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To Take Credit Cards or Not...That Is The Question.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Lisa on
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Remember...you can always accept credit card payments through a Paypal account, but you would have to get paid before the session.
Also, I wonder if it's legal to charge someone's credit card for a no show. I would try and run that by a legal person as well.
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Permalink Reply by Bianca Berrios on
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Actually I have research in the last couple days and it is legal as long as you are informing your patient/client that you need a credit card to hold the appt time and the card will not be charged as long as they uphold the cx policy, etc. Many spas, franchises do it; not to mention an office manger of a dentist office that I recently had as a client does so in their office...good morning lisa ;)
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Permalink Reply by Jody C. Hutchinson on
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I am waiting for a card reader from Square. It's a free app that works with the iPhone 3&4. It uses the headset port for the card swipe, then the client signs on the screen and it goes to your checking account. I think it's only 2-3% per transaction, only. I can't wait.
I have used Pay Pal with one client whose mother paid from out of state, it worked great. I agree with using the CC to hold an appointment. However, when I worked for a spa, the no-show customers would often complain that they didn't get the service and the CC company would refund the $. I imagine that even if it's posted the client could still raise a fit.
By the way, I purchased a book at a trade show and was overcharged for it. The CC company wouldn't do anything, saying that I had to read the slip, since I signed it-I was stuck. I was lucky that the publisher refunded the difference.
That being said, I still get very few CC requests.
jh
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Permalink Reply by Norm Green - My Receptionist on
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Your appointment availability is your inventory of ‘time’ and is of great value to you. If you sell it and then get paid for services rendered during the ‘actual time’ of the appointment, your valuable time has been honored and paid for. That is the way any appointment based business should work.
So, once a client makes a commitment to secure your time, it is now unavailable for others to have or ‘buy’. So by honoring a clients request to secure your future time availability (by allowing them to make an appointment commitment with you)… it is a prudent business practice to require that they provide you with their CC payment information in order to allow you to secure full payment for your time, if they violate their business commitment to you.
On average one no show or canceled appointment time slot will cost a therapist $65. One unsold time slot a week will cost you more than $3000 a year.
Protect your appointment availability with a clients CC. Take payment if they violate their commitment to you. If you do not have their CC info, you will never get paid for the valuable inventory that they just took from you.
Every hotel secures room reservations with a CC. When you are making your reservation they state their room cancelation policy. Typically if you do not cancel by 6:00pm the night of your scheduled arrival, they will charge you the full nights room rate. Why would you run your massage practice any differently? Is your appointment availability less valuable to you than a hotels room inventory is to them?
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Thanks Jody for the info :) that sounds great but unfortunately I have not cared for the iphone in the past, here in CT many I know; nothing but porblems :( I'm a sprint girl and dedicated to my Palm Pre! Any other suggestions of vendors to go through for cc acceptance, besides the bank? Have a call to them yesterday afternoon, waiting to
hear back :)
br/>
Jody C. Hutchinson said:I am waiting for a card reader from Square. It's a free app that works with the iPhone 3&4. It uses the headset port for the card swipe, then the client signs on the screen and it goes to your checking account. I think it's only 2-3% per transaction, only. I can't wait.
I have used Pay Pal with one client whose mother paid from out of state, it worked great. I agree with using the CC to hold an appointment. However, when I worked for a spa, the no-show customers would often complain that they didn't get the service and the CC company would refund the $. I imagine that even if it's posted the client could still raise a fit.
By the way, I purchased a book at a trade show and was overcharged for it. The CC company wouldn't do anything, saying that I had to read the slip, since I signed it-I was stuck. I was lucky that the publisher refunded the difference.
That being said, I still get very few CC requests.
jh
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I agree that our time is of value. However, I have also had situations where something unexpectedly came up and I couldn't make the appointment. I try to keep that in mind when I get a no show/no call. So far I have only gotten 1 or 2 and don't feel it was worth the hassle of collecting.
And most people pay me cash. I honestly don't think they would be comfortable giving out a cc number if they are paying cash. I don't think I would as the consumer/client.
Just some things to think about.
Good afternoon B :)
I will say, that I had my washing machine fixed and he took my credit card right there through his phone. You might want to check with Sprint and see if they have an app for your phone.
