Reprogramming Point of Sale systems may seem intimidating at first but it is actually easier than programming a stand along machine such as a VX510 or a Hypercom T7Plus. The point of sale company normally does all of the work for a fee because they don’t want you messing around with their software. We just need to provide them with the information they require in order to integrate our processing service.

We need to provide the POS company with some or all of the following three criteria in order to get them to make the change:

1.) A VAR sheet or a parameter sheet. Generally the VAR sheet includes parameters such as the Merchant ID number, a terminal ID number, a Datawire ID number and any other parameters the POS company requests. It is important to find out which parameters the POS company needs in order to make the change as there are at least 20 possibilities

2.) Permission from the merchant to make the change. No Point of Sale company is going to take your word that the merchant has authorized the switch. They’re going to want to talk to their customer.

3.) Money. Some merchants have service contracts where all work is included. Most of the time we need to pay the POS company a few hundred dollars to get them to do the work. We will pay this fee upfront and split it with our agents. If the fee is high the merchant may cover part of the fee.

What to do

Call the POS software dealer. In order to find out who you need to call ask your merchant: “Who do you call when you have trouble with your POS or need tech support?” If the merchant does not have the phone number then you can do a Google search to find the phone number for the company.

What to say

Once you get the POS company on the phone say the following: “Hello, My name is: _______. I work with a local credit card processing ISO. The reason I am calling is that I have a merchant who is using/wants to use your POS. We would like to know if your customers can use any credit card processor they want, or if they are restricted to using certain credit card processing companies?”

Note: Many times the POS company will want to know the name of the merchant you are working with. If you have the merchant’s permission to call on their behalf then there is no problem giving up that name. If the merchant has not given you permission to call on their behalf do not use their name. In this instance you will want to tell the POS company the merchant is considering using their POS software but has not purchased it yet. it is important to protect the name of your prospect because the POS company may call your merchant to verify it is ok to release information about their account to you. You never want your prospects to be caught off guard by something you’re doing.

Which Processing Platform?

“Most of our clients are processing through First Data. Does your software integrate with First Data?” if the answer is yes then say, “Great! First Data has few platforms such as Omaha, North, Cardnet, Nashville, Buypass, etc. do you have a preference of which First Data platform you would like us to put the account on?”

If the POS company does not integrate with First Data then we can put the account on the Global processing platform. It is important to find this out before you sign the client because the Global application and underwriting process is different than the First Data application. If you submit the account to First Data and later find out we need it to be on Global then we need a new application and it needs to go through underwriting again (24-48 hours).

Parameters

Once you find out what platform the merchant is using you should ask: “what parameters do you need us to provide you? normally a Merchant ID, Terminal ID, etc…. can you provide me with a checklist or tell me exactly what you need from us in order to complete the change?”

The next question you’ll want to ask is: “what else do you need from us? Do you need to speak to the merchant? is there anything else we need to do?”

The remainder of the programming should be in the Point Of Sale providers hands. You will still want to stay in tocuh with them and make sure the reprogramming is completed porperly and in a timely manner to ensure that your customer is happy.