If you’re like many retailers and hospitality operators, you’re preparing to upgrade your POS system in accordance with the Europay/MasterCard/Visa (EMV) liability shift. Maybe you’ve already done so, given that the shift took effect on October 1. Making such a move has its benefits—i.e., allowing you to process chip-enabled cards and, in turn, protecting you from financial responsibility for fraudulent card-present transactions completed in your establishment(s). However, it also has its drawbacks—namely, chip-based card transactions can take longer to process than transactions executed with magnetic stripe cards. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent EMV from slowing your transaction times too noticeably.
- Select the proper hardware. EMV equipment comes in two “flavors”—“EMV-ready” and “EMV-certified.” The former simply has a slot into which customers insert their chip cards when it’s time to pay for merchandise or food. By contrast, “EMV-certified” equipment has been certified to operate best with specific POS solutions and with only certain payment processors. Find out from your POS provider which devices in their technology toolbox are most compatible and will work best with your existing system. Choosing only from among hardware options on the provider’s list should greatly minimize transaction-related delays in the wake of conversion to an EMV platform.
- Consider a contactless payment configuration. Without a doubt, you’ll want the ability to process “contact” chip card payments, as some customers will never grow accustomed and/or willing to make payments in contactless mode. However, such payments take longer to process than contactless payments, so a contactless payment option is also an important component of any POS hardware configuration deployed because of the EMV liability shift. For while security-minded consumers favor the extra layer of protection afforded by chip-based card authentication, they remain wary of long queues at the POS. Without a contactless payment option, they may become so frustrated that they take their business elsewhere—preferably, to a merchant that has bought into EMV-based payment protection AND accepts payments in a more expedient (contactless) manner.
- Train employees thoroughly. Transaction times are naturally longer when customers aren’t certain how to use EMV-ready or EMV-compliant payment technology—but with assistance from knowledgeable employees, things will move faster. Accordingly, instruct employees on how to help customers select the application they want to use, guide them through the various transaction steps (e.g., insert the card into the slot instead of swiping it through the magnetic stripe reader), and avoid any pitfalls (see #4, below).
Employees should also learn what to do should a chip card or chip card reader happen to malfunction. Let them know that the equipment will typically allow a few attempts at reading a chip card before prompting for a fallback read of its magnetic stripe (if permitted by the issuer).
- Educate customers. While a lack of EMV training among employees will surely contribute to slower transaction times, so, too, will the absence of customer education. Unless taught otherwise, customers have the potential to make mistakes that lead to transaction delays. For example, if a chip card is inserted into the designated slot on a POS terminal, but quickly removed rather than left in position for the duration of the transaction, the latter will be automatically canceled—and all steps leading up to payment must be repeated. Similarly, in an EMV environment that involves tipping, the gratuity must be added before settlement occurs, or it cannot be included in the transaction total. If a customer mistakenly omits the tip, but wants the server to receive a gratuity, the transaction needs to be voided and re-initiated from “scratch.”
Employees can be trained to assist customers with chip card usage, and to ensure that they don’t make the above-mentioned errors. Reinforce customers’ “EMV education” with in-store signage; for example, signs that remind patrons to wait for the beep before removing a chip card from a POS terminal and to remember to take their cards once transactions are complete.
Once again, the transition to EMV brings many benefits to retailers and hospitality players—but at the small price of extended transaction times. The more steps you take to prevent EMV from lengthening transactions too much, the better.
