It's that time of year again! Commerciant will once again be at the ETA show in Las Vegas, April 17-19. We'll be in booth 332, and we hope you'll be able to stop by and say hello. This is a great time to meet several Commerciant executives, including
• Tim Davis, CEO
• Terry Crane, VP of Business Development
• Richard Howell, VP of Marketing
Since the Mobilescape 5000 was launched in mid-2006, we've learned a lot about what markets are hot, short cuts to selling wireless devices, and how to pitch this unique solution. Most of all, we all want to hear from you, how things are going, and what we can do to help increase your business.
As always, we thank you for your efforts, and we look forward to seeing you.
We know how hard it will be to fit everything in during ETA, but add this to your list: Commerciant's private cocktail party for ISOs and agents. We'll host it in a suite at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay, convenient to the show floor. To attend, you'll need to stop by the booth and get a party pass.
Where: THEhotel
When: Wednesday, April 18th from 5:30-7:30
Suite: TBD
We'll provide beer, wine, liquor and snacks. Drop off your party pass with us and you'll be entered in a drawing for a FREE Mobilescape 5000 demo terminal and 90 days of free air time. See you there!
Many of you have asked us about the best way to contact Commerciant for customer service. If you have a question about a merchant's terminal, call your relationship manager for assistance. They can help you with any account changes or updates along with answering any processing or transaction questions that you might have. If they're not available, try the customer service line at 866-255-5500, extension 1.
Your relationship manager is also a good place to start for questions about address changes, Mobilescape Manager password changes, and billing issues. For a more in-dept review of potential issues, Commerciant provides weekly phone-based sessions for ISOs and agents that cover the common questions and training topics.
If your merchant has a technical emergency with their Mobilescape after normal business hours, they can call the Mobilescape Help Line at 866-414-5600. The representatives at the Help Line can answer basic questions regarding the use of the terminal. If they cannot resolve your merchant's request, they'll pass on the ticket to an on-call Commerciant employee who will call back as soon as they receive the request.
We appreciate your understanding and feedback as we continue to improve our customer support programs. It's our goal to provide a seamless, positive experience for ISOs, agents and merchants as we continue to grow.
Are you currently selling the Mobilescape 3000 and 5000 terminals and haven't added them to your website yet? A picture is worth a thousand words, so if you would like to improve your sales by showcasing the Mobilescape terminal on your website, you can find pictures posted in our Image Library under the Agent Resource Center at www.commerciant.com. The Agent Resource Center also has the latest marketing and sales materials that you can post to your site.
Payments are a critical issue for small businesses, according to a new nationwide study of small business payment preference conducted by Boston-based consulting group Dove Consulting, a division of Hitachi Consulting.
Conducted in October and November 2006, the 2006/2007 Study of Small Business Payment Preferences included detailed survey responses from 952 small businesses across industries with annual revenues under $5 million. Among all of the participants, the study found that small businesses receive an average of 259 customer payments each month across all sales channels and that checks and cash represents the majority of these receipts. Checks account for 40 percent of customer payments to small businesses, while cash accounts for 25 percent, credit cards account for 16 percent and PayPal account for 9 percent.
"There is clearly an opportunity for financial institutions and payment processors to deepen customer relationships and offer specific services for the small business sector," said Laura Fuller, a director with Dove Consulting and the manager of the study.
Across all small businesses, cash and checks are the most widely accepted tender type--88 percent of all small businesses report that they accept both cash and checks. This was followed by credit cards and signature debit cards, with 54 percent of small businesses reporting that they accept these tender types.
Many of you have asked us about the best way to contact Commerciant for customer service. If you have a question about a merchant's terminal, call your relationship manager for assistance. They can help you with any account changes or updates along with answering any processing or transaction questions that you might have. If they're not available, try the customer service line at 866-255-5500, extension 1.
Are you currently selling the Mobilescape 3000 and 5000 terminals and haven't added them to your website yet? A picture is worth a thousand words, so if you would like to improve your sales by showcasing the Mobilescape terminal on your website, you can find pictures posted in our Image Library under the 
