Does your restaurants POS handle EMV chip/pin technology?
With major retail security breaches like Target and Home Depot occurring in past holiday seasons and credit card fraud numbers increasing at a shocking rate ($16.3 billion worldwide), smart business owners need to take a second look at their point-of-sale security. As a restaurateur, you’re likely not pumped on the idea of having to upgrade your existing payment terminals, but there are a number of significant benefits that result from upgrading to an EMV compliant POS system.
Check out why the adoption of EMV is worth the extra time and effort below:
Prevent Shift in Liability
The most obvious benefit of switching to an EMV compatible POS system for restaurant owners is, of course, protection from fraud liability as a result of a transaction at your restaurant. If your restaurant does not have POS hardware that can support EMV-chip technology and this is the cause of the fraud you will be financially liable. But by adopting a POS reader that can accept chip-enabled cards, you put the liability back on the credit card issuer.
Accept Guests’ Primary Payment Method
The October 2015 “liability shift” date has come and gone, which means this holiday season is the first one in which a large segment of Americans will be carrying upgraded debit and credit cards equipped with EMV chips. By acquiring a solution that accepts EMV transactions, restaurants will be able to better accommodate guests and meet their expectations.
Reduce Counterfeit Card Fraud
When it comes to enhanced security for your restaurant patrons, chip-activated terminals are taking things to a whole new level. Chip cards and chip-activated terminals work together to protect in-store payments. A unique one-time code is generated behind-the-scenes that is needed for the transaction to be approved—a feature that is virtually impossible to replicate in counterfeit cards. This not only protects restaurant guests, but also reduces headaches for restaurant owners and managers.
Local Transaction Fewer Chargebacks
With magnetic stripe cards, payments have to be sent out to the credit card processor for validation. EMV transactions, on the other hand, can be approved locally through the EMV devices, thus ensuring that a payment is legitimate at the time of the transaction. The two-factor authentication method and the ability to verify payments locally using EMV compliant POS systems will likely result in fewer fraud-related chargebacks for merchants, as the number of lost and stolen credit cards, and the prevalence of skimming decline..
Good for business
IInvesting in security shows your customers you care about securing their payment card information, which positively enhances your restaurants brand. Customers will appreciate the higher level of security and feel more confident about using their cards at your business. While smart cards won’t solve every security problem, they will go a long way toward boosting customer confidence at the POS.
Future Proof your Business
Investing in new technology also helps pave the way for accepting mobile payments. Most EMV-enabled POS equipment will include contactless technology, allowing your restaurant to accept contactless (think Apple Pay) and other mobile payments at the table. This allows you to provide a higher level of convenience for customers and will speed up the check-out time, allowing you to turn more tables.