Payment Options & Strategies for Small Business DSDs, Field & Route Sales

Card Payment Options and Strategies

Most businesses, small and large, have done a good job of integrating multi-payment option systems in their stores and venues. Innovations in flexible POS systems have now made this kind of convenience possible for DSDs, route sales, and equipment service operations. 

DSD and suppliers can now rely on accepting credit card payments and receiving payment in the field with multi-payment options, helping them drive revenue, manage more routes, and streamline their processes.

Below we’ll look at some key DSD strategies for integrating credit card payment options for small businesses.

Why Your Distribution Business Needs Card Payment Options

With an advanced DSD and field sales payment system, you save more money, increase cash flow, improve the client experience, and expand your point of sale (POS). 

Clients want quicker, more cost-effective, and more efficient ways to manage their deliveries; advanced card payment solutions provide those benefits for them. 

Why DSDs and field sale services need card payment options

With multichannel payment options and a flexible POS, you can:

• Give your clients the flexibility and convenience to pay in a batch process via credit card or Automated Clearing House (ACH). This gives clients the option to pay when and as often they prefer, whether that’s daily, weekly, or monthly. 
• Settle overdue balances by calling up the customer, asking for their credit card information, and settling their balance in a matter of minutes.
• Utilize a flexible POS that allows customers to walk into your distribution or field service office and pay with a credit card. 
• Empower your drivers with mobile payment options so they can make seamless credit card transactions while they’re out in the field. 

Clients want the ability to control their shelf space, replenish their products quicker, and reduce their labor costs. A flexible, advanced payment system allows them to do so without the hassle of delays, dealing with checks, and lack of oversight in the distribution process. 

Things to Be Aware of With Different Types of Credit Card Payment Options for Small Businesses

Not all payment card systems are made equal, and if you want to create a seamless payment process for your field service representatives, drivers, and clients, you have to choose wisely. 

A subpar credit card payment option might open you and your client to security risks, lead to transaction errors, come with high annual fees that are hard to sustain, and might be difficult to integrate with your backend and ecosystem of software.

An advanced credit card payment option that integrates with your inventory and backend solutions, like Prism, will enable you to:

• Take advantage of invoicing tools like Prism’s Communication Center that maximize sales and collection tools to prevent the buildup of bad debt. 
• Access management tools for faster and more reliable sales deliveries.
• Give your clients more options to pay how they want, when they want, and in what quantities. 
• Sync your invoice, payment, and tracking data across all your devices, including through the Prism mobile app. 
• Automate invoice delivery, so you can eliminate double entry payments and get accurate invoice information across all devices. 
• Set up auto-reminders and alerts for invoice payments.
• And much more. 

Whether you’re managing pre-orders, tracking deliveries, making sales in the field, or improving the customer payment experience, you can oversee every aspect of your payment and DSD service process with Prism. 

How to Accept Card Payments for Your Small Business

Small businesses have a number of ways to accept credit card payments. Flexible payment options allow you to make more sales, in more places, and with more ease. Below we’ll look at some of the most common payment options for your small business.

Types of credit card payment options tools

Some different payment methods for businesses include:

• Contactless payment options for small businesses, with tap pay or card tap. 
• Mobile payment options for small businesses, which you can equip for your route sales drivers, pre-order salespeople, and service techs on the road.
• Direct debit services for small businesses, for direct recurring payments.
• Flexible POS options for small businesses, so your drivers and field representatives can receive payments on the go. 

Flexible payment options are a win-win for you, your sales and delivery team, and your client. You get to integrate all of your payment processes into a unified, easy-to-navigate platform, and your clients have more options to make payments in the best way for them. 

Why Prisms Is the Best ACH and Credit Card Payment Option for Your DSD and Field Sales Teams

With so many credit card processing and POS options on the market, it can be a daunting task to choose the right product for your business.  If you are a distributor or service provider with route sales, DSD, or recurring equipment service calls, here is why Prism Visual Software should be at the top of your consideration list.

Prisms’ Payment Solutions is not just a program that accepts ACH and Credit Card Payments.  It's part of an end-to-end software platform that integrates the operations of the distribution cycle.  When an order is created, the software automatically connects the inventory, the invoicing, the delivery schedules, route drivers, and financial accounts that will be influenced by the order.  How? Inventory is pinged to determine stock availability.  Customer accounts are checked to make sure they are in good standing, drivers are sent notice for schedules, warehouses are sent instructions for truck loading. Once products are on the road, inventory is tracked.  Once delivered, respective client accounts are updated with the information for billing.  When payments are due, the Prism tools allow drivers to collect payment in the field, or print out invoices for customers to pay in the most convenient way for them, giving businesses the flexibility to conduct business fluidly.

Prism offers four ways for clients to pay their invoices: Automatically on recurring schedule, in the field, online, and over the phone.

Prism Autopay

The simplest and fastest way to collect payment for invoices is setting up an automatic and recurring payment schedule for your clients.  With Prism, you set up the system to automatically charge your customers’ credit card or request an ACH in batches.  You collect the credit card information and authorization forms once and customize each client’s payment account as contracted in the terms or service. The software is flexible and gives options to set the payment frequency to recur depending on the terms of your client agreement, whether it’s daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly.  Then with a few clicks, you can process batch invoices, saving you and your clients time, eliminating manual entry errors, and creating a seamless integration with the rest of your accounting system.

MiniMate In the Field

Your Clients can pay in the field through your delivery drivers’ mobile phones or tablets.  When your delivery drivers make a drop off or your field technicians complete jobs onsite, they can utilize Prims’ Mobile Field Apps to pull up client information, take new orders, create invoices, view past due invoices, and collect payments on the spot.  Through these same Mobile Apps, which becomes an extension of your POS and ServQuest Call Center, you field team can collect payment on the spot by accepting credit card, check, or cash payments from the customers. The software then syncs the information across the entire Prism Platform, updating the inventory, applying payments to the corresponding invoices, updating the entries in the accounting system, and putting the money in the correct bank accounts.

Prism Web-Bill Pay Online

Online payments with Prism Web-Bill Pay give your customers the options to review and pay invoices any time and anywhere they have an online connection.  With Prism’s Web-Bill Pay, your customers can access their invoices online and make a payment whenever it’s convenient for them.  Given today’s unpredictable times, this is a tool that gives customers flexibility to manage finances and invoice payments ahead of personnel scheduled vacations or unpredictable schedule shifts.  With Web-Bill Pay, you give customers the option to self-service and have flexibility when they need it most.

ServQuest Call Center for In-bound and Out-bound calls

Any time you have a client on the phone through an outbound  or inbound call, there is an opportunity to improve that relationship and offer value. With the ServQuest CRM and Call Center, you can pull up customer data and past transactions, and help customers complete payments and quickly settle their balances over the phone. Every customer rep with access to ServQuest can be empowered to improve customer service and make sure customers are staying current on their payments and avoid interruptions in their deliveries.  

Full transactional transparency with seamless Surcharge Fees

Regardless of the payment processing options client choose, businesses benefit from a key new Prism feature – the option to seamlessly add a surcharge fee on the invoices.  Adding a surcharge fee allows businesses to offset the cost of credit card and ACH processing so the fees don’t cut into profit margins.  Surcharge fees show up as a line item on invoices, so there is 100% transparency with your customers. 

The best payment system for small businesses will make payments easier, safer, more cost-effective, and more efficient for you, your sales team, and your clients. Prism has been doing just this and increasing profitability for small businesses since 1985. 

Click here to learn more about how Prism can streamline your distribution and payment system with our all-in-one solution.