Good customer service never goes out of style. But owning a small and medium sized business (SMB), especially in rural America, poses a unique set of challenges. For context, there are 33 million SMBs in the US, the majority of which generate less than $5 million in annual revenue and are run by fewer than 5 employees. Vast spaces in the US, outside of the sophisticated urban technology networks like advanced telecommunications and high-speed internet, are known as “service deserts.” Without access to modern communication systems SMBs are limited to in-person cash, higher priced cellular data transactions, and limited if any online offerings. Furthermore, managing inventory and PoS devices is difficult with low-speed internet. Enter payment service providers (PSP) which bring advanced capabilities to underserved and overlooked regions of the US. All-inclusive and customizable offerings may help streamline access to and choice of a payment processor.
Let us explain.
New contracts may be set up as month to month versus traditional long-term multiyear obligations. SMBs are resource constrained, and a one stop shop may make sense for those businesses which could be seasonal or desire the on again/ off again engagement structure. Most SMB owners are not experts in PoS device capabilities or deployment, data transfer of those transactions to professional software, or the basic requirements for handling inventory, payroll and marketing. Cash is hard to kill in the US economy – there are still over $1 trillion of those types of domestic transactions annually. This is literally a greenfield opportunity for those who can solve this problem and implies an incremental service revenue of $10s of billions.
