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Hidden Fees in Your Merchant Services : Tips to Save Your Practice Money · Hey Docs!

0:05
Welcome to the Haydocks Podcast with your host Jill Allen. Today we have a
0:10
special guest, Matt Rej, one of the founders of Merchant Cost Consulting,
0:15
a company that specializes in helping businesses, including orthodonic practices, save on credit
0:21
card processing fees. We'll dive into what led him to start Merchant Cost Consulting,
0:27
how his company can assist with fee negotiations, and practical tips for managing
0:32
these costs. Let's get into it. By now we all know I talk
0:38
to a lot of doctors and give advice to practices in every stage of their
0:43
life cycle. And one question my docs ask all the time is who do
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1:29
Hey, Matt, thanks so much for being on Haydocks today with me.
1:33
I'm super excited to have you on. This is going to be a
1:36
great topic. I get questions about merchant service and cost and fees all the
1:42
time, so I'm wondering if you could start us off by just telling us
1:46
a little bit about yourself and the company. Yeah, Jill, thanks for
1:49
having me. I appreciate it. So I guess a little bit about myself
1:52
in mcc at how we started, right. I didn't go to school for
1:56
credit card prossing. I don't think actually anyone goes to school for credit card
1:59
crossing, right. I was actually a business major in supply chain management,
2:02
so completely irrelevant topic. Right. So, in short, my first job
2:07
out of school was working for a credit card processing company. I had a
2:08
friend that was working there, said it was a good sales job, sounded
2:13
interesting, young crowd, et cetera. So that's where the journey begin,
2:16
right. But then working my way up the corporate ladder, you kind of
2:22
start peeling back the layers of how credit card processing works, right, you
2:24
see a lot of things. And as a sales rep in the payments industry,
2:30
right, you're compensated by the higher you've set a rate on a customer,
2:34
the more money you're obviously making. Right. So it's not advantageous for
2:38
our customers, right, And it didn't align with business owners additionally, like
2:44
it was super deceptive of how payments works, which we'll get into. But
2:46
in short, you know, rates are always increasing, they're always adding different
2:51
fees onto your statement. One statement looks different than another, so it's super
2:55
complex. And the reason mcc started it was because we were actually drinking at
3:01
a Christmas party. All great ideas come from drinking at a Christmas party,
3:07
right, and a bar napkin. Yeah, it's so cliche, but it's
3:10
true. And the short story was we said to ourselves, we can leverage
3:15
our ability and knowledge of payments to help businesses actually bring some transparency to it
3:22
without the headache of having to change who they were processing with, because we
3:24
would get phone calls Matt, what's this fee wise? This happening? And
3:29
it wasn't. It wasn't us, It was the corporate company just adding additional
3:32
rates. Right, So there's a better way to do this. So that's
3:36
how the inception of merchant cost consultings started and how it's kind of blossomed today.
3:40
So like knowing the ins and outs now kind of being on the other
3:45
side of the fence, helping businesses reduce costs wherever they possibly can with their
3:50
existing provider is the goal. And that's that's the lung wayed answer to your
3:53
question, Joe. I always love knowing how people got into it. You
3:58
know, I appreciate that you saw a need and I know advocate for doctors
4:04
and for practices just to make sure that you know that somebody is watching out
4:10
for them out there, because I you know, I can tell you after
4:13
thirty plus years in this industry and working with multiple practices, there is nobody
4:17
really out there wanting to make sure that the doctor stays safe. So let's
4:23
talk a little bit about our industry specifically and how you guys help our practices
4:30
and you know kind of what that looks like and what that means and what
4:33
you're looking for. Yeah, totally, So specifically for Orthodonis, right,
4:39
they all use some type of practice management software. Right, you can go
4:43
down the line or though two tops cloud nine. The list goes on right
4:48
wave, orthro track, et cetera. So regardless if you use a practice
4:53
management system or not, which most of them do, there's typically an integrated
4:57
credit card processing company that works with the practice management software, right. And
5:02
there are plenty of practices that just have the software and then they have a
5:05
third party credit card processing company, right. So it just depends on how
5:09
your practice is set up. I've seen both sides of the fence, but
5:13
ones that have the integration like it because it alleviates manual error, you know
5:17
of double entry into the practice management system, reconciliation uploads the patient chart,
5:24
so there's a convenience to that for sure. And then I've seen the flip
5:27
side of the fence where the doctor doesn't necessarily care about that manual error or
5:33
human entry. They just want the lowest overall cost, which I'll get to
5:36
in a second. Right. So for the integrated systems, if you're using
5:43
the credit card process and company that integrates with your practice management software, I
