Casual Living

Hello Bruce: After 28 yrs.business in Canada we just started using Amex 2 yrs.ago. We had also resisted because of there rates. Now we are still not sure that its an asset although we do notice the very high end customers are more apt to use it. It accounts for about 4% of our card sales.I guess my attitude is " Why Not" Sorry i can't be of more help. Keep up the good work,i enjoy your musings. Regards, Doug

Bruce, you mention 2 things about your customer that should make it a no-brainer to accept AE. You said they all have the card, like to use it and they are affluent. If your store is positioned to appeal to an affluent market, you owe it to your customers to reinforce their decision to buy from you. A cute excuse about "no travel to Paris on this purchase" does not seem appropriate for the customer your are trying to serve. Thanks for listening.

Perhaps a good question would be to know the average of purchases with AMEX vs. the average purchase with other cards.

As a retailer, we also do not accept Amex due to the higher processing fees and the excessive amount of chargeback’s. If their cardholder has ANY dispute with the transaction, Amex will debit your account for the charge. It takes more time and effort to work with Amex on the chargeback then what it is worth. As you stated, most Amex cardholders have another credit card they can use. We can not recall any situation where we lost a sale because we do not accept Amex.

In response to Jane Smith, again, very simple rules apply here unless you are trying to make your business and transactions diffcult. If your showroom/store is positioned to appeal to the affluent, well...they use AE. That is one reason they are affluent. If you are a roadside patio stand, then that is a different deal. You can analyze the fees to death, but it sounds like the AE folks will spend more, a higher dollar purchase. And, they will feel good that they could use their AE card on something to make them feel good about their home. It is not a matter about you have never lost a sale, but it is all about how to leverage and maximize your customers' spending power. As far as disputes and debits, if you are incurring alot of those, you may want to look internally at what is causing your customers to cause disputes. Make customer service your hightest priority, express that in a written form and hold your suppliers very accountable. But above all else, understand where you fit in the marketing model. Roadside quick seasonal sale, established stove store where patio is secondary, middle end shop in a strip mall, or a destination store. Thanks for listening. L

Having been in marketing most of my career, I can only say that you should take advantage of multi milllions dollars of free advertsiing. For years American Express invested in a brandinig campaign that end with Don't Leave Home with out it. Most affluent customers heed their advice. If they pulll out that card first they are telling you how they would like the transaction processed. To tell them you don't accept that way is sending a subliminal message of refusal of service. They may still purchase with another card but they will subconciously remember that you turned them down. Not the basis for building a long term relationship. In my experince in dealing with American Express, they are professional and very customer oriented. My suggestion is to try it for a year and monitor the results with your American Express representative. Give them the opportunity to back up their claims. It sounds like it can't hurt your sales from offering them their card of choice. Hope that helps in your decision. NBH