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Loyalty programs that merchants can offer consumers do double-duty and foster merchant loyalty to independent sales organizations, CardLine sister publication ISO&Agent magazine reports in its November/December issue. "I'll make no representation that loyalty programs are a big revenue generator," Bryant Y. Dowden III, managing director at Trilogy Payment Solutions LP, a Fort Worth, Texas-based ISO, tells ISO&Agent. "They simply aren't. Loyalty programs are a defensive program that puts 'hooks' in a merchant." Loyalty programs can make it more complicated for merchants to change processors, often—but not always—making them good retention tools. Besides switching credit and debit card processing services, a merchant would have to move its loyalty program. The payoff for ISOs is merchant reluctance to changing everything. "Solving multiple merchant noncash-payment needs, all through one company, on the same equipment is a great selling tool," Dowden says. And bringing that value to a merchant in a single point of contact may be enough to generate the type of loyalty an ISO needs to survive.
