They have been named to the INC 500 list three times: 2002, 2003, and 2004. They were also named as the fourth fastest growing private business in Austin, Texas.
National Bankcard Systems (NBS) provides merchant account services for small to large, new to tenured, and brick-n-mortar-to-Internet merchants. Their services include point-of-sale terminals, PC-based software, internet payment gateways, online shopping carts, check verification and collection services, gift cards, ACH bank drafting, business credit cards and merchant financial services. Merchants are assigned personal account managers and have access to 24-hour customer support.
The firm’s corporate office is in Austin with outside offices in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, San Diego, and two in Colorado. Along with these Company offices, they have several sub ISO offices and individual agents across the country.
Outside Agents: Their Pride and Joy
A very important component of the National Bankcard Systems team is their outside agent program. Their corporate office strives to provide the same level of service and support to our outside agents as we do to our merchants. They feel there is a need for individual support for agents because it is something that is lacking from other processors. With quality support, our agents perform better when they are out in the field, making a sales call, or assisting one of their customers with issues that may come up.
“We pride ourselves in providing support for our agents that doesn’t exist with other companies in the industry,” explains Pete Estep, President for National Bankcard Systems. “It doesn’t matter how many or how few accounts an agent signs with us, they always have direct personal support available. Support can include anything from sales training, equipment knowledge or product deployment, business cards, or even closing a deal. You don’t know how many statements we breakdown on a daily basis for our outside agents. It is this one-on- one contact that makes our agents successful, because they waste much less time doing busy work, and more time selling merchant accounts.”
He adds: “We will go out of our way to make sure that our agents have the tools, and support to be successful in the merchant services industry. Our agents are paid on-time, every time that payment is due. Our two programs which include an upfront cash program and true residual sharing are simple and neither have any strange requirements or obligations for the agent to get paid.”
The firm was started by Penny Baker, a sales agent himself, in 1997.
Using only the commission from the first sale to help finance the business, Penny Baker launched National Bankcard Systems in San Antonio, Texas in 1997. After his first year he moved up the road to its current home in Austin, Texas. Peter Estep joined Penny in 2001 as a partner and President of National Bankcard Systems.
NBS began recruiting outside agents in 1999 and this outside agent program continues today. In 2006, NBS began a new recruiting strategy incorporating outside capital partners enabling a sales agent to either collect residuals on an ongoing basis or be paid up front for an account. This new program has allowed NBS to recruit over 160 new active agents in 2006.
Not all Agent Programs are Equal
NBS has recently looked into offering free terminal programs to customer, and allowing agents to do the same. At this time, NBS has no intent of jumping on the free terminal bandwagon.
“There is no magical interchange rate for ISOs offering free terminals. Every provider out there has the same basic cost, so ISOs have to allocate a lot of capital or continuous income to maintain these free terminal programs. This in-turn necessitates poor business practices and produces ‘creative’ fees on merchant account applications. We have all seen yearly, quarterly and monthly fees, additional transaction and batch header fees, miscellaneous fees, increased processing rates and higher transaction fees, high statement fees and monthly minimums. Last week, I actually saw a competitor’s statement with an extra $75 peak holiday processing fee. These fees are ridiculous and they are all designed to offset the cost of these free terminals! Then, if the merchant wants to move to a different processor and the high termination fee isn’t enough to cover the cost of equipment, the agent is hit with the cost of the free terminal. All of this is glossed over by flashy marketing programs you see every month in the trade magazines. These ads make it sound like you can’t be in this business if you don’t give away equipment. We sign up agents every month that came from free terminal programs. The capital dollars for free terminals has to come from one of two sources, either the merchant or the sales rep and we often see the fees hitting both entities.”
You have to ask yourself, how many people do you know that can sustain a business by giving away their products?
“Take Care of Our Customers”
So what is their key to success in running a successful company in the card processing industry?
“For NBS it’s simple – take care of our customers,” explains Estep.
“Our customers include both merchants as well as our outside agents.
Every decision we make is made with our customers in mind.”
Loyalty and retention of customers comes from exceptional service.
“Our goal from their first contact with our company is to provide them with great pricing on equipment and software, beat our competitor’s rate, and above all, provide them with unmatched customer service,” adds Estep. “By providing all the above, we begin a business relationship with our customers, which grows in trust and ultimately results in their loyalty and business retention. In an industry that is saturated with competition, it is imperative to offer something above and beyond what the ‘other guy’ is offering them, and we feel we achieve that, and more. When your company’s service is great, price is no longer the deciding factor in why a business processes through you. The customer is happier because they have great support, attrition goes down, and an ISO can actually have a profitable business.”
