How does SureSwipe increase business profitability for entrepreneurs? In terms of SMEs, how important is it to be able to offer these services to clients?

As individuals we are reducing the amount of cash we carry, the risk of it being lost of stolen is high and instead of incurring very expensive ATM fees and bank charges we’re using our debit or credit cards at the point of sale.

More than 20 million debit, credit and prepaid cards are issued in South Africa, majority of consumers use cards as the preferred form of payment. Businesses operating without a card machine are closing their doors to potential customers.

At SureSwipe we understand that businesses, particularly new businesses are hesitant to sign long term contracts with suppliers. We considered this and turned the idea of long term contracts on its head. Our installation turnaround time is 12 days from completion of a contract, and if businesses are unhappy with our services they can cancel by providing one calendar months’ notice.

It’s important to offer these services in order to champion the growth of a major contributor to South Africa’s GDP. 

How does the system help you save money?

We identified a market segment being underserviced and overcharged and upon entering the market we had a vision to provide unmatched personalised service at highly competitive rates.

I believe we are achieving this, last year our service response time for an onsite call out was on average 8 working hours and usually within 2 to 4 hours for clients within a 30km radius of our nationwide offices. Our system uptime is one of the highest in the industry and when we are needed our client care centre prides itself on its quick response time and its 1st time resolution of queries. More than 90% of queries are resolved during the first call.

Last year our innovative and competitive pricing model put an estimated R20 million back into the pockets of our clients, and many of them re-invested these savings into growing their business, recruiting and/or training staff.

When SureSwipe developed the system, what areas did they notice SMEs lost money through? Ie, in what areas do SMEs historically handle their financial management poorly?

Entrepreneurs by nature are dynamic go getters who are great at starting business, motivating and inspiring people but often struggle with administration and financial management, and in particular cash flow.

Our daily transactions settlements assist businesses in managing this; the money from card transactions is usually in a client’s account before the cash receipts from the same day. Our online reporting of these transactions and settlements also ensure hassle free reconciliation for all our clients.

We also recognised that time is critical to entrepreneurs and constant re-negotiations with suppliers is time consuming and is often ignored or moved to the bottom of the to do list. Our pricing model is linked to turn over so as a business grows the rates automatically decrease, no need for entrepreneurs to spend hours re-negotiating with a supplier.

What are the top cash management tips that you would offer SME owners?

Remove cash from the system.

At face value accepting card payments is more expensive than cash, but once you add up all cash costs it becomes a cheap form of revenue/ turn over management. A few of the costs to consider are: 

• Bank charges for cash receipts usually in the region of 1 – 1.5%
• Pilferage by employees, it is much easier for employees to take cash than cards and the true cost is usually never known. Take away the temptation, save money and save on hours of disciplinary hearings
• Management time, counting, recounting cash takes time and this together with banking cues adds up to many hours of SME owner’s time each month

The actual cost is difficult to calculate but I would estimate the cost of cash in the system to be between 5 and 10%.

What are the top areas that SMEs are often affected by fraud?

Poor training of staff and/or bad recruitment decisions can have a big impact on fraud.

A business is able to protect themselves from fraudulent transactions by identifying and managing higher risk transactions. Business owners are often so focused on “making the sale” or pressurising staff to “make the sale” that they forget about the risks associated with doing business.

When last did you purchase an item from a store and the cashier checked your signature of the slip against the signature on the card? In many countries around the world if the signatures are unclear or do not match up another method of payment is requested. Staff at retailers are not trained to manage this situation and even if this simple check is picked up it is often ignored or it results in an unpleasant customer experience.

Focus on recruiting the best people, do a reference check and then train them to manage fraud risk and train them on how to communicate with customers regarding risky transactions.

How can they protect themselves and more specifically, what should they be aware of?

Managing fraud risk is relatively easy and less risky than managing cash. We assist all our clients in reducing their fraud risk. We train staff on installation of the card machine, we continuously communicate on going fraud tips. We actively monitor high risk transactions and last year together with the SAPS we made numerous arrests of credit card fraud syndicates.

By following a few simple steps fraud risk can be significantly reduced:

• If the customer looks or acts suspicious, ask them for another means of payment or a copy of their ID book. Suspicious behaviour could include a disregard to clothes sizes, rush purchases of high value items, or pressuring the cashier into speeding up the purchase
• Always follow the correct procedure by calling the financial institution for approval being processing a transaction manually
• Keep the signed transaction slip, the card holder has 180 days to dispute the transaction and if requested you have 3 days to produce a signed copy
• Never split a purchase over different cards or more than one transaction, even at the customer’s request
• Payments made over the phone or where the card is not physically in your presence should be avoided. If this is part of your business process, contact the authorisation centre to ensure the card has not been stolen, and obtain an authorisation number for the transaction
• Take time to check the signature on the back of the card and that the card details match, Mr X shouldn’t look like a Mrs Y.
• Check that the card number on the front of the card matches the card number on the voucher that is printed from your machine
• If a customer can’t remember their pin code ask them for an alternative payment mechanism. Don’t override any security features on the card

SureSwipe is leading the change in understanding the importance of entreprenueurs and the impact they make in increasing employment in South Africa. Our unmatched personalised service and transparent pricing allows entrepreneurs to focus on what they do best. Growing their business.

Listen to the discussion held on 702 around this topic, to hear how small business is doing in South Africa, and to see the reasons why small businesses struggle.

How are small businesses in South Africa faring?

• Secure for you and your customers
• Convenient for your customers
• Guaranteed revenue generation for your business

You will be issued with a unique username and password, this is used to login to the reporting site.

Daily and monthly transactions made through your card swipe machine.

Daily settlements made to your bank account.

Export reports for analysis and reconciling.

Access all your account and contract information.

View all your invoices.

• Premium cocoa delivers onsite support to your business within 4 business hours of us receiving your call. You receive an immediate machine/s swop out. (Please note that this is available for Gauteng only)
• Telephonic service and support 24/7, 365 for all your requests
• 24 hours onsite support nationally and between 4 – 24 hours in Gauteng.
• Fraud monitoring of your card swipe machine transactions and fraud management training

Citrus is for the business that:

• Operates weekdays from 08h00 till 17h00
• Does not swipe a lot through the card swipe machine
• Is not in need of additional service and support if things go wrong

Cocoa is for the business that:

• Operates over weekends, all day
• Swipes a lot through the card swipe machine
• Is in need of immediate service and support if things go wrong

The card swipe machine options are depicted below:

The SureSwipe card swipe machine options are a Gemalto Magic X8 or a Portable Gemalto M5.

They can accept Debit and Credit cards form Visa, Electron, MasterCard
and Maestro.

You can cancel transactions, refund customers, re-print receipts and print
batch receipts.

Training is provided in terms of a pocket user guide found in your welcome pack. Expert on site training is provided by your technician on installation of your machine. You will receive both card machine training and fraud training.
A pocket user guide for both your card machine and fraud is available in your welcome pack for reference, as well as a self-help section on your online reporting.

• Contact Capitec Bank Authorisation Centre on 0860 667 709 immediately
• Advise them that you have a Code 10
• Keep hold of the debit or credit card
• Stall the customer until officials arrive