2020 was a massive year for every industry, especially the payments sector when looking for the best ISO program to place new business owners looking to start a merchant processing account. Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), and merchants were forced to adapt their processes throughout the pandemic. They needed the most efficient ISO program to fit their customer’s changing needs while expanding their technological capabilities.
Connecting their merchants with reliable payments company options became the hunt for these organizations who looked for the best ISO relationship on the market. Here at iCG, we helped many new customers adapt so that they could grow their businesses sustainably. This experience with our new clients made us realize that we want to continue to ease our onboarding process.
We work hard to educate our merchants and referral partners since the initial startup and underwriting process can be complex. This blog walks through our entire ISV and ISO program onboarding process.
Step 1: Discovery Call
In a discovery Call, an iCG Sales representative will walk you through our educational ISO program for relationship managers and referral partners by discovering the requirements of the partner’s merchant candidate. We listen to their pain points to help customize a solution to best fulfill their business plan needs.
This ISO program works hard for your sales relationship managers and merchants. iCG does not compete to take the merchant processing from you. We are only interested in adding value to your credit card solution by offering the technology to help you maintain the merchant relationship.
The different solutions presented to the merchant will focus on fulfilling these needs in the best ISO program. By the end of the call, the merchant can realize the opportunity and begin the application process. The iCG Application collects data from the merchant that the iCG Sales team will input into the final application and utilize to create the proposal. Both documents require a signature from the owner or officer of the company to move to the next phase.
Step 2: Solution Selection and Suggestion
In the Merchant Application, customers can add to their gateway to provide numerous ways to make payments, offering ACH and credit card processing within the same online virtual terminal.
iCG offers ISO and ISV partners many tools for successful payment processing for their merchants’ needs. Merchants who want to utilize Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) technology can choose from various voice-overs to allow their customers to call their business without the immediate burden on the staff to answer frequently asked questions. They can also set up a schedule to make a recurring bill payment, either with their banking account on file with ACH or a credit card transaction.
Additionally, iCG creates a custom payment portal or an iFrame embedded for the merchant that they can seamlessly integrate into their current website or have as a standalone page to use for collecting payment. The iCG payment gateway offers a personalized solutions package to accomplish all of this.
During the initial Discovery Call, merchants are educated about the invoicing options via Email and SMS. They also learn about the solutions specific to ACH that bolster the solution for higher efficiency, like Check Verification.
Step 3: Documentation
The iCG sales representative collects the necessary documents from the pre-approved merchant, whether they want a CC-only payment gateway or utilize offering CC and ACH in their payment gateway.
The iCG team keeps the partners abreast of all communications to the merchant, including when our support team sends the final application for signature when the merchant signs the application, and when their merchant account gets approved. Learn more about our underwriting process here.
Documents must contain the following details for the underwriting team:
- The info on the application matches the documentation
- The merchant has a sound financial history
Step 4: Developing Tech
Once the account gets approved, we send a welcome email from iCG Tech Support to inform the merchant that the gateway is live. Depending on the solutions included in the gateway, the merchant receives further instruction in the welcome email. While the account passes through departments, support may reach out to the merchant or the referring partner to discuss how such solutions usually help other merchants we support in their industry.
Then, the iCG sales rep will send a follow-up email to the merchant and the referring partner, encouraging them to complete a test transaction as stated in the Welcome email. From here, iCG Support also helps them navigate the next steps – especially if they have a payment portal that needs to be built.
The scope of their project can go through the iCG website, clicking Resources, and then Payment Portal Deployment. The merchant can also request the iCG Support Team to schedule a call to discuss the custom options they need by phone. The iCG Sales team contacts iCG Tech support to relay the merchant requests and requirements. In seeking to be the best ISO program out there, we implemented a process covering how to manage merchants’ integration with iCG. It includes a workflow interaction between the different departments that assists the iCG Sales team communicate the merchant needs to the iCG Tech development team, including solutions like Quickbooks, Email invoicing, iFrame implementation, IVR, and more.
As for the iCG Verify product solution, the support team shares the details of the configuration flows with the initial boarding process. These merchants quickly fulfill security requirements for Nacha processing ACH transactions with the ACH processing solutions provided. To be the best ISO program, the iCG team invests the time to provide a successful and comfortable transition. This onboarding process leaves time for more merchant training on products, including but not limited to the Online Terminal, Quickbooks Online, and Quickbooks desktop.
Conclusion
Our iCG Sales team will gladly get on every sales call to make the presentation for you until your representatives feel ready to “take the wheel and sit in the driver’s seat” to close the deal. Great client experiences come from knowledgeable partner training to the merchant.
Suppose iCG’s solutions are presented clearly from the beginning, with proper expectations set, and a complete application is submitted to the UW promptly. In that case, merchants will integrate and process with our payment gateway for years. Our attrition rate is extremely low because we solve many technology-related challenges for our merchants and offer comprehensive support to satisfy customer questions and concerns. Your merchants will stay satisfied in good hands with the best ISO program with our iCG support and tech teams working together to help them process payments confidently with our gateway.
Suppose the merchant has questions about their statements or wants to add more custom changes to their payment processing solutions. In that case, they can reach out to their partner representative or our iCG Support team. The iCG team will pass on any communications to the referral partner to continue building a stronger and more confident partnership.
As long as the merchant processes with iCG, we give them comprehensive support to conduct business efficiently and securely, building the relationship on behalf of supporting our partners. Become an ISV partner with iCG today!
Date Originally Published: February 23, 2021
Date Updated: August 1, 2022