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Wells Fargo Merchant Services - Customer Service Department of the Year

 

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2019, Click to Enter The 2020 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service

Company: Wells Fargo Merchant Services - Account Management, Concord, CA
Company Description: Wells Fargo Merchant Services is a leader in electronic payment services, providing a full range of credit and debit card payment acceptance solutions for organizations of all sizes. The Nilson Report (March 2018) ranked Wells Fargo #6 among top U.S. acquirers. Serving 162,000 customers, we processed $405 billion in total sales volume on 5.7 billion credit and debit transactions in 2017.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Department Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year - Financial Services - Up to 100 Employees

Nomination Title: Wells Fargo Merchant Services - Account Management

Tell the story about what this nominated department achieved since the beginning of July 2017 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Dedicated support

For even the most sophisticated organizations, accepting card payments can be complex. As a result, many don’t achieve the full potential that accepting card payments can deliver. That’s why our team of 90 Wells Fargo Merchant Services account managers makes one-on-one guidance a priority, helping their 2,000+ customers navigate the card payments ecosystem with confidence.

Our account managers also have a deep understanding of our customers’ industries (such as healthcare, government, telecom, insurance, and service providers) and the solutions available to suit their specific needs. The resulting tailored advice helps all of our customers unlock the most value from every card payment.

In-depth business intelligence

Beyond day-to-day support, our account managers present formal business reviews to provide key insights about a customer’s card processing activity and to recommend methods for improving efficiency, optimizing cash flow, and reducing expenses. Through these customized consultations, our account managers also educate customers about providing the transaction data needed to help them avoid the unnecessary extra costs of interchange downgrades. This can result in significant savings each year for our most active customers.

In our 2017 and 2018 business review surveys, with nine categories ranging from professionalism to frequency of communication, our customers gave our account managers an average score of 4.7 out of 5 across all categories, with 5 representing “extremely satisfied”.

Constant communication

Between business reviews and touch-base calls, our account managers send customers monthly newsletters to deliver timely payment industry updates and advance notification of changes in payment network regulations and operations. It’s the news that matters most to them because of how it might affect their business. These newsletters ensure that our customers have the information and time they need to prepare for any required compliance, technical, or product changes.

Empowering through education

Organizations large and small need help with managing customer payment disputes (also known as chargebacks). And although disputes can’t be completely avoided, there are steps customers can take to help prevent them. That’s why our account management team presents complimentary workshops, in-person and online, to train our customers on dispute processes, rules, risks, and best practices to limit dispute liabilities. Advanced workshops include interactive opportunities to review and learn to better respond to actual cases. The more customers know about processing procedures, the more likely they are to avoid costly disputes.

Success stories

One of our team’s many success stories is that of the account manager for a home improvement and lumber retailer struggling to efficiently accept an increasing number of large-dollar B2B payments. Nearly 60% of their total sales volume is with contractors buying large amounts of building supplies, but the retail locations use point-of-sale terminals that can’t process some of the largest purchases that large contractors frequently make. This forces a work-around of splitting the payment into two smaller transactions, which is not the best customer experience, not to mention extra work for the contractor.

By analyzing the data and facilitating discovery conversations with the customer, the account manager found a product solution to enable them to accept the large B2B payments in one transaction while simultaneously saving them $200,000 per year in interchange costs, approximately 15% of their total transaction fees. The new solution is now being implemented, and the customer is excited about the added benefit of storing tokenized cardholder data, which improves their data security.

Collaborative partners

Serving as our customers’ primary contacts for day-to-day payment processing support, Wells Fargo Merchant Services account managers are collaborative partners who provide the tools and information customers need to face the challenges of card payment processing. These team members are truly “merchant advocates” who are viewed as trusted advisors because they take the time to get to know our customers and their business processes. Backed by this expert guidance, our customers can deploy their internal resources more efficiently—spending less time managing card payment operations and more time focusing on their strategic business goals.