Norm Green - My Receptionist said:Your appointment availability is your inventory of ‘time’ and is of great value to you. If you sell it and then get paid for services rendered during the ‘actual time’ of the appointment, your valuable time has been honored and paid for. That is the way any appointment based business should work.
So, once a client makes a commitment to secure your time, it is now unavailable for others to have or ‘buy’. So by honoring a clients request to secure your future time availability (by allowing them to make an appointment commitment with you)… it is a prudent business practice to require that they provide you with their CC payment information in order to allow you to secure full payment for your time, if they violate their business commitment to you.
On average one no show or canceled appointment time slot will cost a therapist $65. One unsold time slot a week will cost you more than $3000 a year.
Protect your appointment availability with a clients CC. Take payment if they violate their commitment to you. If you do not have their CC info, you will never get paid for the valuable inventory that they just took from you.
Every hotel secures room reservations with a CC. When you are making your reservation they state their room cancelation policy. Typically if you do not cancel by 6:00pm the night of your scheduled arrival, they will charge you the full nights room rate. Why would you run your massage practice any differently? Is your appointment availability less valuable to you than a hotels room inventory is to them?
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Permalink Reply by Marissa on
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I'm using cellcharge. I have not had any problems with the company and it's a flat rate service. You call in your transactions. Taking credit cards is not as scary as you may think. It will increase your income. I actually pay for all business expenses with the credit card income.
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Permalink Reply by Rajam K Roose on
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For years (around ten years) I didn't take cc's as I didn't think there was a need, all my clients paid cash or check and no one seemed to mind. That is, until last year I decided to listen to my clients and realized that many of them would come rushing in right on time and flustered b/c they remembered they had to stop and get cash on the way and there was extra traffic or they had to rush home on their lunch break to get their checkbook and other such things. I realized that it would be easier for my clients and make their lives less stressful if I took cards. So, I signed on with a company and started taking cards-- almost ALL my clients switched to cards. In fact, I've even had new clients call and b/c I accepted cc's they could get in right away instead of having to wait for another day b/c they didn't have their checkbook or cash on them. And you should know by now that the sooner you can get a new client in, the more likely they will come.
I'm not sure at this time if it's increased my income, I do know that it's made my clients lives less stressful as they don't have to worry about the before-mentioned situations. It seems a lot of clients purchase my pkg series (buy 6, get 7th free) but they did before the cc, more new clients are purchasing the pkgs, but I really can't say for sure if it's b/c I accept cc's or not. My company right now is Transfirst and they have a great little swipe machine about the size of a cell phone and a little printer. I pay $60/per mo for the unit (which is rechargeable and can be taken anywhere) and $40/mo for the actual service. For an extra $20/mo you can be able to accept payments through your website. The rate for all cards except American Express is 1.63% and American Express is just over 2%. The unit is costly but I don't have space for a computer at my office, nor do I want a smart phone or anything fancy like that. It's my belief that if I can check my emails anywhere I go--I will. I just have a basic cellphone for business use for now.
At this time I don't take numbers for no shows. I'm blessed to have hardly any no shows in all the years I've been doing massage. Same for lateness or late cancellations, rarely has anyone had to cancel last minute and it was for something important. If it becomes an issue, I'll deal with it then but as of now, it's not a problem
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Hi Jody,
I recently started using Square for my Android phone. It's fantastic! The fee is 2.75% or was that 2.99%...+ .15 per swipe. If you key in the card info, it's like 1% more. And......no monthly fee is even better! It takes about 3-5 days for the money to hit my bank account. That's about the same amount of time as other merchant services I've used before.
Have fun with it!
Tracy
Jody C. Hutchinson said:I am waiting for a card reader from Square. It's a free app that works with the iPhone 3&4. It uses the headset port for the card swipe, then the client signs on the screen and it goes to your checking account. I think it's only 2-3% per transaction, only. I can't wait.
I have used Pay Pal with one client whose mother paid from out of state, it worked great. I agree with using the CC to hold an appointment. However, when I worked for a spa, the no-show customers would often complain that they didn't get the service and the CC company would refund the $. I imagine that even if it's posted the client could still raise a fit.
