The game of golf is in the middle of a generational shift, and as such, the business of golf is experiencing a similar transformation. As the game begins to focus on recruiting millennials, both public and private golf clubs are re-evaluating how they accept payments.
These clubs are an ideal market for ISVs who specialize in membership management.
As a whole, social clubs are behind in the retail movement towards accepting multiple (and newer) forms of payment. And since membership fees and account retention are the lifeblood of this business model, these types of clubs are already highly motivated to implement payment solutions that will positively impact their balance sheets.
That’s where your golf management software solution comes in; when integrated with payment capability, your offering can become a strong contender in the eyes of golf club decision makers.
Making the choice to add payment solutions is significant, and the types of functionality you can add vary widely. To align with the best payment processor for your niche areas, and to do so spending as little capital as possible, perform your due diligence up front.
Below are a few points to consider as you evaluate potential payment partners.
Does their customer service live up to its reputation?
What really happens on a typical customer service call? You can’t assess that from an prime example they deem “ideal to show the software company” when they are trying to earn your business.
At First American, we want every software vendor considering us to truly test drive our customer service performance, not just hear our best sound bites. Almost all who sell on customer service describe theirs as award-winning (including ourselves), yet where we stride ahead of the pack is our ability to actually deliver on what we promise. Plus, we’ve got the awards to prove it.
Indeed, for the last six consecutive years, First American’s customer service department has earned top honors from the Association of TeleServices International, receiving the organization’s Call Center Award of Distinction.
Rather than being a vanity accolade, this is an award program that puts its contenders through rigorous paces. Over a six-month evaluation period, customer service reps are assessed by an independent panel of judges who are testing via anonymous phone screens for information accuracy, call response time, courtesy and professionalism. Time and again, we hear positive feedback from our software partners – and this unit is a total game changer in delivering a sustained, positive customer experience.
When one of your golf or social club customers has a one-off request, how will that payment partner help you deliver?
Without a payment partner willing to say “Yes!” to custom requests at the behest of your customer, how can you distinguish your solution from your competitors?
At First American, helping our software partners create a truly unique solution is what we do best. In fact, our ISV developer team was built to support this model, allowing us to easily allocate the personnel resources and project hours to create turnkey custom integration solutions.
Better yet, this team’s track record means you won’t be waiting for weeks on end to see your integration come to life – this department maintains a performance standard of delivering customized integrations in just 45 day or less.
What about when PCI and card brand compliance standards change? Will your payments partner be able to guide you through new or updated requirements?
PCI and card brand compliance are critical areas of importance; as a payment processor with deep roots in this industry, we are constantly managing this effort on behalf of our partners. With First American running point on these compliance matters, you can focus on where you need to the most – managing your business.
From an ISV standpoint, both our semi-integrated solution and our payments gateway are built to exceed PCI compliance standards. This goes above and beyond the point-to-point encryption and tokenization you would expect.
We do all the heavy lifting for our semi-integrated solution to ensure all card brand and PCI compliance requirements are satisfied. The solution is Java-based and operates from a virtual peripheral manager model. This is true for both our off-the-shelf hosted payment page, or the hosted payment form you create using First American’s RESTful web service.
In addition to our rigorous security standards managed in-house, First American also works with a third-party security quality assurance entity to help us identify and mitigate any emerging risks before they have the potential to become a problem.
Ready to take your software to the next level? Tee up with First American today.
