GoDaddy's Global Head of Commerce Sales & Business Development Bob Wesley Talks Digitizing Merchant Services for Banks W/ Allen & Justin | B2B Vault: The Payment Technology Podcast | Episode 120

Hey, what's up everybody? It's Justin live from B2B Vault, the payment technology podcast sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems and GoDaddy, with your host Allen Kopelman., and we'll be providing you educational information about small business, fintech, payment processing, and the technology businesses are using in the world today. And today we have a special podcast. We have a guest by the name of Bob Wesley from GoDaddy Point. Uh, we just entered a partnership with them. They're sponsoring the podcast, and good way to, uh, uh, incorporate the new relationship into the podcast. And, you know, we thought we have a bunch of stuff to talk about. So we invited him to the podcast, and he was eager to show up. And so he's here. And without further ado, let's welcome Bob Wesley to the show.

Thank you, Bob.

Thank you, Justin. Nice to see you today.

So today we're going to be talking to Bob about the program that Nationwide Payment Systems and GoDaddy Point have partnered with to help banks digitize merchant services, because banks are trying to digitize their banking, and we want to bring the digitization— wow, that's a long word— of merchant services into the banks. Because one of the things when we talk to banks, and it was also a recent article that that we were— me and Bob were discussing earlier from the Financial Brands, um, website about how PayPal and Square specifically are, you know, a threat to the, to the, to banks, community banks, credit unions, and so on and so forth. And even fintechs, because they're all— a lot of them are starting to offer banking services.

Right.

So, so, you know, what's your take on that, Bob?

Well, I mean, you know, we do see fintech companies starting to erode the traditional banking services. They, you know, they're issuing debit cards to, to their customers and they're giving them out loans and they're even setting up their own banks. And so what they've really done is is, is moved to a high-tech online type of environment, which we know that consumers strongly want, and so do merchants. They want to be able to do things a lot easier than they used to, right? Yeah.

So what we've done at Nationwide Payment Systems is we've leveraged the system that GoDaddy has, and we created a brand new website, nationwidepaymentsystems.com. Which has a solution finder on it, which enables businesses to come in, just go through the different solutions that we offer, right? Figure out which one they need, select it, then they answer basically 10 questions, and then artificial intelligence takes over. And most of the time, I would say about 90% of the accounts are approved almost instantaneously. Some take up to 30 minutes. Some require an email asking for additional information. And this is gonna— and we're gonna partner with banks to bring this to their banking platform so they're not losing— their banks are losing revenue now because the customer is going to PayPal, Square, Stripe for their merchant services.

Yeah, I signed up yesterday for, uh what is the, uh, invoicing. Um, and when I say it was probably the easiest signup process, I'm pretty sure that— I mean, in comparison to the others out there, uh, it was very simple, straightforward.

Um, it was easier than PayPal.

I'm— that's what I'm saying.

Like, it was way—

I didn't have any issues and I was approved within seconds. So That's cool.

That's what we're really trying to do. Um, you know, a lot of banks have been saddled with, uh, manual paper processes, and they just really can't compete against the fintech, uh, you know, uh, companies like this. But what we've done is we've introduced a fast and easy signup process, and we do think it's probably the fastest and easiest in the industry, uh, and we continue to make improvements there, um, so that we Really, you can sign up from the comfort of your home or your business quickly and not spend a lot of time filling out additional paperwork.

Yeah.

And the other great thing about the program is basically, you know, you get hardware and software as a service. So this enables businesses to get a credit card terminal that does way more than just a traditional credit card terminal does. We don't even call it that. We call it the smart terminal. And that enables businesses to get a lot of really cool features, plus the addition of the dashboard and an app for their phone, giving them the ability to run their business no matter where they have the internet connection. It's amazing.

That's our mantra, that we want to help small businesses, uh, uh, you know, sell anywhere and pay anywhere. Uh, because that's what the consumer is really demanding. I mean, whether you're delivering something at home, uh, or, or to them in business, or they're coming to your store, uh, that's what they want. But, um, you know, being able, uh, to provide an account quickly, you know, now a branch manager, if they're sitting with the, you know, with a client, they can actually sign them up right then and there and give them that instant gratification, or not even bother to, to, uh, send a whole bunch of paper to them, just send them a link through an email and have them sign up or just click on their, on their website and get an account instantly. So many different ways that we really help them, you know, bring on new clients and retain existing clients. Yeah.

