In a world where plastic runs rampant in purses and wallets alike, is there really any room left for cheques as part of the payment process? While some claim that paperless transactions are already nailing the lid down on the coffin for this type of payment, the actual trends related to your customers' tendencies might surprise you. To help you cut out all the speculation and find the truth, take a minute to review some of the statistics and facts surrounding this debate and find out if there really is a need for cheque scanners and other technology in your workplace.
Finding a Trend
In today's marketplace, there's no denying that cheques aren't the top dog anymore. However, that doesn't mean that you should write this type of payment off completely. With 24.5 percent of all customers still preferring the use of cheques to pay for goods and services, saying goodbye to these documents could potentially cut out a quarter of your audience. For anyone with even a little business sense, turning away that many customers for no real reason isn't a strong strategy for promoting the health of your company in the long-term. Adding in that 89 percent of businesses still accept cheques just adds further credence to the fact that, while not at the top of the list anymore, this paper payment system is still far away from following in the footsteps of the dinosaurs.
The Benefits of Continued Acceptance
Outside of the need to accommodate your customers, there are still plenty of other great reasons to support cheques. To start, these documents generally come with no interchange or processing fees. When you compare that to the one to four percent charge levied against merchants who accept debit and credit cards, in addition to other transactional fees based on your system, it's pretty obvious that taking cheques can help cut down on the cost of simply running your business. For smaller companies or those running on a tight budget, these savings definitely add up fast. On top of all this, modern cheques come with a bevy of security features that keep you and your customers safe, helping erase some of the fears that plagued these offerings back in the 20th century.
Protecting and Streamlining Your Business
So now that you see that cheques aren't going anywhere anytime soon, what's the next step for your business? To start, consider adding in equipment, like cheque scanners, that help promote safety and efficiency in the workplace. With this technology on your side, you can kick the piles of paper to curb and keep track of your cheques via digital image. Not only does this reduce your paper handling costs, but it also speeds up the process of sorting and referencing for your employees by creating a searchable database on your company computers – not to mention it speeds up the checkout process for your customers.
Finally, having enhanced fraud detection, both at the point of sale and later on with your image database, helps cut down on the costs associated with individuals who try and pull a fast one on your business. For shop owners and managers looking to maximize the value of cheques, having this kind of tool on hand to help cut down on wasted time and opportunities is the obvious choice, now and for the future.
