Whether to Bonus on Tokens Purchase or Not?

[Carl]

I didn't purchase credit card readers for my 8 vacuums, but I did for my 2 dog washes, 6 ss bays and 2 automatic bays. Customers want credit card acceptance at my 8 vacuums but I refuse to pay nearly 22% in fees since my sales will only be $1.00 average sales for the vacuums and they tack on "per transaction" fees. I am ordering a credit card token dispenser (only 2.75% fee w/ no "per transaction" fee ) as the solution for my credit card customers being able to vacuum w/ a token purchased at the machine.

American Changer wants me to tell them my four price settings and their respective $1.00 tokens payout amounts. Was wondering what you guys would set these at? Obviously I will set one button at $1.00 credit card charge for one dollar token but keeping in mind that I do not want to "cannibalize" the use of my credit card machines in my ss bays, dog washes and auto bays since I don't want to increase so much walking back and forth to the token dispenser in the slippery winter months and then increase my chances of getting sued if someone slips on icy pavement, what would you guys set the other three choices at?

Right now I'm thinking $5 charge for five $1 tokens, $10 charge for ten $1 tokens and $20 charge for twenty-two $1 tokens. Am I missing an opportunity here not bonusing differently than this? Since this machine won't take cash and will just do credit card to token dispensing, would you recommend some other settings other than the popular $5, $10 and $20 settings? I know the good thing about selling tokens is that they are site-specific so that tempts me to want to bonus more than just at the $20 level but like I said, since I have readers throughout the rest of my facility, maybe I should just set this machine to be almost a one-to-one token dispenser except at the $20 level where I'd give them the 10% bonus? Would you set the other three buttons totally different than what I'm describing & why? Thanks so much. - Carl

 

[MEP001]

Customers want credit card acceptance at my 8 vacuums but I refuse to pay nearly 22% in fees since my sales will only be $1.00 average sales for the vacuums and they tack on "per transaction" fees.

Keep in mind that a CC acceptor at the vac works differently than the count-up ones in the bay. You're paying for two swipes in the bays, but the vacs will only have one. I believe one of the systems doesn't charge a swipe fee at all. There are also merchant processors that charge a flat percentage and no transaction fees.

Obviously I will set one button at $1.00 credit card charge for one dollar token

Why set one button for $1 for one token? You then incur all the fee costs of adding CC to the vacs without any of the advantages.

Am I missing an opportunity here not bonusing differently than this?

I wouldn't discount the tokens except for the highest purchase; in fact I might not discount them at all. Some customers are there to use their CC anyway, and you'll profit less if they buy tokens at a discount instead of using it "straight up" in the bays.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

In the situation you described, I would not provide bonus tokens at all.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

It seems like alot of work and expense for a dollar vacuum. Is it possible all the work and expense you want to go thru for the vacs will make money -Have you put a pen to the profit vs expense.

 

[cellardale@aol.com]

I recently scaled back my token machine from a bonus payout at twenty dollars spent to no bonues. I got absolutely no one complaining about the missing bonus tokens. I believe the cc customer is happy just to have an additional outlet for funds.

 

[Carl]

Thanks for your input!

Appreciate all your input! I decided to go with NO bonuses for the payouts. In this economy, discounting our services needs to be done very carefully. Good to hear that when you went down from "bonus for $20" to "no bonus", no complaints and still appreciation that your customers could at least use their cards at your wash.

Regarding whether putting pencil to paper justifies my buying this credit card token dispenser. It really doesn't. But the way I see it is that it's an investment to allow my customers to spend money here when they want to versus seeing almost ten months now of their getting downright angry sometimes when at the vacuums they can't spend money to vacuum because my old credit card readers became non-PCI complaint thanks to E-Wash, LLC going out-of-business. The fees are much better w/ this machine through Mercury Payments Systems (2.75% w/ no transaction fees) and the cost of adding WashPay by Unitec to all eight vacuums is way higher than getting this token dispenser. Still not cheap, I know, but I've gotta make things more convenient for my customers again.

Thanks! - Carl