So we've developed a system so the bank can advertise they're partnered with Nationwide Payment Systems and GoDaddy. We give them a link, they come into the website, they fill out a form. Register under the bank that they're with so we can track the lead, and then they go to the Solution Finder. So we created that tracking system so we can have accountability for the leads and different things. And plus, you know, offer— as we start, as we grow and we offer more and more services through the point system with GoDaddy, um, there's amazing things that you can do And it keeps your merchant's cost down. Like I was discussing with Justin yesterday, we were discussing with the merchant about e-commerce. So it's like, yeah, you pay, we have a small monthly fee, you get the dashboard, the invoicing, and then you get a free gateway. You're not paying for, you know, another gateway, Authorize.net or NMI, monthly fees, transaction fees, PCI compliance fees, non-PCI fees. Reg fees, this fee, that fee, statement fees, monthly minimums, you know, which can add up to $50 to $100 a month. So we're offering, you know, very affordable merchant services, you know.

Yeah, most people don't know what they actually are paying in the merchant account. They need a PhD to read the statement. And the approach that we took was just to have 3 simple rates, one for, you know, in the store card present, one for e-com, and then the other one for, you know, uh, using a key and a, you know, a card number. So it's great for, uh, when people take in telephone orders. Yeah, we didn't have any other fees in because we didn't want to confuse the consumer. There's too, too many other confusing things in the payment industry.

One of the things that we're getting merchants to use a lot of with the system is the invoicing feature where where they can send the customer the invoice. It has detail in it, and the customer can click and pay. And then when they're doing that, they can also have a conversation with the customer. So we have a few clients, they're actually getting feedback from the customer. They're adding a link to their Google reviews in there so the person can leave them a review. So there's a lot of useful tools that you can use in the when you're using invoicing for all types of businesses that do invoicing.

Well, you can also do recurring, uh, invoicing, and you can set on a very flexible basis to send out a recurring bill monthly, weekly, you know, and you can even set custom dates, and you could have a start date and an end date. You know, it works really well for a lot of different industries, from an orthodontist who puts you on a payment plan to if somebody was doing some building, you know, or some construction or maintenance at your house, put them on a regular maintenance plan, lawn care, etc. So that invoicing feature keeps the card on file if the consumer decides to elect to do that and makes it very convenient. And you can always monitor whether people are paying on time or not.

Yeah, it's great for all types of companies. Me and Justin always talk about like companies who make websites, you know, WordPress companies where they're making WordPress sites for, um, small business— for small businesses. And the small business wants to have, um, you know, payments on their website. Instead of sending the customer to PayPal or Stripe, they can just— they can partner with Nationwide Payment Systems the same way we're partnering with banks, and then— and get their merchants, their customers, get a merchant account through us. Quick and easy. No gateway to pay for, no plugins to buy, and all that, which alleviates a lot, you know, some expense.

The one thing that I'm interested about, I'm trying to get the, you know, my fellow developers interested in, like, because there's just been so much money left on the table when you think about, you know, me as building websites for small businesses and set up e-commerce stores. And all the times, like, all those businesses have to get paid, right? So, like, you know, PayPal doesn't give you that option, Square doesn't give you that option, Stripe doesn't give you that option to where when you set up one of these businesses under your, you know, let's say, you know, main account, uh, you don't get any, you know, incentive from that. And what you guys are doing with that, uh, is, is a game changer. And one, one, when, you know, my peers get onto the bandwagon and start understanding, like, you know, let's stop being lazy and just putting this onto the client. Let's, let's, you know, let's, let's get this little bit of money that's left on the table, you know, for gas money this month, or, you know, whatever it is.

And, uh, so yeah, I really think that it's really cool.

And, and I, I think that within the next couple of months Um, when we get— when we really roll out this site and start doing some marketing for it and hitting up some of these trade shows and getting these people aware of the product, uh, you know, it's going to be a great thing.

Yeah, agencies are really, uh, have a great opportunity. And you're right, uh, they typically, you know, stop when they, you know, when the shopping cart gets added in, they don't participate in that, uh, that, that particular role. And they are really handling a lot of the maintenance and ongoing work and doing and working on that. And, you know, obviously GoDaddy is one of the leaders in the WordPress area. So we have a lot of easy WordPress plugins, etc., that can, you know, work, work quite well and make, make the developer's life very easy. Plus, they do, you know, have an advantage of earning an ongoing new revenue stream. And so we're seeing a lot of web designers coming on board with this.