5:47
will tell you that there is a fine line between paying for that premium inconvenience
5:55
versus price gouging. In my opinion, right, you should pay a premium
6:00
to have that convenience where everything is integrated into one system. But there is
6:03
a line that needs to be drawn into the stand of well, how much
6:08
of a premium do I have to pay for this? Right? And this
6:11
goes for ach transactions as well as credit card processing, right. So for
6:15
the orthodontic industry in particular, most doctors do have that integration. So we're
6:20
dealing with that integrated credit card processing company. And to preface this, like,
6:26
nothing changes when we do our work, right, you're not switching practice
6:30
management systems. You aren't switching credit card processing companies. You know, we're
6:33
going through your merchant statements with a fine tooth come looking for patent rates,
6:39
billion errors, PCI compliance costs, monthly fees that shouldn't be there is there
6:44
a way to optimize these fees and modify them, right, And you know,
6:48
we're really just using our data to leverage based on the market where you
6:53
should be priced based on where everyone else is priced. Right. And for
6:56
the non integrated orthos out there right that don't have it with their system,
7:01
that's a little bit different in the aspect of you can get substantially better pricing
7:06
with that because you're not paying for that premium. Right, So there's a
7:10
push and pull depending on what's going to work for your practice. But that's
7:14
essentially what we do on a day to day basis. So you're an Orthodonion
7:16
practice, you come to me. I want to let everyone know it's irrelevant
7:20
of who you're using or how you're integrated, right, we can work with
7:25
both ways. That does play a factor though, in the savings that we
7:28
might get you. I'm curious if you can speak to so if I've got
7:31
a doc that's listening, and whether they're a startup or an existing and maybe
7:38
you could just give us some things that you know kind of on average,
7:41
if you're at this size practice, you know you should be expecting this percentage
7:46
or this much in fees or whatnot. And maybe even if you could break
7:50
down maybe some of things that we should be paying attention to, and but
7:57
maybe you could also talk about some of those hidden fees that we should be
8:00
aware of. Would you mind giving us a peek behind the curtain there?
8:03
Totally, this is going to be a fully loaded segment, perfect You're going
8:09
to try to keep it light. So let's answer your first question, right,
8:13
the average that you should be paying as a doctor. So if you
8:16
look on your merchant statement, regardless of who you're using, you want to
8:20
find the total fees that were debited out of your account, and you want
8:24
to divide that number by the total sales that you process their collections in just
8:28
credit cards, right, and if that number comes around two point three percent,
8:35
you're priced. Well, that doesn't mean that there's room that there isn't
8:37
room for improvement. It just means you're in a good spot. Right.
8:41
Anything over than that you should look at and say, Okay, Matt,
8:45
there's things that we need to look at here. What can we do to
8:46
improve this? So that's the average that we'd like to see getting into the
8:50
weeds of this, right, So there's a lot to unpack here. Let's
8:56
just start out with like some basic fees that you, as a doctor can
8:58
look on your statement to avoid. Right. So the biggest thing is PCI
9:03
compliance. Everyone knows about this. It's a super annoying feed. It is
9:07
real, it's it's real, but it's fake. And here's what I mean
9:11
for that is that you do need to be compliant with accepting credit cards.
9:16
That is one hundred percent true. How you're storing credit card data, you
9:18
know, for all the doctors that are doing reoccurring payments, you know,
9:22
you have to store that data correctly because it mitigates fraud and risk of a
9:26
data breach, for example, where that credit card information is then sent off
9:30
to the world and people can access your patient's data. That's why it exists.
9:35
However, PCI compliance, you know, these processing companies are charged a
9:39
fee in the background for typically like one hundred and twenty dollars, and then
9:43
they have to pass that fee onto you. But there's a non compliance fee
9:48
that you'll see on the statement, so I'll say PCI non compliance and that
9:52
rate that fee can range just depending on what the processing company wants to charge,
9:56
right, So if you are not compliant with storing credit cards correctly,
10:01
right, they're going to charge you a fee for that, and they're going
10:03
to charge you that fee every single month until you become compliant. So I
10:07
mean, I've seen this fee range anywhere from thirty dollars a month up to
10:13
two hundred and fifty dollars a month. So it's drastic and it just depends
10:16
on the processing company that you use, and it's a super easy fee to
10:20
avoid if you just become PCI compliant right now, that within itself can be
10:26
pretty difficult because if you try to become PCI compliant, there's a survey that
10:31
you have to take. There's a laundry list of questions that you have to
10:35
answer correctly, and if you don't answer them correctly, you're not PCI compliant.
