Irwin Grossman, CEO and co-founder at Delta Payment Solutions shares his thoughts and observations on the biggest challenges banks and financial institutes face when adopting new digital technologies in this chat with GlobalFintechSeries:
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Tell us a little about yourself Irwin, we’d love to hear about your journey through the years in tech and the idea behind Delta Payment Solutions?
For the past forty years, I’ve spent my time in various management consulting positions. I was a design engineer for Eastman Kodak Company, led the sales, marketing, and design engineering teams at Barry Controls, a world leader in design and manufacturing, and had enormous success in the HVAC and Tradeshow industries. The common thread that unites all my career highlights is that I have made it a point to focus on business strategies that disrupt industries. And at Delta – that’s exactly what we do.
Over three years ago, me and my two business partners founded Delta Payment Solutions as a means to an end; helping small businesses tackle the lack of transparency and unruly fees brought on by their credit card processors. We wanted to create a tailor-made solution, uniquely based on each business we work with, to find them the best-suited processor, based on their company’s needs – plain and simple. In doing so, we estimate about 20-80 percent saved on monthly processing fees for each of our clients.
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We’d love to hear more about the biggest larger issues businesses and customers face when it comes to credit processing lags today and how innovative technologies in the market and stepping in to address this?
The biggest issues for merchants are typically picking the right processor for their business. Some of the more popular ones offer an easy-to-use payment processing platform with no setup fees, access without the need for WiFi, digital signatures – the list goes on. But the issue with some of the larger processors is that they lack transparency in their fee structures, they purposely make their monthly credit card statements complex, and their customer service often times – stinks! They package their services to appear seamless, but merchants typically end up paying a lot more in processing fees if they don’t shop around to find the perfect one that fits their business model. In addition, merchants need to be firm in negotiating the right rates; not letting processors take advantage, especially when they conduct a ton of card-not-present business.
The upside to this, however, is that technology is evolving to make conducting transactions easier and faster – QR Codes, pay by text, pay by chat; and evolving technology is making integration with POS systems and eCommerce systems much easier to use and provides more information to the merchant.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has forced banks and financial institutions to embrace more digital transformation – when it comes to bigger institutes choosing a fintech partner to support initiatives here, what are some top thoughts that come to mind when choosing credit card processing or payment support (tech) vendors?
First and foremost, when choosing a credit card processor make sure they have the ability to easily integrate with a variety of eCommerce platforms. It’s also imperative, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, to provide consumers with as little contact as possible. Today, there are a variety of ways businesses can offer this; payments via QR Codes, Pay by Chat, and Pay by Text are a few touchless payment options processors should offer to their merchants.
Another important feature to look for in a processor is fraud detection and prevention. Using the Address Verification Service (AVS) confirms the credit card holder’s billing address on file with their credit card company to the shipping address they’ve used conducting the purchase. If there is a discrepancy, often times the credit card company will alert the consumer and ask them to verify that the purchase is indeed, authentic. It’s also important to ensure online orders ask for the CID code (the three-digit number on the back of the credit or debit card) to further protect the shopper’s safety.
Lastly, confirm with your credit card processor that they offer a merchant portal, with up-to-date transactional information. This will allow any business owner to easily access processing statements and any other details pertinent to the ebb and flow of their day-to-day credit card transactions.
How are you seeing this segment (payments and card processing / issuing) evolve now in light of the pandemic?
Most businesses are transitioning to an eCommerce, card not present, or digital payment solutions to conduct transactions. While this is safe and convenient for consumers, it can pose a bit of an issue if the merchant isn’t diligent in their communication with their current credit card processor. As most processors are becoming more meticulous in their underwriting to protect themselves from fraud, businesses can unknowingly throw a red flag that may have once been overlooked by their processor, but due to an increase in fraud overall in the market, is now a major issue.
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We’d love to hear your thoughts on the global fintech startup marketplace- can you talk about some interesting innovations you’ve comes across? Your thoughts on a few startups that you feel are set to turn into fintech unicorns in the new future?
The first one that comes to mind is Kontrol Payables; an accounts payable management system. Their practice of single-use virtual credit cards for merchant safety and how they’ve integrated it with ACH and Check Payment is incredibly innovative and will help profitability soar for many businesses. Another inventive company to watch in 2020 in Dynamics Inc.; a battery-powered payment card that allows consumers to pay by credit, loyalty points, or revolving credit.
Last but not least, keep an eye on SplitIt; a payment method solution that offers installment payment plans based on the amount of available credit the customer has on their credit card – with no credit check and no interest payments.
As global fintech trends change and the market shifts due to business environments (and also Covid-19), what are your comments on the state of fintech in 2021 and beyond?
I think if the global pandemic taught us anything in business, it’s that we don’t need cash to survive as a society. For safety measures, I do predict we’ll see even fewer cash transactions in the next year or so, even less than what we’ve seen in 2020. I also predict that consumers will pay less with credit cards and more with other types of digital payments such as QR Codes, mobile payment services such as Venmo, and perhaps even paying by text through an SMS payment gateway that securely processes the payment all done through the customer’s smartphone.
We’d love to hear about some of Delta Payments’ upcoming plans / innovations?
We’re excited to announce that our team is expanding! We just hired a new Director of Operations and are looking for a Business Development and Marketing Coordinator as we speak. Growing our company is a rather successful accomplishment for us. We are updating our systems to accept pay by text, pay by chat, QR Codes, and other forms of digital payments in the very near future. Delta will also be including more automation to make it easier and faster for merchants to apply and get approved by credit card processors but will still pride ourselves by offering “white glove” customer service and keeping the gates of communication open with our clients. We’ll also be working with more healthcare providers, a wide range of eCommerce verticals, and with home/residential service contractors.
Before we wrap up, what are the biggest learnings and tips you’d share with fintech innovators and leaders?
Don’t lose direct and personal communication with your customers. Don’t automate your company and services so much that you lose contact, making it harder for them to get in touch with you easily. Automation is great, but if your customer faces an issue; leave the bot behind and handle it yourself. In the long run, your customer will be much happier with the results.
Delta Payment Solutions helps optimize your current customer payment solutions and significantly lowers payment processing costs.
Irwin is the CEO and co-founder at Delta Payment Solutions
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