Inspired by the successful condiment revolution of Heinz, a keen entrepreneur Wayne Hamilton (Founder and CEO of National Processing) saw the opportunity to introduce an easy way for payment processing and introduced National Processing. Back then, Wayne was working for a large bank for selling and managing merchant services. Whilst working he saw the chance to establish a platform that would make payment processing less infuriating than it was. “We really wanted to bring transparency to the industry, I keep running into merchants time and time again frustrated with their providers and the experience they had,” said Wayne. The business has successfully folded every year for Wayne and his growing team at National Processing, as well as, has placed itself amongst the leading payment and card solution providers.
National Processing was established with an aim to be a transparent and trustworthy business partner. While searching for a payment processor one must choose the right company. National Processing is a reputable company that assists with all of the client’s payment processing needs. Its clientele base is diverse and includes every merchant that accepts credit cards and ACH. Wayne said, “We have powerful online tools that take payments on giant websites; Gateways that send invoices and take keyed transactions. We have a solution for every business.”
Price Lock Guarantee and Outstanding Support
Often most of the processors in the market can compete with the price offered by National Processing and sell merchants at a loss for the first few months. However, within a few months, these processors slowly hike the price, in a way that it is hard to notice. Merchants tend to fall for this trick and end up paying thrice the price for the same service. Due to this, National Processing offers a price lock guarantee. “When merchants board with us, we give them that price for the lifetime of their account,” states Wayne. The sales rep is very transparent and offers the deals as it is to the clients, without any hidden fees, surprises, or a man behind the curtain.
Wayne believes that the distinguishing factor amongst the other processors and National Processing is his team. “Transparency, all processors can offer the ability to accept credit cards but what sets us apart is my employees on the phone,” says Wayne. The teams are personally connected to the merchants and know the issues they have encountered, which makes them fantastic customer service agents. The support and sales reps are well versed to encounter the issues and easy to work with. They don’t pressure merchants and patiently explain everything it offers. Apart from this, the skillful team is quickly adaptive to every change in the industry, adopts new policies almost immediately, and swiftly learns the new software and hardware.
Ensuring Security in Solutions
The biggest concern for the payment solution providers is security. National Processing ensures the basic security standard like firewalls, secure passwords—both for the team and its merchants. These measures have all become standardized and prevent a lot of issues, but the important aspect that most of the solution providers lack is the human element. “Most ‘Hacking’ these days isn’t some person in a dark room typing away on a computer, it’s some person on the phone trying to trick customer service reps into giving away more than they realize,” shares Wayne.
The team also tries to assist the people who are not its clients but are struggling with scams. The underwriting team of National Processing protects those whose identities are being stolen and used. Being a fully certified PCI provider, the team can predict the anticipated target of the scammer and protects him with the processing account.
Taking Advantage of the Opportunities
The advent of 2020 presented new challenges in front of businesses. The COVID crisis has altered the traditional methodologies of businesses. Thus, Wayne’s priority is to make sure that his existing merchants and the new merchants can adjust to the new processing climate. The team of National Processing has many curbside solutions, and E-commerce solutions to help the small and medium businesses maintain cash flow during these difficult times. It has stepped up the production to meet this need.
Apart from this, National Processing aims to push through the uncertainty and take advantage of the growth opportunities by introducing new initiatives. In addition to this, the team targets to save its merchants money and be transparent about it. For this, Wayne plans to educate the merchants through the Cash Discount program. “The merchant gets to save on processing fees, and the customer has the convenience of paying with their card,” explains Wayne.
Anticipating the Changes
Wayne said that the most significant change which the industry witnessed was the way merchants view credit card processing. Earlier, credit card processing was termed as a huge expense that many merchants and restaurants would neglect. Presently, due to the Cash Discount program, the mindset is focused on passing through that cost to customers.
Wayne anticipates more transparency about the cost of credit cards from the merchants in the coming years. Today many companies are coming forward with a discount for cash payments and surcharging. Wayne expects this to become the new norm of payment processing. The big stores have already built the cost of credit for their products, but smaller businesses have to struggle with these calculations. The cost of updating signs can hurt small businesses more than savings of the price increase. National Processing is striving to create an equal platform where the consumer gets equal rewards for the amount paid. Giving discounts for cash, or surcharging is a way for merchants to more transparently pass through those costs. Wayne concludes by saying, “Instead of being afraid of this trend we are embracing it and giving our merchants a way work with the convenience of cards, and the low cost of cash.”
