Encouraging Customers To Tap To Play It COVID-Safe

When it comes to operating a business during the coronavirus pandemic, there really is no easy way to go about it. Needless to say, the health risks presented by COVID-19 make opening your doors to the public a tough situation. It’s one that has taken place, nevertheless, over the past several weeks.

Back in March, when the pandemic was officially determined as such, many businesses were forced to shut their doors. The virus hasn’t miraculously disappeared, yet business owners are opening their doors again. They are doing so, however, in ways which have never been done before.

Following safety protocol is a must.

Insisting upon social distancing via signage, making hand sanitizer readily available, requiring masks before entering the store – these are all regulations being followed by business owners all over Canada. But, as we pointed out back in April, Canadian businesses are also enabling customers to make the payment process a safer one.

Mastercard and Visa raised their $100 minimum to $250 for the purpose of tap payments. This allows customers to simply tap their cards on POS terminals in order to process purchases up that higher amount. What this does is significantly lower the number of times consumers have to physically touch POS machines.

The thinking behind the tap limit increase to $250 is twofold.

In addition to reducing the need to punch in PIN codes to process credit card purchases, it also limits the number of times cash is used. As we’ve blogged about extensively in the past, cash is already dwindling in terms of its use in any marketplace. However, the idea that the coronavirus can be passed along on surfaces, such as physical money, has also encouraged more consumers to tap their cards at the checkout.

“While cash may have been king in the past, more stores are hoping you will pay with plastic instead,” reports Pat Foran in an article for CTV News, “They also would rather you not insert your card and use the keypad but instead tap to make your purchase.”

Karl Littler is the senior vice president of Public Affairs with the Retail Council. He was interviewed for the CTV News report. “There is nothing bad about cash, but in general we would prefer people touch as few surfaces as possible,” he is quoted as saying, “The optimal system would be the tap system.”

How can you encourage your customers to tap in order to play it safe?

Signage is certainly helpful. In addition to placing safety signage throughout your store, it’s wise to place a clearly-visible sign at your checkout. Remind your customers that they can simply tap their credit cards to complete any purchases that are $250 or less. By doing so, you’ll certainly speed up the checkout process. However, you’ll also make things a lot safer for both your customers and your employees.

Do you allow your customers to tap? At Canadian POS, we’re confident there is no better wireless POS terminal on the market than the Poynt Smart Terminal. For more information about it, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.