Ever so often, a merchant would face the ordeal of chargebacks from customers. These refunds not only take away from a business’ level of efficiency, but also incur transaction and processing costs.
In the current landscape, especially with regards to the online market and the sale of digital goods, the number of disputes are increasing. According to Visa, in 2015 alone, over 2.6 million chargebacks were initiated by customers who were unable to recognize their own transactions. This was a 13% increase compared to 2014.
Even more troubling was that 20% of all the chargebacks were related to consumers buying digital goods. These goods included, but were not limited to, music, movies, and purchases made through mobile phone applications.
Chargebacks are expensive such that the cost of working on a dispute often outweigh the customer purchase itself. Therefore, merchants who take steps to ensure a decreased volume of chargebacks are the ones who are thriving in the current landscape.
With the plethora of unrecognized disputes on a customer’s part, using a chargeback management tool like Visa Merchant Purchase Inquiry (VMPI) is a game-changer. This tool allows merchants to optimize their business’ customer dispute process and, in turn, help improve the bottom line.
What VMPI does is allow issuers to send merchants notifications before a dispute can even be raised. This lets merchants have the opportunity to provide details for the transactions in question and as let them proactively settle conflicts at breakneck speed.
For example, let’s say a credit card user is concerned about a transaction on their bank statement. The cardholder would then call the issuer and ask about the transaction and state that they did not recall making the transaction in the first place.
Using VMPI as a chargeback management tool would then let merchants initiate the resolution process. VMPI would notify the merchant about the inquiry. The notification, which would include data that helps the merchant find the inquiry in their own database, would allow the merchant to respond back as close to real-time as possible. Visa would then share enhanced data with the issuer, and the latter party would inform the customer about the transaction.
Once the cardholder understands and recalls the reason for the transaction, they would be satisfied with the resolution process. In turn, this would build trust between the cardholder and the merchant, resulting in a positive-sum gain. While the customer will continue trusting and using the merchant’s products or services, the merchant would be able to know that the integrity of their business is protected and well-regarded.
Ultimately, VMPI helps protect merchant revenue by virtue of being automated and allowing for close to real-time responses and data access. By using the tool, chargebacks would decrease along with the increase of customer satisfaction.
Merchants who would like help getting started with VMPI are more than welcome to contact the Merchant Broker team. Each of our team members have numerous years of experience when it comes to chargeback management tools and effective business solutions.
Our friendly team of experts may be reached at either info@merchantbroker.com or 1-888-668-0733.