Starting a business often stems from a passion.
That passion leads to a vision, that vision is set into motion, and you begin your venture as a business owner with a product or service you feel good about and love. As you build your business, you work to translate your passion into purpose, focusing on quality and excellent customer experiences.
Customers are drawn to your company because they can tell you enjoy what you do, and you’re good at what you do.
To keep that passion in your business, though, you have to keep yourself from getting stretched too thin. You need a team of people, each with a different strength, to make your business a success. You need someone who can help with accounting, marketing and sales, and business strategy.
You also need someone who can make sure you’re supporting the evolving needs of your customers, someone who can offer tools to make their experiences smooth and easy — and for that, you need a banker.
Having a business banker on your team can help you maximize how you do business with your customers, whether it’s providing popular ways to make payments or streamlining processes so you can focus more on their needs.
Ultimately, banking solutions can build customer loyalty while freeing up your time so you can stay passionate about your business.
3 Types of Tools to Help Your Business Improve Customer Experience, Grow and Save Time
1. Merchant Services
Just like you want to run your business safely and efficiently, your customers want convenient, safe and fast ways to work with you.
Merchant services provides a variety of simple and secure payment methods to your customers, whether they’re in your store, on your website or on their mobile devices. With merchant services, you can accept most all payment options, including:
- Credit
- Debit
- Electronic benefit transfer (EBT)
- Gift cards
- Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay
- And, payments over the phone
These tools not only help you provide a convenient and cost-effective service to your customers, but they also help you enhance your revenue opportunity by reaching more customers and getting paid quickly and securely.
2. Automated Clearing House (Debit and Credit)
Collecting and making payments through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) is another tool to meet the evolving needs of your business and your customers. There are two types of ACH transactions: ACH Debit and ACH Credit. Initiated within online banking, both are easy, cost-effective solutions for moving money.
ACH Debit allows your business to auto-debit, or withdraw, payments from customers’ accounts. Businesses often use ACH Debit to collect payments for ongoing payment plans, Homeowners Association (HOA)/rental fees and membership fees, for example. That way, your customers don’t have to write and mail checks, saving them time and money.
ACH Credit allows your business to pay, or push, money to others’ bank accounts. It’s often used to pay employees through direct deposit or make electronic payments to vendors. It helps you eliminate the need to write paper checks, making you more efficient and protecting you against check fraud.
3. Online Banking
While we’ve already discussed the benefits of using ACH within online banking, a number of other convenient and economical banking tools are found there as well, including:
- Remote Deposit Capture and Mobile Check Deposit, which allow you to electronically deposit checks directly to your bank account
- Online Wires, which give you the ability to transfer funds domestically and internationally without making a trip to the bank
- Positive Pay, which is a check- and ACH-fraud protection program
Each of these online banking tools makes your business experience easier and lets you focus on what you’re good at … running a successful business and taking care of your customers.
Final Thoughts
I was recently chatting with a customer who has grown a very successful business over many years. When I asked him what his biggest challenge has been as a business owner, he said, “When I started my business, I did it because I enjoyed welding. I never wanted to be an accountant or anything like that — I wanted to weld.”
One of the best things about being a business owner — getting to work in a field you’re passionate about — is also one that can completely elude you. You truly have to balance the management side of your business with the side that you love.
His solution: Don’t try to do everything on your own. Ask for help. Delegate. “I can focus on what I’m good at and what I enjoy because I have built a team I can rely on,” he said.
As business bankers, we’re proud to be on your business’s team, helping you with those finite details that smooth the way for customers to easily work with you and stay loyal to you. If you have any questions about business banking tools and solutions, reach out. We’re easy to find and happy to help. It’s what we’re passionate about!
Trevor Austin is a treasury management relationship manager - team lead for Bank of Utah. He has been with the bank for two years and enjoys working with clients to find solutions for their business needs.
