[Podcast] Accepting Text Message Payments Will Transform Your Shop – Steve Ciabattoni [RR 495]

[carmcapriotto]

Steve Ciabattoni is the co-founder and CEO of 360 Payments, a payment technology company located in the heart of Silicon Valley. Raised in Philadelphia, Steve is the son of a small business owner who had to work two jobs just to put food on the table.

Living the struggles of small business ownership firsthand gave Steve tremendous respect for entrepreneurs and fueled his passion for serving the small business community. Fresh out of college and looking for sales experience, Steve took a 100% commission job with a large credit card processor called Heartland Payment Systems. Much to his surprise, he fell in love with the payments industry. In it, he saw a way to empower small business owners to take control of their financial futures as well as the opportunity to use cutting-edge technology to streamline the customer experience.

The industry was far from perfect, however, and as Steve sought to offer his customers more transparency, better rates, and excellent customer service, he realized business owners deserved another option – a payment processor who offered all these things and more. After a successful three-year tenure with Heartland, Steve teamed up with his longtime mentor and friend, Lisa Coyle to start 360 Payments. Since its inception in 2011, 360 Payments has grown to process more than $2 billion in credit card transactions with clients across the United States. Nearly 1,000 automotive repair shops alone now trust 360 with their payment processing.

360 stands out from the competition by offering full disclosure processing in a notoriously confusing and opaque industry, coupled with a very high level of customer service and a consultative approach to technology implementation. Steve is now focused on helping 360 integrate its Velox payment gateway technology with various shop management software systems in order to give independent automotive repair shops that “dealership feel” and improve their customer experience during the payment process. Steve currently resides in San Jose, CA, with his wife Michelle and their two young children.

Talking points:

• Customer can approve a job on the phone so why not pay when complete via text messages
• Secured credit card data
• Adds a level of convenience for customers and able to spend more time with customers who opt-out of text to pay. This sets your shop apart from others
• Time is saved for service advisor and labor cost- can be working on other things for the shop
• ROI: $250-300 savings per month in labor cost based on 10% checkout
• Replacing manual transactions for phone transactions
• Text to Pay is a feature of doing business with you
• If a customer loves how you text status and inspection criteria, they will love the text to pay feature you offer
• Showing customers you are on the leading edge of technology. The card never leaves the customer’s hand and follow PCI compliance 

www.360payments.com

Text To Pay Calculator

Resources:

• Thanks to Steve Ciabattoni for his contribution to the aftermarket’s premier podcast.
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