How to Reduce Health Risks at the Check-out
As we continue to follow all the official health guidelines of social distancing and reducing physical contact with others, Wind River wants to remind you of three simple things you can do at your point of sale to help alleviate any unnecessary interactions for you, your front line employees and your customers.
1. Signature is not required so you can get rid of the pens
In 2018, all major card brands eliminated the need for obtaining a signature on a receipt when processing either EMV chip or magnetic stripe cards at the point of sale. When possible, eliminate the need for collecting a signature so your customers will not need to handle pens.
2. Eliminate the need for contact with terminals
Almost every countertop terminal deployed by Wind River is capable of contactless transaction processing. Whenever possible, encouraging your customers to “Tap and Go” with Apple Pay, Google Pay or some other form of contactless payments is a great way to minimize the risk of contaminating the hardware at the point of sale. If you do not have a Wind River countertop terminal, you may want to discuss your contactless hardware options with your point of sale software provider.
3. Enable card-on-file, if possible
Depending on the type of business you’re in, card-on-file may be an opportunity for you to reduce the shared handling of plastics at the point of sale and serve-up a great convenience to your customers. Automotive repair, pharmacies, and medical and dental practices are just a few examples of industries where the identity of the purchaser is known – making them ideal for card-on-file transactions.
Not every point of sale system can support card-on-file, but some can. If your point of sale provider offers a secure way to store repeat customer cards for future access through your POS system, you may want to explore that functionality.
A word of caution when it comes to card-on-file – it must be enabled in a PCI complaint and secure environment. So if you’re not PCI compliant, this is not an option for you. Also, please be aware that card-on-file transactions typically cost more to process than magnetic stripe or EMV chip cards read at the point of sale. You may want to check into that with your payment processing partner. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy!
If you have any questions or need any additional information, please comment below or drop me an email:
ddebraal@windriverfinancial.com
