IMGCAP(1)]
Providing consistent customer service and periodically surveying merchants regarding satisfaction can help lower independent sales organization and acquirer merchant-attrition rates, according to Michelle Wagner, vice president of global marketing at Elavon Inc., an Atlanta-based acquirer and processor. "The lesson is, if you are proactive in your outreach versus reactive when a merchant is leaving, you will be more successful," she says. "If someone is leaving, they probably are already with someone else." However, when a merchant reveals intent to switch service providers, ISOs and acquirers should find out the reason, says Ted Svoronos, senior vice president of sales at Irvine, Calif.-based Group ISO. "If any merchant wants to leave, we're on the phone with them prior to cancellation" asking why, says Svoronos. Typically, it is easier to get a merchant to stay if the concern is price because "we can drop the rate and make them happy," he says. If the decision to leave "is based on products that we may not have–a specific gift card program or rewards program–they're going to go."