10:39
So, like we help our clients do that to avoid this fee.
10:43
But if you do it on your own, but your IT department does it,
10:46
make sure they do it so you can avoid that monthly fee. That's
10:50
number one. The other one is we call it an auto enrollment monthly fee
10:56
and the name of what that fee is there by processing company. So for
11:01
example, you may see a fee on your statement that says analytics fee or
11:07
ce Suite analytics fee, there's so many, but it's a monthly charge that
11:13
can range anywhere from ten dollars to fifty dollars a month. And what they
11:16
do is when you sign the contract with your credit card crossing company, there's
11:20
a little box that your sales checks off that says, by signing this agreement,
11:24
you agree to be auto enrolled after three months into this monthly fee.
11:30
Here's what that monthly fee is and ninety nine out of one hundred times,
11:33
the doctor has no idea what that's value added service is, right, And
11:39
it's just a monthly fee in a way for these guys to make an additional
11:43
costs on your statement. Right, And Jill, you see this all the
11:46
time with like the cable companies, right, I compare it's a very similar
11:50
industry, except that would tell you that credit card processing is probably magnified ten
11:54
x because there's so many other fees involved, you know what I'm saying.
12:00
So those are two main ones that you can literally call into your processing companies
12:03
say I want these removed, YadA, YadA, YadA, And that's a
12:07
cost savings right off the bat that they can do. I guess. The
12:09
third part of this segment is like behind the curve, the hidden fees,
12:13
the misculaneous costs, etc. And let me break this down as basic as
12:18
I can. So there's fees that you can negotiate, there's fees that you
12:22
cannot. When it comes to credit card process, the fees that you cannot
12:26
are called interchange rates. Right. So, Jill, if you go into
12:30
your walult right now and you took out your Jet Blue credit card, for
12:33
example, jet Blue puts a rate on that credit card that's non negotiable,
12:39
can't do anything about it. That rate is basically what pays for your frequent
12:43
flyer miles, or your rewards programs or your cash back. So for the
12:48
purpose of this, I'm just going to tell you that the Jet Blue card,
12:50
the cost of it is two percent. Right, So every time that
12:54
you use your Jet Blue card at a restaurant, that restaurant's being charged two
12:58
percent, no matter what. So what happens is is that that two percent
13:03
gets charged to the processing company. The processing company then passes that charge onto
13:09
the doctor, the orthonontic practice. Okay, what the processing company does is
13:16
because they're a middleman, technically, they charge a market a service fee to
13:20
allow you to process that credit card payment from your patient to your business.
13:26
Right, so your practice gets charged two percent. And then in addition to
13:30
that global payments, well I should say, processing company charges additional fees for
13:35
that. And that is almost like the wild wildwist. They can charge whatever
13:39
they they deem necessary or whatever they want. Really, if you think you're
13:43
getting a good deal but you're really not, it's irrelevant to them, you
13:46
know what I mean. So to take a step back as it pertains to
13:50
startups. Most startups get put on very poor pricing from the beginning because the
13:56
processing company makes it seem like it's a really good deal. But if you
14:01
peel back the layers up, it's really not. And it's not until that
14:05
startup grows and starts processing a year later and finds out, Wow, I
14:11
just paid forty thousand dollars in credit card processing fees. You know what I
14:13
mean. I guess on the other side of the fence, if you're an
14:16
existing practice, you've been doing it forever. You know, you've got set
14:20
up for your practice management system, you're integrated with credit card processing. It's
14:24
all great, but you've you've never wanted to look at this cost because it's
14:28
a trigger word and it's staunting. But then you look at it and it's
14:30
like, wow, I just paid one hundred thousand dollars in credit card processing
14:33
fees. Like, imagine if you could reduce that by sixty percent, you
14:37
know what I mean. So those service markup fees, they're all over the
14:41
place, and there's different names for them depending on the processing company that you
14:46
use. And even those non negotiable fees that we talked about interchange rates.
