PROMOTION
Barclaycard
Barclaycard Barclaycard’s Marc Pettican discusses the evolution of Merchant Services and the ‘contactless’ revolution with John Musson
Barclaycard Global Payment Acceptance formerly Barclaycard Merchant Services - was founded in 1966, a year perhaps forgivably more associated with a certain British sporting success. This summer’s 2012 London Olympics will underline just how much the world has moved on since then, the changes no more evident than in how we all do business. Unprecedented technological advance has made possible what was unimaginable only a few years ago : financial transactions have evolved from exclusively face-to-face to multichannel environments and the challenge this presents, according to Marc Pettican is ‘to help customers keep pace with and fully benefit from these developments whilst maintaining the business fundamentals of a seamless and secure service.’ Marc Pettican, Director of Sales and Account Development, Barclaycard Global Payment Acceptance (formerly BMS) , approaches this challenge in a fairly unique way: rather than working with generic payments experts he develops dedicated payments teams with expertise in specific industry areas. His hospitality team, led by Wendy Warren, Segment Manager for Leisure, Entertainment and Hospitality, work with a portfolio of customers exclusively drawn from the hospitality sector, listen to their concerns and develop real insight into their requirements. This industry knowledge, alongside the leverage of Barclaycard’s ubiquity, (12 million UK cardholders, 90,000 customers accepting
payments, hospitality industry events hosted at the O2) helps Marc Pettican to ‘create solutions going forward which will allow customers to optimise business efficiency and bring in new revenue streams from additional services.’ Contactless payment, presently limited to £15 , is one of the exciting innovations available through this approach, allowing for payments to be taken in a fraction of the time of the conventional chip and pin environment (500 milliseconds, or quite literally the blink of an eye). The process itself, card tapped onto reader, couldn’t be more straightforward and recent Visa Consumer Research has highlighted that 90% of consumers find it makes life simpler. Marc Pettican elucidates the benefits: ‘In an age where customers are massively ‘time-poor’ transactions are expedited, queues reduced, revenues maximised and customer experience improved. Additionally, the process allows the customer the freedom to trade up (from a coffee to a coffee and croissant for example) in a way they may not be able to with a finite quantity of cash in their pocket.’ To date 61,000 contactless terminals have been successfully launched into the marketplace at outlets such as Eat, Pret à Manger and Subway, with growth in 2011 of 138% and according to Marc Pettican, ‘in the run-up to and during the Olympics, where speed and efficiency of service will be paramount, we expect exponential growth to continue as Contactless really comes into its own’, supported by an approved increase of transaction limit from £15 to £20, effective from June 2012. Terminals of course have been a core product offering from Barclaycard since 1966. Two new products recently launched into the marketplace Marc Pettican describes as ‘exactly what our hospitality customers have been asking for over a number of years.’ A terminal with GPRS capacity and roaming SIM allows restaurateurs to take the facility to the customer, perfectly meeting the hospitality industry’s need for a fast, flexible and secure payment facility; a fixed terminal using IP allows customers to plug into a broadband solution. Both support contactless payments. Creative development of new revenue
streams, which Pettican sees as increasingly important in a challenging business environment, is implicit in Barclaycard’s pre-paid gift cards and Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) facility. The pre-paid cards, available as standard via the Barclaycard terminal, can be used to market the hotel and its services to new customers. These customers can then use the cards as payment for restaurant, hotel and spa services with zero hassle. Dynamic Currency Conversion, perfect for customers seeing a high tourist or business customer footfall, allows the customer to pay for services in a choice of currencies with instant exchange rate conversion and in so doing allows for a stronger customer service whilst providing a percentage cut of foreign exchange commission. Security will always though remain Marc Pettican’s primary concern. In response to the migration of fraudulent activity towards internet and telephone transactions (a result of the efficacy of chip and pin and secure contactless payment), Barclaycard’s unique Fraud Reporter system has been developed to provide customers with real-time issuer alerts, invaluable in analysing fraud trends and reducing associated costs. Similarly PCI DSS, the standard customers need to adhere to in order to secure their data, is recognised by Pettican as vital to any business’ security but also as challenging for some customers to implement. Barclaycard’s response has been to offer a team and service to help customers with these issues. For more information visit www.barclaycard.co.uk/business/acceptingpayments/corporate Barclaycard is a trading name of Barclays Bank PLC. Barclays Bank PLC is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and subscribes to the Lending Code which is monitored and enforced by the Lending Standards Board. Registered in England. Registered No. 1026167. Registered Office: 1 Churchill Place, London E14 5HP.
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