The Mercury Mindset

Shelley Plomske and Tom Reichart pose for a photo at RSPA's 2009 RetailNOW Expo

What is the value of a trade show? We think it’s all relative to your goals for the show. Whether you want to stay abreast of the latest trends and developments in your industry, connect with prospects, influence decision makers, increase your visibility, or generate new leads, trade shows can be a one-stop marketing tactic that drives new business.

“Your industry trade show is by far the best vehicle to get the latest feedback, disseminate the most current information, and stimulate ideas that will help you to help your company move in the right direction,” wrote Christine Corelli in a recent RSPA Connect article. “With these new ideas, you will be better equipped to make educated decisions on moving your retail business forward.”

We agree. That’s why we make trade show participation part of our business plan. As with every marketing strategy, the decision to participate in a trade show should be based on your own business data, goals and objectives. When a trade show aligns with your company’s business plan, you can make a case for return on investment. You can also think more creatively about how to get the most from a trade show by aligning with business partners with mutual business interests.

Mercury attends numerous shows each year in support of our business partners. We’ve been able to help them maximize the bang for their buck by helping them promote their presence at the show and provide supporting marketing collateral.

“I really appreciated Mercury’s help with last year’s Pizza Expo,” said Linus Le of Red River POS. “They provided all the printed materials we handed out to attendees. We made some great sales from that show. Mercury’s partnership brings more value to our products.”  Thanks, Linus. We were happy to help.

Speaking of the Pizza Expo, we’ll be exhibiting this year. Booth #414. Also on our calendar is the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Show (HIMSS) March 1-4. Our healthcare expert, Steve Hicks, will be there to learn more about POS and payment processing opportunities in healthcare and connect with dealers who share his interest.

If you’re attending either of these shows, stop by to say hello. What other shows are you attending this year? How can we help?

Some Mercury employees pose for a photo on Bike to Work Day.

Mercury Payment Systems was awarded “Best Business in Durango” by the Durango Chamber of Commerce.  The chamber chose Mercury because of our innovative business model, rapid growth and success, and contribution to the local economy and job creation.

The Mercury story is one of creative thinking and a unique business model.  Founded in 2001 by brothers Marc and Jeffrey Katz, Mercury is the first company to put payment processing technology for free into point of sale (POS) systems.  Mercury pioneered a dealer-centric model for the sale of merchant services, instead of relying on traditional distribution channels (direct sales agents, independent sales groups, or agent banks).

Rapid growth, with triple digit growth between 2004 and 2007 has been tracked by the Nilson Report which ranks payment processors by Visa and MasterCard volume.  Mercury climbed from 68^th in 2005 to 26^th largest payment processor in 2009.

 Mercury cultivated a family-style culture from the very beginning.  This culture remains and is reflected in the company’s continued dedication to partner success and customer satisfaction.

 We’re excited about the awards we’ve won, but figure they’re just a symbol of 350 employees doing their best every day.  Team Mercury, there is a lot to be proud of!

 Mercury has received the following awards:

• 2010 and 2009 Best Channel Vendor, Business Solutions Magazine
• 2009 Business of the Year by the Durango Chamber of Commerce
• 2008 “Best company to work for in Colorado” – Society for Human Resource Management
• 2006 ColoradoBiz Small Biz CEO of the Year (Mark Katz)

 Community recognition:

• Winner of the Annual Commuter Challenge “Bike to Work Day”, 2008 and 2009
• Ranked 180^th out of 4,000 teams for 2009 “Movember,” a charity event  for men’s health
• “Outstanding Business of 2007” by United Blood Services for quarterly employee blood drive donations

Warn your merchants about this hearing impaired service scam.

A popular telephone scam uses hearing impaired services to place fraudulent orders of goods and services. It’s usually combined with an overpayment scam and results in a chargeback. Scammers use a hearing impaired service to pull at the heart strings of merchants and to hide their location and identity, since the service does not reveal the location of the caller.

