Coffee with Lisa From 360 Payments

Q:  WHAT'S YOUR GO-TO COFFEE DRINK?

Venti latte (nothing special added)

Q: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO GET COFFEE?

Starbucks

Smart, Sassy and Highly Caffeinated!

Everyone Should Believe in Something.
I Believe I will have another Coffee. 

Q: HOW DID YOU GET STARTED WITH 360 PAYMENTS OR TEXT TO PAY? 

We started 360 Payments when I was 26 and my partner Steve was 24. We had payment processing experience, and our initial mindset was simply to put ourselves in business owners’ shoes and be the processor they would want. Simple things like no contracts, never raising fees, and having a relationship with the sales rep or the company are ones that we think business owners deserve. Our industry is super competitive and trust me, I get it, businesses get bombarded with credit card processors - and most of them sell on fear or rates. “You need to update your machine because you aren’t compliant” or “I can give you a flat 1%.” Sound familiar? That’s not the game 360 plays, so in 2016 we realized we needed something bigger than what we were doing and something that would truly set us apart. We then asked ourselves, “What would make our clients’ CUSTOMERS lives easier?” That’s when Text-to-Pay was born. We thought about what the checkout experience was like at auto shops, which is our number one vertical. Sure there are plenty of customers who take their cars to get repaired and really want to know the ins and outs of what was done to their cars, but there’s a large base of consumers like me who trust their mechanics and just want to pay for the job, pick up their car at their convenience, and go. Many people don’t even want to talk on the phone, they just want a text that lets them know their car is done and ready for pickup, plus the ability to pay right then and there without having to wait in line at the auto shop. Steve and I just thought about how we are people who never pick our cars up before the auto shops close and how we don’t have time to talk on the phone and give credit card info, so that’s quite simply how Text-to-Pay was born.

Q: WHAT'S THE TOP 3 THINGS ABOUT TEXT TO PAY FOR AUTO REPAIR CUSTOMERS? 

1.    Shops can speed up their checkout process. We even created an ROI calculator where shops can put in their service writers’ hourly pay rate, how many minutes it takes to check someone out, etc. and calculate the financial benefits of being more efficient than with Text-to-Pay.

2.    The shops’ customers dig it. Texting is on the rise, and I actually read an article over the weekend about how much millenials hate phone calls. Is it for everyone? No, but even when shops tell me that their client base is old and doesn’t text, I have to remind them that my grandmother texts me daily and also buys many things off of Amazon. Whether someone is a millennial or 80 years old, the ability to make a payment and not have to talk with someone is a big deal. Plus, they feel more secure putting their own credit card information in rather than giving it over the phone and having it be put on a Post-It to get keyed into a terminal later. 

3.    It’s a professional differentiator for the shop. Dealerships are a major competitor in the auto repair service world, and they have all sorts of fancy tools. Text-to-Pay is new enough where an auto shop’s customer will talk about it to their friends and they will remember the experience. In all seriousness, how often have you paid for something via text whether it’s for a repair order, furniture delivery, or a kitchen remodel? It’s quite simply…cool.

Text-To-Pay at Elysian Auto Service 

Q: PLEASE EXPLAIN THE PROCESSES OF TEXT TO PAY FOR AUTO REPAIR CUSTOMERS FROM MITCHELL 1 AND BOLT ON TECH?

The 360 Payments Text-to-Pay integration with BOLT ON and Mitchell1 allows the shop's customer to pay before they pick up their car, providing a convenient and fast checkout experience. Throughout the repair process, BOLT ON pulls information from Mitchell1 and sends it to the customer via email or text message. For example, BOLT ON will send a digital vehicle inspection report to the customer detailing the items on the car that need repair. The customer can then approve the work to be done and provide a digital signature.  At the end of the auto repair process, BOLT ON will pull the repair order (R.O.) from the Mitchell1 system and send it to the customer as a hyperlink. The customer can click on the link from his or her phone, view the R.O., and pay with a credit card on the same screen. Once the customer pays, 360 Payments sends the credit card approval to BOLT ON who in turn sends it to Mitchell1 to let the service advisor know the R.O. has been paid.

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Text-To-Pay from Mitchell 1
and Bolt On Technology

Customer's signature from smart phone 

Paid Invoice Text to Customers Phone  

Paid Invoice for Elysian Auto Service 

Q: IF YOU COULD GIVE ONE BIT OF ADVICE TO AUTO REPAIR CUSTOMER ON TEXT TO PAY WHAT WOULD IT BE? 

Oh boy, this is a tough one because limiting me to one thing is always hard. I would say to think about your future, not your past or present. In a world where companies like Amazon, Uber, & Doordash have set the tone of communication and delivery expectations, shops should adapt to what those customer expectations are. When I order an Uber, I know how far away the Uber is, when it’s approaching, and when it’s in my driveway. Amazon takes pictures every time they leave something on my front porch, and I get a push notification when items are delivered (and I get a lot of those because my wife loves to spend money on Amazon). Doordash lets me know when my dasher picks up my food, and I can track them on my phone. What do they all have in common? Purchases are made without any human interaction. While I know meeting the demands of customer expectations are hard, using a simple tool like Text-to-Pay will put your shop at the Uber and Amazon level and make your customers happier than you may realize. 

Q: ANY CLOSING STATEMENTS OR CONCLUSION

I really appreciate you highlighting 360 Payments and Text-to-Pay. While we are promoting a process change in the automotive world and trying to change how consumers make payments to small to mid-sized companies, we want everyone to know that 360 still has the same values we always have and that we still put ourselves in the business owner’s shoes. Steve and I are blue collar kids (we feel like we can still call ourselves kids) with parents who owned small businesses, and there’s nothing we enjoy more than feeling like we made a difference in a business owner’s life. We want credit card processing to be an afterthought so auto repair shop owners can focus on things that are way more important to them like taking care of their employees and family. Whether you use 360 or not, credit card processing should be something you feel like you have a fair deal on and you should have a relationship with the company and trust that they are thinking about your future.  

Elysian Auto Service is expending your options for payments with the 360 Payments and Text-to-Pay for all of our customers. We understand today’s high paced lifestyle and how text to pay can enhance your overall experience by offering you a copy of the invoice and the ability to pay straight from your phone work or home. If you have any questions concerning text to pay you can contact the professionals here at Elysian Auto Service.   We can take you step by step through the process so you can feel free to take advantage of this great option in the future. We encourage you to keep up to date with our Elysian Auto Service blogs for exciting new consumer information and