Your customer approaches the till, flushed with excitement. They’re smiling and can’t wait to get home with their new item. You get a bag ready and talk to them about how good their choice is. Then it happens. Your customer gets out their purse or wallet and pulls out their bank card. “Oooh sorry,” you mumble, half in embarrassment, “We don’t accept cards.”
Suddenly the smile has gone. They’re forced to leave the item on your counter and you lose another potential sale. And while what happens next can vary, none of the options are good for your business.
They decide it’s too difficult to shop at your store
Knowing that in future they’ll need to plan a visit to your shop and make sure they have some cash, they subconsciously cross it off their list as a potential place to spend money.
They might not even realise they’ve made the decision until months later, when they walk past the window and something catches their eye, they head to your door but just as they’re about to walk in, they remember why they can’t go any further.
They visit your competitor down the road
They didn’t have cash so couldn’t get the product they needed from your store, but they still need to make the purchase. It’s easy to see how quickly someone can end up at your nearest and biggest competitors – especially if they’ve got a card payment terminal on site and your now ex-customer doesn’t have to worry about going to the cash machine first.
They tell their friends – or worse, leave an online review
When someone’s had a disappointing experience, word soon spreads. Remember that restaurant you won’t go to because your best friend had an awful experience there last year? Now your business is in the same boat.
With the advance of contactless payments, many people now rely entirely on their cards for almost everything they buy. Coming across a business that doesn’t take contactless payments can seem strange enough for these shoppers. But finding a store that doesn’t take any form of card payments is likely to genuinely shock them.
So next time they’re catching up with friends, don’t be surprised if they mention how they’d found a store that still didn’t accept cards. They might even leave an online review about their experience – spreading the word far beyond their social circle.
But it doesn’t have to be like that…
It’s easy to find your first card terminal with United Merchant Services. The fees are small and the choice is large.
To find out more about your options and keep every potential customer who walks through your door, visit our Card Machines section.