Yeah, we're, you know, we're enabling everybody to get, you know, like we're taking over the heavy lifting. Banks, when I talked to banks, I was at a convention, there were several community banks, there was a couple of neo banks there, there was a state bank, a credit union, and I was discussing with them, I go, what do you get? What do you do for merchant services? And They're like, yeah, we had— they either don't have a merchant service program anymore, or the merchant service program they have doesn't work because it's just a phone number to call up. The customer has to call, and when they go through their bank and they can check like who's processing where, they see that most of their customers have gone to PayPal, Square, and Stripe. And now we're going to give them a chance to participate with that we're going to handle the heavy lifting. You know, we've created a solution center for them to use, and we're going to handle all the heavy lifting for the bank so the bank doesn't have to do all that. And they can give that digital on-demand— you can get it, the person can be in the bank or on the website opening a bank account, say, hey, get your merchant account right now, be approved in less than 30 minutes.

You're right. If, if, um, if the banks aren't careful and they allow the PayPals and Stripes and all these other fintech companies come in and start with merchant services, um, it's already been proven. Look at what Square has done. Look what PayPal's doing. They're definitely creeping into the rest of the banking business, and they're using that as a wedge to get in there. Now On the other hand, you know, there's a lot of AI, a lot of intelligence, uh, information that a banker can get and understand about their client by just looking at the processing information that's going on. And, you know, we offer that capability with the backend type of portal that they can monitor and, and see what's going on and gives them an opportunity to understand where the business is in their life cycle— you know, like restaurants traditionally, you know, they have a very slow month in January. Great opportunity to maybe extend a short-term loan out to them. You know, other— they have other opportunities and other services where they can possibly extend services to their employees, you know, other banking services. So it's a great source of information and real-time information, what's going on with the business. And that's what the fintechs are using, and community banks are certainly well positioned to start to leverage that as well.

Yes.

Hello everyone, we'd like to take this time to thank our sponsors Nationwide Payment Systems and NPS Printer. We'd also like to shout out the listeners and everyone that subscribed to our YouTube channel. Thank you for tuning in. If you'd like to reach Allen or myself, head over to b2bvault.info where you'll find two forms, one to contact us and another if you're interested in becoming a sponsor. If you'd like to sign up for a merchant account, click the Apply Now button located at the top of the page of B2BVault.info, where you'll answer a few questions, and you'll be on your way to processing payments in no time. The podcast is available on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, and other popular streaming networks. Thanks again for listening.

I think especially when you look at the underserved communities, you know, we spoke to a couple of banks that, that are concentrating on that, and they can't get anybody to convert to merchant services. And I was explaining to them what we were working on at the time, that we were going to be introducing this. They were very excited about that because They need to, you know, they're trying to be in the digital age. And also another thing with banks is as they reduce their footprint, right, let's say you're a small community bank, you only have a couple of branches. We can also add Nationwide Payment Systems and help them with their footprint by helping them with an ATM program to give them some presence in the community. So let's say they have a large— let's say they loaned money to a mall or something like that, or a big office building, you know, they might, they might want to put an ATM in there. And we can help them with that because we have ATM managed services through our company. So we're offering a full end-to-end solution for the bank, not just the credit card processing, but also giving them, you know, managed ATM services. Because let's say you're just the small bank, but maybe you want to have an ATM outside somewhere at the mall to service your customers, or you want to have an ATM at a big business in the area where you're doing all their banking and you want their employees to bank with you. Well, we can help them get an ATM in that location and then have it all serviced where they don't have to do anything. We provide— we help them get the ATM, install it, service it, keep it full of money and all of that. And ATMs are becoming like a financial, you know, kiosk now. And so it's important for them to, you know, be able to do that. And do— and customers want to do things from their— from the website of the bank, right? So when they go to the bank, they go, oh, I need a merchant account, click the button, come into Nationwide Payment Systems, register get your merchant account. And then, you know, we let the bank know, oh, by the way, you know, Justin's Bar and Grill got a merchant account. Bob's Auto Repair got a merchant account today.

Yeah, we'll be able to track where the, you know, where the leads came from easily.

And also the additional value services that you offer beyond, you know, it's, it's one thing to offer credit card, uh, solution, but what you really can offer is, is ways to help that these businesses grow. I mean, from, uh, you know, a restaurant now, maybe enable them to do order and pay at the table, right, to a dental office where you can help them integrate into their practice management system so that they don't have to do double entries and stuff like that, and they can collect bills a lot easier using things like text-to-pay. And then, uh, other retail, like they can spin up, uh, you know, a, a quick social media ad where they can have somebody make a purchase over social media. I mean, GoDaddy is known to be a leader in helping businesses grow in their, their digital capabilities. And what we do is we help bring those services, uh, to, um, to your, to your company and, uh, and offer them to, uh, the right company at the right time, the right merchant at the right time.