14:50
You'll see processing companies pad those. So to take that Jet Blue card for
14:54
example, if you were paying if the card is two percent, company might
15:00
pad that and put an extra half percent on top of it in addition to
15:05
the service markup fees that they're charging. And as a doctor, it's almost
15:09
like you need a PhD to know credit card processing and realize which fee is
15:13
real, which fee is fake, which ones can be modified, what is
15:16
the ceiling or the floor that these fees can go to, you know what
15:20
I mean. So those are a lot of the nuances like behind the curtain
15:24
that we're dealing with when we look at your reports and try to find cost
15:28
savings for you. So long winded answer to your question, I would like
15:33
to talk a little bit kind of circle back around to a little bit about
15:35
what you said with startups, because a lot of docs that are listening on
15:39
this show are younger doctors, brand new into this, and one of the
15:45
things that I am continually running up against with the docs is the fact that
15:50
when we are first getting going, we're choosing our operating systems. I do
15:54
try and advocate for integrated merchant services in the beginning just because we usually have
16:00
new team members and new doctors, and like you said, like that human
16:04
error. You know, I've seen it too many times where somebody thinks they're
16:08
charging the credit card on, you know, in this area and never put
16:11
it into the operating system or vice versa. And now there's enough to learn
16:15
in doing a new practice already. I think the thing that is so frustrating
16:21
and tough that I think doctors really run into again going back to what you
16:25
were talking about, is the fact that we don't have any merchant service history.
16:32
So to a point, you feel like you are you're kind of at
16:36
the mercy of these merchant service companies depending upon the software that you're signing up
16:41
for and the rates that they're going to give you. And what I feel
16:45
like when I, you know, help docs kind of review their initial credit
16:51
card processing statements, and what the company is saying they're going to do is
16:55
they don't necessarily line eye them out all of the things that they're at actually
17:00
going to be charging you for, and you don't tend to see those fees
17:04
start to show up until four or five six months later. And again,
17:10
most of the time, docs aren't really really scrutinizing those because they don't really
17:15
know what to look for. So I'm I'm curious if you could give us
17:19
any suggestions or help there, and maybe if you could even give us some
17:26
suggestions on negotiating, because my answer for doctors is usually, and you're going
17:32
to hate this answer, but sometimes I'm like, but kind of just have
17:36
to do our best to negotiate the best that we can do. But again,
17:41
we don't have a lot of leverage knowing that at minimum after a year
17:48
to three years after you've started your practice, you have to get with somebody
17:52
to renegotiate these rates because now you've got that history, now you've got you've
17:56
got a little bit more. So can you can you give us some help
18:00
here, because I know I've got a lot of docs sitting on the edge
18:03
of their seat going, Okay, what's he gonna say? Yeah, totally,
18:07
So let's look at this for a second. So even when I was
18:11
a sales rep selling credit card processing, we would get phone calls all the
18:15
time of new businesses right now, naturally, and this is what all processing
18:21
companies do, is they're going to give that new business. I hate to
18:26
say it, but the worst pricing because they're going to make they'll make more
18:30
money on it. Right now, At my old job, we had to
18:33
submit a pricing addendum or a pricing review if we wanted to give a new
18:37
business a really good deal, like we would have to go to our boss
18:41
and say, hey, you know this new business, I want to put
18:45
them on XYZ pricing so they could keep track of it, right. And
18:48
it got to the point where I was doing that so many times I got
18:51
yelled at. It's like, stop stop doing that, Stop giving these people
18:55
a deal. Side note, But anyways, so I guess that the moral
18:59
of that story is to tell you that it is possible to get really good
19:02
pricing even as a startup. You don't have to leverage sales volume or anything
19:07
like that. You just need to know what you're looking for, you know
19:08
what I mean. That's that's the biggest difference. So, for an example,
19:14
when a startup goes and gets a quote from a credit card processing company,
19:18
right, there's six different pricing structures that are out there, which makes
19:22
it even more confusing. But most of the time processing companies are going to
19:26
offer what's called tiered pricing, also known as bundled pricing, And if you're
19:32
a doctor listening to this, if you see that or hear that, run
19:34
the other way, because that is what that's what makes you, you know,
19:38
on the worst pricing structure where you look twelve months later you're like,
19:41
oh my god, I can't believe I played this much in fees, right,
19:45
And how tiered pricing works is that there's usually three to six tiers of
19:49
a rate that they'll assign based on the type of card that you accept.
