For many field service companies, the inability to control the finer points of what happens behind the scenes in regards to payment processing often becomes the starting point for a snowball effect that can have a huge impact on a business’s financial health. This is especially pronounced in small and midsize businesses (SMBs) for a number of reasons.
Many businesses feel trapped when it comes to coping with various pain points associated with payment processing. Do you absorb rising costs at the risk of depleting their own funds? Do you increase your prices to cover those rising costs and hope your customers don’t seek out another company providing similar services? If you’re at the helm of an SMB dealing with rising payment processing fees and other challenges, these are questions you may already be facing.
When it comes to securing your financial health and overcoming these challenges, choosing the right payment facilitator to advocate on your behalf and help your small business grow is crucial.
Feeling the Effects of Increased Fees
For SMBs, changes in the way that payments are processed—such as increases in processing fees and card payment rates—tend to have more significant and immediate ramifications than they do for enterprise-level companies. This is due in large part to the way SMBs operate and how they interact with customers.
When processing fees rise, the nature of smaller businesses means that SMBs feel the pressure immediately, and they feel it where it matters most: their wallets. SMBs are subjected to some of the highest processing rates offered as a part of doing business. For instance, PayPal, on which small businesses rely heavily to collect payments, increased their processing rate by more than 20% and transaction fees by more than 60% at the start of August 2021. While larger enterprise businesses can often negotiate directly with payment facilitators to lock in their own rates based on transaction value, SMBs typically have little recourse and have to either eat the increased cost or pass it on to their customers; neither is an attractive option for a business looking to grow.
Finding a Partner to Advocate for SMBs
For SMBs in the field service industries, choosing the right payment facilitator can have a ripple effect of benefits. Beyond providing the ability to take payments in the field and shortening the order-to-cash cycle to get businesses paid faster, WorkWave Payments eliminates many of the fees that are common among payment facilitators and allows SMBs to benefit from one flat processing rate for card payments.
By focusing on what SMBs need to thrive and working to provide those benefits, WorkWave Payments is able to offer a competitive processing rate. SMBs who choose WorkWave Payments benefit from having WorkWave negotiate on their behalf, using collective bargaining power to achieve rates that SMBs wouldn’t be able to attain independently.
