How to Choose the Right Salesforce Payment Processing Solution: 6 Essential Features

If your business is seeking to optimize your CRM, you may be looking into a Salesforce payment processing solution. These solutions allow salespeople to accept and manage credit card payments directly in Salesforce. They don’t have to forward the request to accounting and deal with delays or lost time, which could cause the sale to fall through. Instead, salespeople can manage credit card payments directly, whether they’re running transactions over the phone with the customer or sending secure payment links for online payment.

Here are six essential features you need in your Salesforce payment processing solution.

6 essential Salesforce payment processing solution features

1. Request payment method

When your customers’ credit cards expire, updating the data can be a hassle. You have to get ahold of them, and once you finally have them on the line, you’re discussing sensitive information over the phone, which is not secure.

Request payment method is a feature that eliminates all these issues. From inside Salesforce, you can filter your customer data to see both currently expired credit cards and cards that will expire soon. Then, you click a few buttons to send a templated email to your customers asking them to update their card information.

The customer clicks on the email and is taken to a secure web form, where they enter their updated card data. This information automatically syncs back to Salesforce, which means your salespeople are not exposed to the data and don’t have to manually enter it into the CRM. It’s a win-win: customers feel more secure knowing their information is protected, and your salespeople don’t have to spend time chasing down information and logging it in Salesforce.

2. Email pay

Giving your salespeople the ability to run transactions while they’re on the phone with customers will certainly boost sales. But to make payments even more convenient for both your customers and your salespeople, look for a Salesforce payment processing solution with email pay. Also known as click to pay, email pay is a feature that allows customers to make secure payments via email.

To start, your salespeople send a templated email to the customer. This email has a link that takes the customer to a secure online form. The customer enters their card information and clicks the pay button, and the payment automatically syncs back to Salesforce.

Email pay is convenient for customers who want to make payments online on their own time. It also saves time for salespeople, because they can shoot customers a quick email with a payment link, and they don’t have to manually run the transaction.

3. Batch processing

Batch processing allows your team to automatically settle your daily transactions at one time. The user simply starts the process in Salesforce and the payment processing solution takes it from there.

The two main benefits of batch processing are time and money savings. Without batch processing, your team would have to stop their tasks throughout the day to settle transactions. With batch processing, the payment processing solution automatically processes all transactions at once. You’ll also avoid incurring additional fees—each separate settlement is charged a bank fee, so settling all your transactions at one time reduces the fees you have to pay.

4. Recurring billing

Subscription models are extremely popular today. Everything from Netflix to Microsoft Office to products like razors can be delivered on a month-to-month basis. Customers enjoy the “set it and forget it” mindset of subscriptions. Look for a Salesforce payment processing solution with recurring billing to provide customers with this convenient payment option.

The recurring billing feature allows salespeople to set customers up on recurring payment schedules. Your team can adjust or edit these schedules at any time. Customers will appreciate the ease of recurring monthly payments, and your company’s cash flow will improve with regularly scheduled payments coming in.

5. eChecks

Not every customer wants to pay with a credit card. In that case, providing alternative payment options is key to cinching the sale. eChecks are a popular payment method because they’re secure and help both customers and merchants save time and avoid credit card processing fees. Your payment processing solution for Salesforce should allow customers to pay via eCheck.

6. Security

When evaluating a Salesforce payment processing solution, security should be at the top of your list. Customers trust you to safeguard their sensitive information, and if there’s a breach, you’ll lose their trust and your credibility. On top of that, you’ll probably have to pay penalty fees, and you could even be cut off from your merchant processing.

Look for a solution that prioritizes security in everything they do. The software should be PCI compliant and protect customer card information with tokenization and encryption. Data should be stored off-site, and salespeople should not be able to access full card data or view complete credit card numbers.

What to look for in a Salesforce payment processing solution

The ability to run credit card payments directly in your CRM is a gamechanger. It cuts down on lag time between sales and accounting teams and empowers salespeople to see a sale through all the way to the end, ensuring that customers are satisfied with their payment option and that the transaction was completed. When selecting a Salesforce credit card processing integration, keep these six features in mind to ensure you’re making the best choice.