Yeah, you know, the other big thing is read about. People don't know— me and Justin always discuss, you know, crazy terms that come out. So like one of all the terms are like omnichannel or omnicommerce.

Fintech is the big thing, right?

Fintech. So we try to say like, hey, we're the Nationwide Payment Systems website. We're bringing fintech to, to the merchant world. We're bringing you, we're bringing you a fintech experience instead of a merchant service experience. So we're bringing you the new— the newest— the newest technology, right? Cool terminals. You don't have to worry about paper. Oh, we need rolls of paper, rolls of paper. You can just text and email the receipt, and you're getting all that information to use for your marketing program, right? You know, you can also message individual customers through the invoice. And there's so many features in the GoDaddy dashboard And we're hoping to bring more, you know, over time, more GoDaddy products and add to the, you know, add to things that merchants can do, like offer consumer financing, ACH. You know, there's going to be more products coming into the, into the platform, like we discussed earlier, payroll and different things, because this is what, this is what businesses want. They want to have like one portal where they can do all of their business. And like with the— our partnership with the Retail Time, with the point of sale, you know, someone can have a retail store, load all their, all, all their items into the point of sale, and then they can additionally get a website and now have e-commerce. Yeah, that's really cool. You know, you got to compete with the big box store and have e-commerce for your store so people can order online pick up in store or order online and get it shipped or order online and pick it up curbside. You know what I mean? Like the smaller businesses, we're giving them an affordable way on how to develop an omnichannel experience for their customers.

You bring up a great point, Allen. I mean, one of the real benefits that you offer to banks and to merchants is you become their trusted advisor. You're the one out there, you know, looking at new technology and we're able to, GoDaddy is able to bring that to you and you're able to identify the right situation, the right need and take that product that we're offering and provide it to them and explain it in such a way that they don't have to go to MIT or Stanford in order to, you know, know how to use it. So the banks really are gaining a lot by, using you as a trusted advisor that really understands and has a deep understanding of the payment industry.

And the other thing is, is like, there are competitors— PayPal, Square, and Stripe. It's not like you can call them up on the phone and ask a question. If a merchant, you know, when you come to the website, you know, if you don't want to sign up and you say, oh, I want to talk to somebody, you can hit us up on the phone. You can start, uh, you can make an appointment., and then we'll discuss with you, you know, to find you the right solution for your business. And if there's something wrong, you can contact us, right?

You can get in touch with somebody and we'll try to problem solve with you and, you know, work it out. But, you know, a lot of those companies you can't even get in touch with.

And Nationwide is backed by GoDaddy in terms of service that we provide special servicing to our partners like Nationwide and helping them give you the best possible service that you might need, uh, and so that you can— no, you don't have time to wait for somebody, uh, till Monday. You're going to lose a lot of business on Sunday if you can't get a hold of somebody, or, you know, or at 12 o'clock at night, you know, when you're trying to close down your business. So we're here, uh, to support you 24/7, uh, and Nationwide is beat on the street experts in their industry and, uh, and able to leverage some great technology and bring it to you when you're ready.

Yeah, like the really— one of the really cool things about the GoDaddy support is got— there's a chat on the terminal, there's a chat in the app, there's a chat in the dashboard, so it's easy for them to chat. Plus we give people our email address. They're having like a problem or they have a question they just shoot us an email. We have a customer service team. We get the email, and then we're able to either contact the merchant back and explain what they need to do, or we get in touch with, you know, reach out to GoDaddy customer support and get the situation straightened out quickly, you know.

Well, you even have the ability to reach directly out to the terminal and take a look at what's, what's going on and not ask somebody to give you an interpretation of what's going on.

We can look right into the— we can look at what's going on in their machine and everything ourselves.

We don't have to wait.

Yeah, we don't have to wait.

That's a really— that's a big thing. Hey, Bob, if there's one thing that you can say that, you know, GoDaddy is doing differently from all these major things, what would that— you know, what would you think that would be?

