It is critical for businesses of all sizes to have credit card payments for their customers. However, when credit card processing outages occur today, the loss of revenue can be enormous. The causes of these outages can stem from widespread power outages, internet outages, or technology failures.
Many outages are in the news, especially because credit and debit card transactions cannot be processed. Often these outages are of short duration, but it can take several hours for the affected companies to announce that they are fully operational.
Outages of these services are easily understood or communicated to the public. This can be a big problem in a world where cash is becoming less and less available, and many companies are looking to maintain business continuity.
What to do during a credit card processing outage?
Service interruptions can be stressful for everyone involved, and when an interruption occurs, companies need to take some crucial steps:
Determine the cause
These types of outages are rare, and the first thing to do is to look for the cause that is causing the outage. You can check if there is a problem with the service provider or wireless internet outages that cause connectivity problems.
Most companies use WIFI to operate their POS terminals, and a simple connection error can generate this problem. If the internet is not the problem, the physical terminals may be causing it.
Down Detector
Down Detector can be useful for companies and individuals because you will find real-time notifications informing if the problem is widespread. In addition, it is possible to know if the problems affect a specific card such as Visa or MasterCard.
Communication
If the above checks have been performed and no problem is achieved, this could be because of a problem with the card processing company. When this is the case, the first call will need to be to customer service to determine the cause and how long it will take to solve it.
There should always be clear communication about what is happening so that the concern can be alleviated and the problem can be resolved. This way, people will be less inconvenienced when using the services.
Alternatives for online product payments
The most obvious alternative if we are in a physical store is cash, but if it is not an option, the ideal is that the store provides us with different means of payment. Nowadays, it is common to find platforms offering payment options such as PayPal, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, or Apple Pay.
By doing this, companies offer us more options to select a payment method that is as convenient as possible. This way, in the face of any interruptions that may arise, we will have different options that we can consider.
Benefits of backup processing for in-person transactions
A rather interesting option gaining more and more traction in the market is offline transaction processing using mobile applications. These can be accessed from tablets or mobile devices regardless of whether there is a power or internet interruption at the merchant location.
These applications connect to mobile data, and transactions can be processed normally. This is an option that many establishments will offer us in case the service is not working optimally.
Mobile POS systems are a great solution for large and small businesses and can easily be installed anywhere. The integrations between POS systems and e-commerce sites will make it possible for us customers to make regular purchases.
It will offer great relief to companies because there will be no significant financial losses, making the customer experience much more efficient.