10 Keys to Safely Accepting Checks from your Customers

By Nicole Reyhle

With the rise of debit cards, ACH, e-payment systems and other new payment technologies, some would tend to believe that the paper check is becoming extinct.
To the contrary, paper checks still account for about 20% or more of the total payments made annually to merchants for goods and services.

"According to the 2013 Federal Reserve Payments Study, the percentage of payments made by check was still “21% of all payments made”. This amounted to 18.3 billion in checks being paid, with a value of $26 trillion dollars. Based on these numbers, it is clear that checks still play a major role in our payment system."

One challenge that business owners accepting checks face is that there will always be some percentage of checks that are returned for a variety of different reasons. According to the study, 3 out of every 1,000 checks was returned unpaid in 2012.

This amounts to nearly 66.4 million checks with a value of $83.1 billion that were returned unpaid. Checks are returned unpaid by the payer bank for a host of reasons, but most likely because the payers did not have sufficient funds in their accounts (that is, non-sufficient funds, or NSF).
Although it is the case that check usage is slowly declining, the study concluded that “checks’ diminishing share of the payments pie shouldn’t mask their overall significance in the payments system. The value and volume of checks will likely stabilize, with billions of checks being written well into the future” the study concluded.

As a business owner, the goal is usually to make it as easy on the customer to buy as much of your goods and services as possible. One effective way of accomplishing this is to accept all forms of payment, including checks and allow the customer to choose the payment method that he or she prefers.

There are a number of precautionary measures that business owners can take when accepting checks. Among them, here are our top 10 for you below: 

1. Establish a check acceptance policy with clearly acceptable forms of ID, and dollar limits. Allow no exceptions to these policies.
2. Verify the check information. The check writer’s name, address and phone number should be pre-printed on the check.
3. Watch the check writer sign the check. If the name is not readable, have the customer print the name below.
4. Compare the signatures, photo and physical description from the ID with that of the check writer. Always get a photo ID with every check written!
5. Most returned checks have low check numbers (100 to 500), which indicates a new account and therefore a more likely risk. Accept starter checks only from known customers. Any number under 300 should be a “red flag”.
6. Other useful information on the check is the accounts opening date (month and year) usually indicated by four numbers to the side of the account holders name and address.
7. Do not accept checks with PO Boxes. Always get a street address for the check writer.
8. Do not accept altered checks. The check writer’s name, address and phone number should be imprinted on the checks.
9. Do not accept third party checks. The check holder may not have permission from the account holder to have the check (it may be stolen)
10. Have a camera at the point of sale. Individuals committing forgery, fraud and writing bad checks do not want their photo taken. A video camera conspicuously placed will deter most dishonest people.

In the end, it is a balance between allowing your customers to use their preferred payment method of choice while also taking the prudent and necessary precautions in order to effectively protect your businesses financial interests.

To View Original Article: https://retailminded.com/10-keys-to-safely-accepting-checks-from-your-customers/

Preparing Your Business for EMV

In October of 2015, EMV will become a reality for those individuals involved in the process of accepting credit cards. While Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express, each has their own unique description for the changes in liability, beginning in October 2015 when a fraudulent transaction occurs, liability for any resulting counterfeit losses will fall on whichever part of the chain is responsible for the EMV transaction not occurring.
If your business is not EMV ready, now is the time to begin developing and implementing your EMV roadmap. Learn more about EMV, the liability shift, and your responsibilities in our latest infographic below.



Click Infographic to Enlarge



To view the original article please visit: https://cayan.com/preparing-your-business-for-emv

And don't forget to sign up for Take it to the Next Level: The Ideal Retail Experience where you can speak directly to Cayan and many other industry experts!! Sign up TODAY! http://nextlevelretailer.com/

Top 5 Mistakes Brick-And-Mortar Retailers Make That Hurt Their Business

By: Donna Knight, Business Analyst

By now, most retailers know that an increasing number of shoppers are buying online. Does this mean that offline businesses should be afraid? Of course not. There are places where you can still see shopping malls with full parking lots and lines of people at the register waiting to check out. The prevalence of online shopping simply means that brick-and-mortar businesses cannot afford to continue running their business the same way they did 10+ years ago.

As a point of sale consultant, I have worked with retail businesses for 15 years, and I still see old and new businesses making the same mistakes other businesses did over a decade ago. Some of these mistakes include:

1. No Internet Presence: I am always surprised when I come across a well-established business that does not have a web site. Even if you don't want to sell products online, you should at least have a web site that touts your address and phone number, what products and services you offer, and pictures of your store. Many people, like myself, research brick-and-mortar stores online before they actually travel there. And if you don’t want to sell online, you might want to consider whether there are people in other states who are looking for what you sell. They may not have products like yours anywhere near them. You could be leaving money on the table by not selling online. No matter what you decide, you should at least have a simple web site to let potential customers know you’re right there in their neighborhood. 
   
2. Using Outdated Cash Registers: The fact is cashiers can make more sales in a shorter period of time with a computerized point of sale system than they can with a traditional cash register. In addition, the reporting functionality of cash registers, if they have any, are no match for those of even the most basic point of sale system. 
   
3. Little Or No Security Measures In Place: I’m sure your employees appreciate the fact that you put complete trust in them, but no one knows who is dishonest until merchandise starts disappearing without sales receipts to justify their absence. There are multiple security measures you could be using, including:
   
   
   1. Installing security camera systems that not only show you what a salesperson was doing behind the counter, but also what receipt the salesperson was working on at a specific moment in time.
      
   2. Assigning an individual username and password to each employee so you can track their sales or other activity when using a computer.
      
   3. Exercising strict control over what employees can do in your business software.
       
4. Not Collecting Customer Information: One of the things that successful companies do is follow up with their customers. I recently bought a new car. I got a survey from the sales person who sold the car to me and from the car manufacturer. This company clearly cares about the quality of their service since they follow up after your purchase in multiple ways. The best source of future sales is not new customers, but existing customers. You might consider offering a coupon in exchange for your customer’s contact information. If you don't collect any customer information, you have no way to encourage them to come check out your newest merchandise or your latest sale. If the customer didn’t find everything they wanted and doesn’t plan to return, you’ll never know why if you don’t follow up. Building customer relationships should be an important part of your business. It will help increase your bottom line.
   
5. Waiting Years In Between Physical Inventory Counts: How can you be sure you’re not overstocking poorly performing merchandise or underselling due to shortage if you don’t have an accurate count of your merchandise? You should perform an inventory count at least once a year. The largest companies do cycle counts of certain departments more frequently. For example, you might want to keep better track of your best-selling departments so that you can order more merchandise before you run out.

The good news is that all of these mistakes can be corrected. Even if you start by just correcting a few areas, you may see a measurable increase in your sales or decrease in shrinkage. Once you start making small improvements, there’s no limit to how many new insights you can gain into what factors are hurting your business.


Donna Knight has worked for One Step Retail Solutions for 15 years and has been doing training and consulting for 13 years. She is certified in Retail Pro, CounterPoint, QuickBooks Point of Sale, LightSpeed Point of Sale and Retail Teamwork. She has been troubleshooting computer problems for over 20 years, starting out by building her first computer in the 1990s. Donna manages One Step Retail Solutions Knowledgebase. Since she began managing it, the Knowledge Base has gone from 250 articles to 3,071 articles.

To view the original article visit: http://www.retailtouchpoints.com/features/executive-viewpoints/top-5-mistakes-brick-and-mortar-retailers-make-that-hurt-their-business