Businesses Get Local Support for Payment Processing
Challenge:
Volunteer Welding Supply was setting up its vendor booth at an auto show in Nashville for the first time. The only problem—the company didn’t have a way to process credit card payments, and customers would be lining up the next morning.
“It was a new venture for us to work at the car show,” said John Mark McMurtry, Volunteer Welding Supply’s president and general manager. “We were using another provider for our credit card needs, and all they had for us was in-house equipment.”
Another small business owner, Judy Goldie, had 20 years of experience with payment transactions at her Murfreesboro clothing store, Phase II. She rarely had problems with her card-processing equipment, but when glitches happened they seemed to come on Friday, right before the busiest shopping days.
Solution:
In both instances, the businesses turned to Pinnacle for help.
When Volunteer Welding discovered its current vendor would not send them an imprinter and sales drafts for the auto show, they called their Pinnacle financial advisor. He put them in touch with an associate from Pinnacle’s merchant card services area, who delivered the supplies the same afternoon. She also taught the sales staff how to use the equipment and encouraged them to call her if they had any questions over the weekend.
“Pinnacle came through for us after our current provider said they didn’t have anything,” McMurtry said.
Any time a piece of equipment breaks or Goldie’s store loses communication with its terminal, she calls Pinnacle. An associate drops off equipment right away or troubleshoots until the problem is solved.
“I wouldn’t get that from someone who wasn’t local,” Goldie said. “Service from merchant services is the No. 1 reason I work with Pinnacle.”
Result:
That first auto show was a success for Volunteer Welding, and they’ve been back every year since.
“After our first show, we decided we needed to work with Pinnacle for our merchant services,” McMurtry said. “We came in to look at their system, and they were actually able to save us money.”
Pinnacle now provides merchant card services in Volunteer Welding’s Nashville and Knoxville branches and keeps them up to date with the latest technology.
“At last year’s auto show Pinnacle provided us a wireless system,” McMurtry said. “We hooked it up to our laptop and were able to go online and verify everything. We could swipe the customer’s card, create a batch file remotely, and then take the laptop back to our store and print out the receipts from our register.”
Goldie opened a second store, Trendy Pieces, the same day Phase II celebrated its 20th anniversary. Pinnacle provides credit and debit payment processing at both locations.
“I get called on weekly by people who stop by my store to offer their financial services, but I won’t give them the time of day,” Goldie said. “You don’t feel like a number at Pinnacle. A lot of small business owners like me like that feeling.”