Eight Things to Expect From Your Payments Partner

If you’re a software company looking for payments partners, your search won’t be hampered by a lack of selection. In fact, the number of options – from small, specialized companies to big, well-known names offering many services – can make choosing providers somewhat overwhelming.

On the surface, these companies often offer similar services at comparable prices. But that doesn’t mean they are all created equal. Finding providers who simply offer the capabilities you’re looking for right now is the first step. Beyond that, how do you know you’re choosing solid partners who will support your business as you grow and evolve?

Fortunately, the industry is full of great providers if you know what to look for. We’ve got your back with eight standards that you can and should reasonably expect your providers to live up to.

1. Transparency

First, look for transparency when it comes to the terms of your relationship. You should be able to fully understand the provider’s pricing, fees, contract terms, incentive calculations and any restrictions or limitations up front.

You should not, on the other hand, be subject to hidden fees, unexpected updates or changes, or other surprises.

Ultimately, there shouldn’t be any fine print; if there is, read it very carefully. Ask questions and expect answers. Your payments provider should be able to share and document every detail of your relationship with them. They should also be able to give you access to timely data so you can verify the accuracy of any charges yourself.

2. Quality Care

Your payments provider should make working with them easy. Do they give you access to user-friendly tools and organized, comprehensive documentation to help you move through integration and activation?

You shouldn’t have to wade through help files searching for nonexistent answers or piece together information like you’re following a trail of bread crumbs. A solid payments partner will provide clear, thorough documentation that walks you through your experience and addresses any issues from your point of view.

Even with clear documentation, there’s a good chance you’ll encounter something you can’t answer for yourself along the way. So how’s the support? Do they answer your questions accurately and thoroughly?

3. Equality

The nature of the payments business means that many payments providers serve customers both directly and indirectly through partners.

You should expect that your providers treat all of their customers equally, with the same standard of care no matter how those customers reach the provider. They should offer the same capabilities and level of quality to all of them.

To the extent that you can, try to compare notes. Talk to other companies that have worked with the providers you’re evaluating. What was their experience? Do they feel like they were treated fairly? Asking around the industry can net some valuable information and allow you to learn from others’ trials as well as your own.

4. Flexibility

You should expect your payments provider to support you as you grow and evolve, which often requires flexibility. Providers should bend their products and services to meet your business where it is; you don’t need to shape yourself to fit your partners.

This is where you’ll want to pay especially close attention to any limitations and restrictions. What would working with this partner prevent you from doing in the future? They should not limit you to options that only they can support. Be on the lookout for unfair, restrictive practices or onerous terms.

5. Greater Control

As your business continues to evolve and your capabilities grow, you may want to take on greater control of the payments portion of your business and build more solutions for your customers. That might mean taking more responsibility for your customers’ journey, their data or the way funds are distributed.

This is another reason to dig deep into the limitations and restrictions your prospective payments partners are proposing. Make sure they’re not locking you into their infrastructure by preventing you from accessing your customers’ tokenized data or encryption keys.

6. Portability

It’s possible that you will want to move your customers from one payments platform to another as your relationship to payments grows and evolves. Maybe your needs will change, and you’ll find that other service providers have better-suited solutions. Or maybe you’ll want to bring more of your payments capabilities in house and move your customers to your own platform.

This is where the concept of portability comes in. It means that you have the right to take your merchants with you when you make changes.

Your customers are your customers, and this doesn’t change when you work with payments providers to expand your services to them. So ask your provider about this if you don’t see it explicitly spelled out in the contract. Be on the lookout for tactics that are often used to lock you in, such as non-solicitation clauses, early termination fees or liquidated damage clauses.

7. Ethical Treatment

We wish we didn’t have to say this. And for the most part, we don’t. But you know the saying about “a few bad apples…”

Your payments partners should treat you ethically. They should not take advantage of you – or your merchants, or anyone else – to further their own agendas and benefit their own businesses.

This is another situation where talking to others with experience in the industry will give you some valuable insight. Every company will have to field some one-off complaints. But you can find patterns if you talk to enough people.

There are lots of ethical providers out there. Be sure to actively seek them out.

8. Freedom

Your business is your business. You should have the freedom to run it, adapting and innovating for your clients as you see fit. This can and should include adding new payment or embedded finance options, interfaces, and other services without limitation.

We can’t say it enough: be on the lookout for overly restrictive terms or terms that seem unfair. Read carefully and thoroughly, talk to other people, and ask lots of questions. This due diligence on the front end will pay off in the long run through solid relationships that help you grow and serve your customers.

A good payments partner helps you deliver great service, own the merchant relationship, drive profit, and grow your business. This should be the way they keep you coming back.

Contact the experts at Infinicept to learn more about the paths to payments and how to know what’s right for your business.