Estep emphasizes that service should trump price in building a reputation and success will come. “So many companies get caught in the price bidding war,” says Estep. “This self-destructive business model creates a system where business owners have a difficult time understanding what a fair price is, and casts a negative undertone on the processing industry in general. Furthermore, competing strictly on price creates ISOs that sign hundreds or thousands of customers but make very little money from them. Without the necessary cash flow that would normally come with growth, the quality of support drops drastically, attrition rises, and the ISO will have a hard time maintaining a positive image and cash flow.”
Customer service gives them a definite competitive edge. “The hard work and dedication by each and every National Bankcard Systems employee to provide the best possible customer service is apparent to both our customers and our competition,” he adds. “Our customers appreciate knowing that someone is working hard on behalf of their business, and their budget. We truly hate hearing stories from our customers about unfortunate experiences they have had with other companies.”
We require our sales agents to carry an open attitude of trust and top notch service. “Because of this, businesses that process, or partner with us are rarely surprised,” explains Pete Estep. “By taking an open approach with our agents and merchant account customers, we are able to provide a proactive solution when something unexpected does occur. Since all parties know what should be happening, it is much easier to diagnose and correct a problem without it getting out of hand. If something does go wrong, we fix it, quickly, and in a way that exceeds that customer’s expectation.
We understand that credit card acceptance is a vital service required for most businesses, a business shouldn’t have to be constantly worrying about their merchant account.”
Every Employee Is Important
The other ingredient to their success is their workforce.
The company has approximately 350 employees and agents. Agents and
outside offices make up a large percentage of their sales force.
Their corporate office handles all the new account processing, account changes, underwriting, and technical support and consists of two sales divisions; inbound sales and outbound sales.
“Nearly every employee at our corporate office has been with us for over five years, so our average employee’s knowledge of the processing industry is far above what is seen with many other companies,” explains Estep. “Every employee is able to handle a variety of support situations, which results in more effective handling of our customers support needs.”
Going the Extra Mile
They have numerous anecdotes of “going the extra mile” for their customer. “We had one sales rep fly from Florida to Austin to pick up a POS terminal and fly back to Florida in the same day,” he explains. “It was the Merchant’s grand opening, the terminal was lost by the delivery carrier and the rep did not want to let the merchant down. So, he flew to Austin, picked up a new terminal and flew back in time for the Grand Opening.”
When Stone Oak Jewelers opened, more then a dozen credit card processing companies called them. After a thorough review of their choices, the retailer picked National Bankcards Systems and Penny Baker.
Estep explains that his was not just because they had great rates, but because Penny Baker dealt with them directly. Stone Oak Jewelers will be the first to tell you that it has paid off.
One Christmas season, Stone Oak Jewelers found that they reached their monthly limit. When owner Michael Bowling of Stone Oak Jewelers called NBS, Penny stepped in. Within an hour Penny had the Vice President of the processing bank and Bowling on the phone. The processing bank upped the processing limit to 1 million and all of the funds that were being held were deposited into Stone Oak Jewelers bank account.
“If a merchant finds themselves in this predicament or other important situations, no bank and very few ISOs will be able to help in the manner that a dedicated merchant service provider will provide,” he explains. “Over the years Stone Oak Jewelers has referred numerous accounts to National Bankcard Systems.
“ When one of their restaurant merchants in Colorado had to re-key a batch of tickets into the system, one of this company’s agents did the dishes for the restaurant for the dinner shift!
The sales agent had promised the owner that he would make up for the inconvenience of re-keying an entire days worth of credit slips. So a couple days later he showed up and did the dishes for the restaurant all night. This merchant tells the story whenever he gets the chance. We have a customer for life not to mention numerous referrals from them.
“Our customers and sales agents make our business possible,”
emphasizes Estep. “Everything we do is geared at continually providing a better service for the people that do business with us.
We are upfront with every customer and agent about anything that they will encounter regarding processing services.
National Bankcard Systems, Inc. is based in Austin Texas. Visit them on the web at www.enbs.com or call them at 1-800-357-4984 or E-Mail them at info@enbs.com.
|