How it works:

Restaurants and caterers are popular targets for this scam. The caller places a large order over the phone via the hearing impaired service. The caller is often out of the state or country and is unable to pick up the order. They ask the merchant to process an additional amount on the credit card to pay for a courier or delivery service. They then ask the merchant to wire transfer them the additional amount. Once the money is wired it often cannot be stopped. Remind your merchants to never wire funds.

In a retail scenario, the caller typically wants merchandise shipped via the fastest shipping method available. Because it’s a fraudulent transaction, merchants lose money on the product shipped out, and the transaction later results in a chargeback.

Many businesses have been taken by this scam. Here are some red flags for merchants to watch for.

• The caller requests overnight shipping or the fastest method available
• The caller places an unusually large order and never questions the price
• The caller tries using various credit card numbers when one is declined
• The caller does not give valid phone numbers for contact information
• The caller requests a wire transfer

Urge merchants to verify the validity of an order placed over the phone, email or hearing impaired service by obtaining the following information: full name as it appears on the card, billing address, ship to address, and call back number. Then, they should hang up, and attempt to call the person back before processing the transaction. If anything seems amiss, Mercury can help verify the cardholder’s identity.

Please refer to Visa and MasterCard for further chargeback information.

If you’re not already an RSPA member, now is a good time to join. Mercury is making it easy for you to start taking advantage of RSPA membership benefits by offering a monthly installment plan for paying membership dues.
Instead of paying the annual fee upfront, you can enroll with Mercury to make manageable monthly installments. You can start enjoying the benefits right away. Plus, Mercury partners new to RSPA get a 25 percent discount on membership dues.
Joining RSPA is great for your business. Your membership benefits include legal services, business insurance, education and scholarship opportunities, discounts from various business, marketing services and more.
Contact RSPA today and be sure to tell them you’re a Mercury partner!
Meghan McLeod
MMacleod@GoRSPA.org
704.940.9763

For the second consecutive year, Mercury received a Best Channel Vendor award from the Business Solutions Best Channel Vendors report. The report is based on a survey of resellers conducted by Business Solutions Magazine (BSM). This year 1,354 resellers cast 12,000 votes for a variety of categories related to the reseller channel.

Mercury won Best Channel Vendor for payment processing, scoring highest in the “channel friendly” and “product reliability” categories.

So, here goes the podium speech. Ahem. We’d like to thank all the resellers and developers who voted for us. Without you, we wouldn’t have won this award. Without you, we wouldn’t be in the contest.  Without you, we wouldn’t be in business. So we thank you.

Thanks to BSM for putting so much time and effort into creating a careful and accurate survey. The survey was even more refined this year to deliver very meaningful categories and awards.
And finally, thanks to Mercury employees for being devoted to delivering the best service, support, and resources to our resellers and merchants. Being the best takes a strong team of dedicated players, and we thank you for that.

The NRF Retail’s Big Show is right around the corner. It’s going to be a great one this year. As of today, registration is up by 27 percent from last year. Though we have always attended the show, this is the first year that we will be exhibiting. We’re sending seven Mercury representatives and we’re really excited to expand our participation in the show.
One reason we’re awaiting the show with such anticipation is that we’ll be announcing some new POS integrations and a new Mercury product during the expo. Stop by our booth, #442, or track a Mercury representative down to get the inside scoop!
You’ll also want to stop by our booth for a chance to win a $500 Visa gift card. Just drop your business card in the jar and you’re in the drawing.
Hope to see you there!

Most dealers don’t want to deal with PCI. The most common reason I hear is that they don’t want to make themselves liable. Besides, it’s a headache.

Most merchant compromises are primarily due to insecure network configurations set up by dealers and have little to do with the payment application itself. Merchants go through a lot of hassle when they’re compromised as well as an average of $35,000 in audit cost and fines from the card brands.

Let’s say you’re setting up POS equipment on a merchant’s network and possibly even configuring the entire network for them. If you follow PCI guidelines during set up, you’ll be in a better position if the merchant gets compromised.

If you find that some things you’re doing during set up are insecure, you should proactively learn how to correct those mistakes for all your merchant locations. If you don’t it’s easy for a hacker criminal to target all your merchants. Since these criminals understand that merchants have individual dealers, they can easily target and compromise several merchants belonging to one dealer.