By the way, I purchased a book at a trade show and was overcharged for it. The CC company wouldn't do anything, saying that I had to read the slip, since I signed it-I was stuck. I was lucky that the publisher refunded the difference.
That being said, I still get very few CC requests.
jh
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Bianca,
Square also works with smart phones. check them out.....www.squareup.com. I was introduced to Square by a client of mine and I'm thrilled with them!
Tracy
Bianca Berrios said:Thanks Jody for the info :) that sounds great but unfortunately I have not cared for the iphone in the past, here in CT many I know; nothing but porblems :( I'm a sprint girl and dedicated to my Palm Pre! Any other suggestions of vendors to go through for cc acceptance, besides the bank? Have a call to them yesterday afternoon, waiting to
hear back :)
br/>
Jody C. Hutchinson said:I am waiting for a card reader from Square. It's a free app that works with the iPhone 3&4. It uses the headset port for the card swipe, then the client signs on the screen and it goes to your checking account. I think it's only 2-3% per transaction, only. I can't wait.
I have used Pay Pal with one client whose mother paid from out of state, it worked great. I agree with using the CC to hold an appointment. However, when I worked for a spa, the no-show customers would often complain that they didn't get the service and the CC company would refund the $. I imagine that even if it's posted the client could still raise a fit.
By the way, I purchased a book at a trade show and was overcharged for it. The CC company wouldn't do anything, saying that I had to read the slip, since I signed it-I was stuck. I was lucky that the publisher refunded the difference.
That being said, I still get very few CC requests.
jh
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Permalink Reply by Christopher Gallagher on
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I have a brand-new Mobile Massage business that is currently focusing on office chair massage, but I also will visit clients in their home, hotels, etc...
My main selling point is convenience, so accepting credit cards is a no-brainer. I applied for a cc processing account very soon after starting my business,
but did a lot of research before hand. My foremost considerations were rates, fees, portability, and customer service.
I'd say that offering cc processing increases my "last-minute" at home or hotel business. However, my office-visits are so comparatively short and less expensive
that cash has been th primary method of payment (80%), followed by check (15%), and a small percentage is paid by monthy billing where the company is paying
(5%). My price-points being much higher for home and especially hotel visits, the bottom-line increase thus far has been measurable. I have seen an 8% increase so far,
and project up to 20%. Seeing as I come to the client and i do thorough follow-up
I never have a no-call, show... Even when I've show up, and they have forgotten, they drop everything for some relief. The most important thing to consider is that choosing
a provider is not a marriage... There are TONS of providers out there and once you have a provider, you have leverage to
get other providers to drop their rates is you switch to them... Just don't sign any long-term contracts or agree to early termination fees.
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I also use the Square reader (squareup.com) with my iPhone4... it works great for me, but it does work with other phones/mobile devices. The great thing is that there are no annual or monthly fees and the card reader is free, the only thing you pay is the per-transaction fees which are comparatively low, and consistent across the board for all Visa, MC, AmEx, and Discover cards. If your customer is eco-conscious, they will appreciate being able to receive receipts via email, and Square's system makes it very easy for you to track your payments, clients, and schedule history, etc...
Bianca Berrios said:Thanks Jody for the info :) that sounds great but unfortunately I have not cared for the iphone in the past, here in CT many I know; nothing but porblems :( I'm a sprint girl and dedicated to my Palm Pre! Any other suggestions of vendors to go through for cc acceptance, besides the bank? Have a call to them yesterday afternoon, waiting to
hear back :)
br/>
Jody C. Hutchinson said:I am waiting for a card reader from Square. It's a free app that works with the iPhone 3&4. It uses the headset port for the card swipe, then the client signs on the screen and it goes to your checking account. I think it's only 2-3% per transaction, only. I can't wait.
I have used Pay Pal with one client whose mother paid from out of state, it worked great. I agree with using the CC to hold an appointment. However, when I worked for a spa, the no-show customers would often complain that they didn't get the service and the CC company would refund the $. I imagine that even if it's posted the client could still raise a fit.
By the way, I purchased a book at a trade show and was overcharged for it. The CC company wouldn't do anything, saying that I had to read the slip, since I signed it-I was stuck. I was lucky that the publisher refunded the difference.
That being said, I still get very few CC requests.
jh
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