19:53
So if you take a debit card at your practice, if you take a
19:56
normal credit card at your practice, if you took a rewards card at your
20:00
practice, they're going to offer you a different rate. What a lot of
20:03
people don't understand is that if you took a rewards card, let's just say,
20:07
they're going to charge you the basic introductory rate, but might be like
20:11
one point seven percent plus another rate on top of it that they'll call a
20:15
non qualified rate, which is like two and a half percent. They'll combine
20:19
it. So really, for that transaction, you're being charged a four percent
20:23
fee versus what you thought you were going to be charged. And the issue
20:29
is is that they don't explain that well enough to you. To make you
20:33
realize how much you're actually going to be charged, you know what I mean.
20:36
There's also flat rate pricing that's out there. So a lot of businesses,
20:40
or I should say a lot of processing companies and integrated service providers are
20:44
offering this because it's super easy for you, the doctor to understand. It's
20:48
exactly what it sounds like. We're going to charge you two point seventy five
20:52
percent regardless of the type of card that you accept. It doesn't matter if
20:55
it's debit doesn't matter if it's credit. That's what you're going to be charged.
20:59
And as a you might like that because it's like, hey, I
21:03
know this is what I'm being charged every single month. You know, I
21:04
can forecast whatever, and that's great. The problem with flat rate pricing is
21:11
that if you took a debit card. Let's go back to the example about
21:15
the Jet Blue credit card, right, Well, there's seven hundred and fifty
21:18
different interchange rates that are out there, and they all fluctuate. Debit cards
21:26
are the least expensive card because there is no rewards program associated to it,
21:30
so there's no need to have a high interchange rate associated to it. Right,
21:34
So, when you take a debit card at your practice. For the
21:37
purpose of this example, let's just say that that's only half a percent at
21:41
cost. But if your processing company is charging you two point seventy five percent
21:47
and a debit card only costs half a percent, that means they're making the
21:51
difference of that in their profit margining, you know what I mean, or
21:53
revenue, whatever you want to call it, And that's a big difference when
21:57
you're talking about if you took one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of debit
22:00
transactions, you know what I mean. And that's obviously how the processing companies
22:04
make their money. So I guess it depends, right If you're a startup,
22:07
you're not going to know the types of cards that you're accepting. But
22:11
we know after looking at thousands of orthodonic practice it's a good healthy mix fifty
22:18
to fifty sixty forty of credit to debit. So you're going to take a
22:21
healthy amount of debit cards because HSA cards, insurance cards cards fall into that
22:26
category, you know what I mean. And it's not like there you know,
22:30
it's like you walk into a doctor's practice. Maybe it's a copay,
22:33
maybe it's just a one time payment or a deposit. Maybe write five hundred
22:37
dollars deposit and then we'll put you on the reoccurring charges. Right, So
22:41
some people put debit cards on that. This is a credit card, so
22:44
there's a lot of reasons behind it, but in short, that's the difference
22:47
with flat rate pricing. Now, as a startup, you want to ask
22:49
for interchange plus pricing. This is the shoe dropping. So doctors listening to
22:55
this say that one more time, interchange plus pricing is what you want to
23:00
ask for, right, And a good example of it, I always use
23:04
Mark Cuban's new company. It's a pharmacy company. I think it's called cost
23:08
plus company, and in short, it's the cost of the drug plus a
23:12
fifteen percent markup, and that is what interchange plus pricing. It's the same
23:18
concept you get the interchange rate. So the example of the Jet Blue card,
23:22
it's two percent plus a markup and the markup is dictated by the processing
23:26
company that you're working with. But those are that's the best pricing structure because
23:32
it's one of the most transparent. You know, based on every single card
23:36
that you accept, what the interchange rate is going to be. They should
23:38
list it out in your statement and then you'll know what the markup is that
23:41
your processing company is charging. Right, So that's what you want to ask
23:47
for. Now, a company can put you on interchange plus pricing, that's
23:51
great, but there are plenty of other fees that they can try to make
23:55
up right in the background to make up the difference and cost, and that's
23:57
what you really have to be aware of. So it's one thing to get
24:02
a good deal even if you're not a startup. Even if you have an
24:04
existent business and you're on interchange plus pricing, that doesn't mean that you still
24:11
have good pricing, you know what I mean. That means you're on the
24:12
right pricing structure. But if there's ten other fees that they're marking up substantially,
24:18
it doesn't matter, you know what I mean. But interchange plus is
24:19
a good start if you're a startup business that you can request or ask for
24:25
