I am curious as to what payment service providers are doing to stand apart from the crowd in this highly competitive space.
Hi Content Rewired, You're right, the payment processing industry is highly competitive, and standing out is often the difference between great success and utter failure. Processors that end up doing the best generally have: 1. Effective marketing and branding (SEO, social, word-of-mouth) 2. A niche they excel in (think: industries that a processor handles particularly well) 3. Confident executives, or at least one higher-up person who can instill trust in a merchant quickly by simply talking to them If you lack any of those, it's a lot harder to set yourself apart. If you have all three, you're in good shape.
The challenge of payment processing is to find good quality customers. I would suggest target for big (low risks) customers first to build up some muscles. Then only prepare for smaller customers.
Most of the big ones have a steady line of referrals by the banks. They have some type of partnership and the banks will say we are using this processor to set up your small business to take online payments and so on.
I think there are three things... 1. Quality reviews and service - any business is review driven these days. So delivering great customer service, word of mouth... it's all key. 2. Quality digital marketing - SEO, social media... everything. If you're a merchant looking for a payment processor, you're going to likely start at Google. So whatever company is first has the best shot. 3. Partnerships - Partnering up with businesses and offering a complimentary service is huge. The rest is just rinse and repeat, and the ones who do all 3 the best will win.