This client is a member of the New Jersey Lumber Dealers Association.  They have nine locations in three states and processes over $19 million in annual credit card sales.  They presently utilize Spruce Computer's POS, accounting and inventory system.

When STM first met this client they were using the credit card processing services that had been recommended by their buying cooperative.  They believed their rates were competitive, but the provider was unresponsive.

Challenge
The first meeting was with the CFO, who informed STM that the previous provider had recently changed their billing method to a blended rate.  The CFO expressed skepticism that the cost would come down.

In the conversation with the CFO, STM determined that the present provider had failed to update the client's fraud protection features or to implement the correct program to process small business purchase cards correctly.  STM also identified that the installed terminals were unable to correctly process Small Business Purchase Cards.

Solution
STM analyzed data from the fourth quarter of 2004 and found that they did not have any transactions being processed at the low cost Check Card rate and that 42% of his transactions were downgrading to the highest cost Non-Qualified interchange category.

The client provided additional data from the second quarter of 2005 and STM found their Non-Qualified volume had risen to 54% of the total processed volume.

The client agreed to a two location test of STM services. STM swapped the equipment, trained all employees and monitored the network settings.  The low cost "Check Card" category rose from zero to 12% whereas the high cost "Non-Qualified" category shrunk from 54% to 5%.
 

The client implemented STM service across all locations and in the first year of operation enjoyed a savings of $36,480.