totally start off on the right work. Hey Dox, Let's talk about consumer
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excellence. We haven't talked much about it, but we do use a lot
26:33
of ACH in our industry. But I'm wondering if you can talk just a
26:37
little bit about the ACCH component and if there are things that we should be
26:41
paying attention to also if we have a merchant surface company that can handle both
26:47
of those for us. I always recommend if you can take as much ACCH
26:52
as possible, you will save your practice ton money because at baseline you're not
26:56
paying the innerchangery right so as it's much more or less expensive. Now it
27:02
goes back to if you have an integrated system or not. So let's just
27:03
take the ones that don't have an integrated system. If you're using your bank
27:07
or a third party processing company, they can do ah very inexpensive, no
27:14
percentage rates allocated to it, just to transaction fee every time you process an
27:18
AH, and that's going to save you a ton of money. If you
27:21
have an integrated system, a lot of them are going to try to charge
27:23
you more because again that premium convenience right doing it all in one place,
27:30
which again is true. But with ACH you can leverage the fact that you
27:33
can go to your bank and through AH processing for a transaction fee. So
27:38
if they're trying to add percentage markups things like that for your AH processing,
27:44
that's something that the red flag needs to go off. There are probably monthly
27:48
fees associated to it instead of costs, which is pretty normal. But I
27:52
would always tell and I tell doctors this too. If you have patients already
27:56
on credit cards, it's going to be tough to get those patients to go
28:00
to ACH to switch, right, But if you can give them the agreement
28:07
when they sign up for your practice, the option just to do ACCH and
28:11
not credit cards, and then if they really give you some pushback, you
28:15
can always fall back onto the credit card. But if moving forward, any
28:18
new patient that comes in you can get them on ACCH. That is going
28:22
to save you a ton money, you know, docs, just in general,
28:26
we're probably less likely to have default on payments when we've got it coming
28:30
out of a checking account. Yes, there are issues, you know,
28:34
if we do have that, because that just means they truly don't have money
28:37
in their checking account. But you know, we don't have to worry about
28:41
credit cards expiring and you know, being over the limit and all those different
28:45
things. But my point to that is, as you are saying, as
28:48
well, watching the cost. You know, if it costs US twenty five
28:52
cents or fifty cents to run an ACCH payment, and if you're running you
28:59
know, fifty haymens a month, you know, you can look at that
29:00
that was such a minimal fee. And then, like you were saying,
29:03
if a patient really wants to be on a credit card, I've even encouraged
29:08
doctors to pass on a transaction fee of you know, that's fine, we'll
29:11
put you on it, but we're going to add an additional three percent to
29:15
your the cost of doing business or whatnot. And a lot of times that's
29:19
just enough where patients will be like, eh, yeah, all right,
29:22
then I'll go ahead and give you my ach information. But again, when
29:26
you're looking at those business costs. What a way to help keep keep those
29:30
costs down? Totally, it's highly encouraged. You've been awesome at just giving
29:36
us really good meat and potatoes behind the scenes information here. Let's talk a
29:41
little bit about how you help with this and can you talk a little bit
29:45
about how you guys make money, how you help practices. Does it make
29:49
sense for a startup doc to call you versus an existing practice? Can you
29:53
talk to that a little bit, Yeah, totally so. I mean it's
29:57
always that age old question, right, you're either a do it yourself or
30:03
you outsource it, right, Like, yes, I could landscape my whole
30:07
line if I really really wanted to, But if I don't want to do
30:10
that, then I'm going to hire a landscape, right. It's it's same
30:14
concept for this, you know, as as an existing practice or startup practice.
30:18
Right. It's like you have so many things going on, you know,
30:22
inventory, supplies, personnel, working actually you know on your craft.
30:29
There's so many things involved, right, and yeah, you hire staff to
30:33
do part of these things for you, but it's just too much, right.
30:36
So, credit card processing is one of hundreds of things that you,
30:37
as a doctor have to worry about and because it's a trigger word, and
30:41
because it's such a nuisance and people don't like dealing with it. It's one
30:45
of those expenses that gets left off to the wayside and then you look at
30:49
it and it's like, I can't believe I just paid this much, you
30:52
know what I mean? So for us, where really for the people that
30:56
they want to save money and they want help doing it right. Someone can
31:00
negotiate with any one of your vendors, it doesn't matter credit card is credit
31:03
card processing aside. You can negotiate gloves, et cetera. But I think
31:07
the biggest difference for us is, you know, we're leveraging a lot of
31:11
the knowledge that we have to make sure that you're on the best deal.
