Alerts

In an ideal world, merchants wouldn’t even need alerts

But let’s face it. When it comes to payments, not everything will go perfectly all the time.

And as they say, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

That’s why having alerts when certain thresholds are met (or not met) is a very powerful feature. It allows you to get ahead of the problem by taking the necessary action right away, ensuring that the underlying issues are addressed to protect business revenues. By taking a proactive role in the monitoring process, you minimize the potential disruptions and ensure that your customers get nothing short of a smooth and excellent experience using your services.

#1 Frequency of Failed Payments

Considering the processes and technologies behind online payment systems, a certain failure rate is expected. However, this doesn’t mean that sudden increases in failed payments should not cause worry. Such cases require immediate attention.

This was something that we saw with a merchant. They set up a system that allowed them to monitor how well their supported payment methods were doing. Then, they got an alert that one of them was seeing an uptick in failed transactions.

To address the problem, the merchant temporarily stopped all transactions using this payment method. They traced the problem to the setup process and resumed accepting payments using that method. Even though it only accounted for a small part of the revenue generated by the merchant, the numbers could have added up quickly without an alert.

Minor issues that have the potential to deliver major dents in profitability happen every day. With alerts, you can nip them in the bud.

#3 Total Payments Processed

A surge in payments can be expected at certain times of the year, depending on the merchant’s business model and clientele. For example, retailers expect more purchases during peak seasons, while ticketing sites get a lot of traffic when in-demand artists are touring.

But what if the spike happens suddenly? To know what their next step should be, the merchant should quickly identify what’s causing the spike.

Let’s say that the surge is happening because a lot of customers are buying a certain product. You can more evenly distribute the traffic across the different payment processors to maintain smooth transactions.

#2 Acceptance Rate

Just like payment screening for failures, we’ve seen our merchants use this tool to get alerts for acceptance rates.

They’re even going on a very technical level by creating alerts based on every PSP and BIN level.

Having this automated guarding system to monitor certain metrics allows you to put out fires right away.

Let’s say that the payment processor is not performing as well as expected. You can temporarily route the transactions to a different one while you figure out the issue. This way, you limit lags, which can have financial implications for your business.

#4 Refund Rate

Looking at the refund rate is important for any enterprise because it provides insights into customer satisfaction and the effectiveness of the existing business model. More importantly, it also tells us how profitable an offer is.

An upward trend in returns may indicate refund fraud. By keeping a close eye on this metric, you can provide insights on how to stop and reverse the trend.

If the source of refunds appears to have dishonest intentions, the alert can help merchants locate it and improve the existing system to stop them in their tracks.