It makes sense to believe that the newest technology is going to be used by the majority of your target consumer.
check processingseems like an outdated means of currency, but the reality is that a lot of people still use checks even with the advances weve established in our technology.
ACH processingextends not only to the recent generation, but those that tend to see a more traditional means of payment. If you find yourself in a slow moving line at the grocery store, you can bet its someone still using checks.
You may say to yourself that your target audience isnt the generation that would still use something as mundane and outdated as checking. What we tend to forget is that parents pass down their traditions. If someone is gung-ho about using checks, they will pass down the tradition to their loved ones. Thus making a new generation of check wielders looking to buy your product, but turned away because you cannot process them.
Advances have been made to keep the same mystic of checking but converting people to using credit cards. Check cards are a clever way to instigate the feeling of still using checks, but in the form of a credit card. In reality, the two are no different, but the check card is easier and faster to process than the regular check. A normal check takes 7 business days to process, and another 3 business days for you to actually receive the money. This is why a lot of businesses have stopped taking checks. However rudimentary the practice is, youre turning down a lot of business if you decide not to accept checks.
Refunds become a pain as well. If someone buys something from you and decide to return it the next day, you cannot stop the original processing of the check. So for you to do a refund, you must take the money from your own account and give it to them. Then you must wait the 10 business days to get their money into your account. As you can see, theres no difference in the amount once their original money falls into your account, but it is an inconvenience to some. What we must decide is if we are willing to put up with the hassles of checking before we decide to accept them.
I believe it is more beneficial to accept checks than to deny them. Traditions are passed down that can rarely be unmade in todays society. A jab at their ways as a consumer can be misconstrued as a ridicule of their family and what they believe in. While its hard to make sense of that, it does go on. You may look back and find that you are guilty of the same thing.
