the quickest as a consumer has to insert the card into the chip and pin machine, allow it to decrypt the information on the chip after which it will ask for a pin number and then finalise the transaction. It is only by guiding your customers that they will become good at it and reduce processing time.