31:14
But the other aspect of this is, even if you're a doctor and you're
31:18
a do it yourself type of person, getting a good deal is only half
31:22
the battle. It's keeping that deal in place, which is really the value
31:26
add right. So merging costs and Celting's business model is we help our doctors
31:32
reduce the fees that they pay with their existing provider or the provider of their
31:36
choice, right, And how we make money is that we take a percentage
31:41
of the cost savings that we achieve them. So it's just like an injury
31:45
attorney, right, or a contingency attorney. We do all the work up
31:48
front and only if we are successful at achieving savings do we share within that.
31:52
It's a win win all around. The doctor saves money. We only
31:55
make money if we're saving the doctor money, and if we don't, you
31:57
owe us nothing. Just the beauty of it. The other aspect of our
32:02
service, which is no additional cost, it's just what we do, is
32:06
the auditing. So every month we look at the statements and make sure that
32:10
hey, what we got you stays in place, and that if they're trying
32:14
to mark up anything, padding, interchange rates, adding additional fees, that
32:17
we take care of that on your behalf. Help with your PCID compliance,
32:22
right, So when six months goes by and they try to increase your pricing
32:25
by thirty three percent, we're there to flag it down, catch it and
32:29
then fix it. Right. That's the biggest difference. So as a startup,
32:36
yes, using us is great because one we would help you get the
32:39
best pricing out of the gates, so you don't have to have that poor
32:43
taste in your mouth a year later, when you know you're paying thousands of
32:46
dollars in fees you didn't have to. But two, we're making sure that
32:51
what we got you stays in place, so you really never have to worry
32:52
about it. From startups perspective, from an existing practice, we have doctors
32:58
all the time send us their statement. We can't help them because we're not
33:01
a fit for everybody. It's just how it works, right, But they
33:05
will call us back six months later and say, Matt, this doesn't look
33:09
right. That two point three percent that you told me was supposed to be
33:13
my average is now at three percent. I know they increase something here.
33:16
I don't know where can you help, you know what I mean? So
33:20
that's the biggest difference. That's where we focus, that's how we operate.
33:23
I do use the example of you know, when COVID broke out, practices
33:29
were shut down for sixty days. Hopefully that never happens again. But if
33:31
it were to write, if you're not processing any payments, there are no
33:37
savings, so you don't owe us anything. There's nothing to share, you
33:39
know what I mean. And again that's the beauty and for us, you
33:43
know, we get doctors asked us all the time, Well, Matt,
33:45
how do I know how much you're saving me every month? And we'll send
33:51
you a report that's very black and white that says, here are the fees
33:54
that you were paying before you engage with our services. Here are those same
33:59
fees we're doing, and now what you're paying after we've negotiated. You know
34:01
what I mean. You'll get that monthly so you can reconcile everything. And
34:06
that's it. I mean, it's a super black and white service. It's
34:08
not a sexy service by any stretch of the imagination. You know, we're
34:14
numbers. We're numbers people. That's that's how it works. I did not
34:16
realize that you guys did this on a monthly basis. And it makes me
34:21
think of a conversation that I just had with one of my startup docs and
34:24
a lot of times we are going through that back inside of the business,
34:29
you know, helping them learn to be business owners. And she was like,
34:32
you know, Jill, I've been really paying attention to my credit cards
34:36
to the point where she made this beautiful but super elaborate Excel sheet and she's
34:43
like, every month, now I go through it and I plug in all
34:46
of my fees into my Excel sheet and you know, and she's like,
34:50
you would not believe. You know, in this last couple of months as
34:53
I've been doing this, the fees that they promised me are not what they
34:57
said they were the extra fees that snuck in. I say this because as
35:01
docs, you can all do this. But there comes this point where you
35:06
say, what's your time worth? What's your time worth? Is it worth
35:10
spending an extra thirty minutes or an hour on top of all the other things
35:15
that you've got to be looking at your credit card processing? Or is that
35:20
something that we can put in hands of experts and say okay for a nominal
35:24
fee and you know a little bit and that savings. I know that I've
35:28
got that taken care of. So I think that it's great to know that
35:31
you guys are out there advocating and able to do that work if docs are
35:36
ready to get that off of their plates. Yeah, you raise a good
35:38
points like what is your time worth? Like is your time worth trying to
35:42
get additional patients in the door, to grow your practice, open another office,
35:45
whatever, Because you can certainly learn this stuff. You know, It's
35:49
not like information's not out there, it's just is it worth your time?