Once you’ve learned how to set up your merchants securely, you’re just a few more steps away from creating a new value-added service. Charge merchants a fair hourly rate to take them through a PCI validation.

That PCI headache has now become a new revenue center while significantly lowering the chances of a breach. In the unlikely event that a PCI validated merchant is breached, if they’ve enrolled in Mercury’s reimbursement program, they will be eligible for up to $40,000 to cover costs.

Here are some tips to follow:

• Popular remote access software requiring port forwarding or application forwarding configuration is being heavily attacked (Visa Data Security Alert).  Switch to a solution meeting PCI requirements, such as two-factor authentication, immediately.
• Configure the system to not store full account numbers to disk. Then work through the rest of the eligibility prerequisites for the Security Assessment Questionnaire C (SAQ C).  Without meeting those requirements, you must use SAQ D which is five times longer.
• Learning how to answer SAQ C’s 42 questions for each system you sell may take some effort at first.  After that, it’ll be easy to walk your other merchants through it because you already know the answers.
• For resources guiding you through the validation process, and for access to the SAQ and quarterly network scans, log into our PCI Partner Program website.  Your reseller relations representative can help you get your account set up.
• For each version of the systems you sell, find a beta merchant or use a test environment to go through the PCI validation.

Congratulations to Bob Driscoll of Delaware Business Systems. Bob is this week’s Bonus Bonanza winner. What did Bob do to earn this new iPod, you ask? He sent in a lead to Mercury last week. That’s it. Not that Bob doesn’t have other wonderful qualities as well. But all it takes to win the weekly drawing is sending a lead. Now Bob is also one lead closer to winning a 2010 BMW 328i Convertible. Thanks for the lead Bob. Hope you enjoy your iPod.
We’ll be announcing the winner of an Amazon Kindle next Monday, so send in your leads. Good luck everyone, and check out the video!

If you’re sending in leads to Mercury, then you’re already playing Bonus Bonanza.  But the more leads you send in, the greater your chances of winning cool prizes like an iPod touch, an Amazon Kindle, a Nintendo Wii, and more. 

From now until the end of the year, we’re picking Bonus Bonanza winners weekly.  If you sent a lead that week, you’re in the drawing automatically. 

Plus, whether or not you win the weekly drawing, you’re still getting an entry for the grand prize drawing for a 2010 BMW 328i Convertible for every lead you submit!  

Be sure to check out this fun Bonus Bonanza video and pass it along to your friends.

Oh, and if you follow MercuryPay on Twitter, you’ll get instant notification of the weekly winner.

Good luck and give us a shout out here if you win!

The Federal Reserve Board announced Monday that they will be implementing new rules that restrict the fees and expiration dates on gift cards.

According to the Tower Group, owned by MasterCard, consumers lost $6 billion due to fees, expiration dates, or unredeemed cards. This could help explain why the number of gift card purchases was down overall in 2008.

The rules have not been finalized, and won’t take effect until 2010. The Fed will be accepting public comments for the next 30 days and could revise the rules before finalizing them by February 22, at the latest.

At Mercury, we welcome this move as it protects unsuspecting consumers from exorbitant and often hidden fees that many gift card providers charge. MercuryGift® offers merchants free gift card transactions and we don’t charge consumers any of the fees the Feds are regulating. Our default offering has no expiration dates, no customer service fees, and no balance inquiry fees for consumers. Merchants however, have had the right to define their own expiration dates and dormancy fees if they choose, though most do not. Mercury will not allow merchants to charge fees that violate the new regulations going forward.

Most merchants use gift cards as a means to get people into the store or restaurant. They like the convenience of gift card programs, and the marketing opportunity that consumers carrying branded gift cards affords. It generally doesn’t make good business sense to charge fees to these customers which could turn them off of the store brand.

If your merchants are concerned about the impact of these new federal regulations on their business, have them take a close look at Mercury’s gift card program. We can offer them a high quality solution that will comply with the newly proposed rules and costs nothing in transaction fees. If merchants act quickly, there is still time to take advantage of MercuryGift for this holiday season and offer customers gift cards with no fees.