While trying to find the best Point Of Sale solution for your small business, whether it be buying a POS system for a new business or making a change to an existing system; you may ponder a situation where one company will service and support the Point of Sale software/hardware and another company will control the integrated credit card processing inside the Point of Sale software. The financial numbers could make this sound like an ideal situation. However, there are a couple pitfalls you should consider.
We all expect the money we earn to be in our bank, when it should be, all the time. When that doesn’t happen and you have reached out to both parties, you may find yourself in the middle of two companies who are both pointing fingers at each other. Now you have to learn banking and payment technology to figure out who is telling you the truth and who is just trying to get you off the phone. All while taking your time and focus away from your business. This is because having two companies in your Point of Sale software instead of just one, makes this small problem very complex and timely.
As is the nature of technology, the Point of Sale hardware today will one day age out and new hardware will take its place. So with a POS system that has two companies controlling two different aspects in it, what is working flawless today might not work at all when the next technology comes. This could happen when it’s time to upgrade the credit card pin pad or card reader. Just because the old pin pad or card reader was integrated with the Point Of Sale software doesn’t mean the new models will be. So at the very best, you may be forced to go with a credit card pin pad that isn’t ideal for your business only because it’s the only one that will work with both companies. At the worst, none of the new pin pads will work with the Point of sale software and you will be forced to pick between keeping your credit card processor or your Point of Sale software.
This is best summed up with the O.A.K business model, which stands for One Ass to Kick. So even if you are paying a little more to have both your merchant account and your Point of Sale system and support come from the same company. When something goes wrong, you will only have to call one number, chase down one company, not two. Hence, saving you time, money and stress that will far out weight the slight increase in pay to have just one company service and support your whole Point Of Sale system.
As always, we are here to help. Let us know if you have any questions.
Total Merchant Supply is a POS Dealer based in NC & SC.