35:52
So as we finish up, I'm wondering if you had maybe you know some
35:57
what you would consider your top three pieces of advice for anybody out there,
36:01
maybe in negotiating credit card processing fees or anything else that we may have talked
36:06
about or did not cover. Yeah, I would say, try to get
36:09
more than one quote with any credit card processing company. So if you talk
36:14
to one, go talk to two others. Right. Two. I'm biased,
36:17
but I would say scrutinize your statements monthly at the very least, try
36:22
to do it quarterly or twice a year. And then three. You know,
36:25
I would always just say when you do scrutinize the statements, try to
36:30
compare it to other months so that you know if you see additional fees that
36:35
may pop up, if it was there before or not. You know what
36:37
I mean. Again, it's like reading another language. One fee could stand
36:43
for the same thing but be called something different a couple months later, you
36:47
know what I mean. So it's tough, but those would be the three
36:50
pieces of advice I would give you if you're kind of looking into this more
36:53
in detail. Perfect if somebody wants to get a hold of you. If
36:57
they're like, all right, time is not worth spending my life on making
37:02
new spreadsheets and they want your help, how do they get a hold of
37:06
you? And you're also party of Mary's List as well, correct, So
37:08
there's some benefit there for anybody out there listening. How would they get a
37:13
hold of you and maybe set up their first call with you? Yeah,
37:16
they can reach out. They just go to our website. It's Merchantcostconsulting dot
37:21
com and you can just submit your information and the blurb and the notes.
37:24
When you're submitting this, just say hey, hew'd you win Jill Allen's podcast.
37:28
But yes, we're part of Mary's List. We're part of the AEO,
37:31
all the regional chapters of the Al Showman Group. So you'll find us
37:35
in a lot of different places. So reach out, you know, tell
37:37
us what groups you're affiliated with. That's super helpful. But just ask for
37:40
Matt, say I would like to speak with Matt and we'll have a conversation.
37:45
Consultations are free, The audits of your merchant statements are free. We
37:49
want to let you know up front of what we think we can do for
37:51
you, because again We're not for everybody, and then we'll take it from
37:53
there. The best way to get in content wonderful. Well, thank you
37:57
so much for you know, just giving us such good and information. And
38:00
I know that you're going to be getting some calls because I get calls about
38:05
this all the time. We're constantly talking about it on my side of the
38:07
business. And it's so as we finish up here, the way I like
38:10
to finish up Haydocks is always with a little speed round. Are you ready
38:15
for the speed round challenge? Yes? So I looked at the questions.
38:21
I forgot the questions. So now this is going to come right from the
38:23
hip, solly. Alrighty, So what is your go to productivity tool?
38:31
Landscaping? Getting outside? Ah? I love it? Okay, early bird
38:37
or night owl? Early bird? Okay. What was your first job you
38:42
ever had? I worked as a labor and autobody Oh awesome, awesome,
38:49
that's great experience. Yeah for sure. And then what would you say has
38:52
had the most tremendous impact on your professional life? That's a good question.
38:57
I wouldn't say it's one particular thing, but I would give a shout out
39:00
to all the businesses that gave us an opportunity at the beginning. I would
39:05
say that was probably the biggest. The best thing that's happened is just someone
39:09
giving you a shot and then you coming through and that opportunity and it working
39:14
out. So I love that. And then final question, what's one business
39:17
skill you think everyone should have? Communication? One hundred percent? Be able
39:22
to communicate. You know, if you're a doctor and you're you're awesome at
39:27
your craft, that's great, but you also have to put the communication head
39:30
on talking to patients. It's almost like sales, right, I would say
39:35
communications. Then moren Well, Matt again, thank you, this was wonderful.
39:38
I really appreciate you just giving us such good knowledge, good things to
39:44
put away. And thanks for being on Haydax today. I appreciate it.
39:47
Jill, thanks for having me all right. See yeah, are you ready
39:51
to start a practice of your own? Need a new fresh set of eyes
39:54
or some advice on your existing practice? If so, reach out to me
39:59
Jill Allen at www dot practice results dot com. If you like what we're
40:04
doing here on Haydocks and want to hear more of this awesome content, be
40:07
sure and give us a five star rating on your preferred listening platform and subscribe
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every Thursday. See you next week.