Well, a lot of people just sell processing. You know, and, and they're always interested about, oh, just, you know, providing a basic accountant. I'm sure you've all— most merchants have had somebody come and say, oh, please give me your statement, I'll do an analysis. But you never know, you know, whether that analysis was correct and whether the rates will change after a short period of time. And really, most companies, in order to grow, what they need is solutions to help them live in this digital world. Right. You know, and let's face it, a lot of companies started with GoDaddy and getting their, uh, you know, their domain registry and then their website. And now we're excited that we can really service any need that they have, you know, in order to reach their customers. And as we bring together more and more of these services so that we can create more of a seamless, out-of-the-box type of scenario, Uh, we're not going to be talking about payment rates and, and, and, and different things. We're going to be talking about, well, how do we double your business next week? And is there another way you can go out and sell today? Oh, there's a great little fair, an event I want to go and, uh, get to. Oh, there's this wonderful new social media I want to be able to sell over. Oh, oh gee, what about some scheduling that I, I want to do? There's so many different things and The great thing is that GoDaddy also has an open ecosystem that we invite creative developers to come in and develop the latest and greatest applications. And that's a way we can accelerate our growth and, and accelerate yours as well as bringing you some really creative things that, you know, makes you kind of put you on the same plane as a Walmart and a Target, right? Or some of the other big chains. So, um, you know, the technology we bring really helps you reach your customers at the right time in the right place.

And so that's why I was— that's why I was saying, you know, we're bringing businesses and banks and agencies a business solution. It's not just— it's not just, uh, payment processing. It's a complete solution that has so many tools in it, right?

All—

you have all these tools at your disposal to help you grow your business manage your business, promote your business. That's like on our website, one of the big things— how to sell, how to promote, and how to manage. And those things, those— that, that's what's going to help a business increase their sales by being able to communicate with their customers, have a loyalty program. There's just all sorts of things that you could do that you can't do with a regular basic credit card. It's more of a, you know, Nationwide Payment Systems and GoDaddy business solution to help you with your business, right?

So we're going to be in Vegas, aren't we, Allen?

Yeah, we're going to be at the Financial Brands Show. What booth or number are we in?

I, I don't remember, but we're all—

we're at the front door, right?

Right by the front door. You can't miss us if you walk in the front door, right?

We're gonna have a big kiosk with a big screen TV.

What is the name of the It's the Financial Brand Conference.

Yeah, we're going to be there, and it's, uh, banks are going to be there. We're going to be there to talk to you about our program that we're offering, basically monthly residuals for the bank, no liability, bonus programs. We talk to you about our full omnichannel solution, the fast approvals. You get a dedicated— if you're a bank Or you're listening, you're from an agency, you get a dedicated representative. We are the alternative to PayPal, Stripe, and Square to help you keep your customers, grow your bank. You can leverage us, we can leverage you, maybe in some cases. We can also help you get a presence in the community with ATMs because that's also a struggle for a lot of small banks, how to leverage you know, their presence in the community, you know, of, uh, and especially now all the ATMs have to be up, you know, upgraded and things like that. And we're servicing all types of businesses— retail, restaurants, services, invoicing, e-commerce— with 24-hour support and easy sign up. And yeah, come meet us, come meet me and Bob at the Financial Brand Conference and, uh, stop by the booth. And we'll talk to you more about our turnkey program.

Yeah, and we'll, uh, we'll help you grow your business. And, uh, yeah, look forward to seeing you. So that's, uh, I think November 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th. So 4 days.

Yes, I think it's 4 days. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday in the area.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at the area in Las Vegas. So So, uh, join us there. And if, uh, if you can't make it, um, you know, you certainly can reach out to, uh, to Allen, and, and we'll be happy to sit down with you and talk about how we can help your businesses.

Yeah, you can book an appointment. We have our text thing.

You can text the word 'book' to 954-827-9818, or go to b2bvault.info, click the Apply Now button. It takes you right there, and you get to get— answer some questions, you hit the ground running.

Bob, thank you so much for joining the B2B Vault podcast.

We appreciate you.

Thank you for everything that we're do— you're doing for, uh, XUI Payment Systems.

We're excited about our partnership, very excited.

Um, like I said, I can't wait to start, you know, getting these, uh, different agencies, getting in their ears and, you know, trying to get them away from the other big three that we mentioned.

Yep, there's a lot of opportunity, and we're excited working with, uh, Nationwide, we think you're, you're one of the best and a great trusted advisor to help a lot of businesses thrive and grow.

Yeah, we're looking forward to meeting a lot of banks at the convention and, and introduce our program and show you how you can— we can help your bank grow by digitizing, right? Take care.

Great day. Thank you.

Thanks, Bob.

Take care, man.

So we have— oh, let's see, we're gonna, we're gonna stop now. No. So thanks for listening to the podcast today. We thank Bob for being on from GoDaddy. We had, uh, we had a great conversation with, um, Bob today from GoDaddy. We're looking forward to our partnership. Visit the website nationwidepaymentsystems.com. You You can click on the partner page to find out more about our partner programs that we're offering in conjunction with GoDaddy. You can also get a merchant account. 10 questions. Justin told you earlier how quickly that he got approved.

Very easy.

Yeah, it's very easy. You know, the, you know, you're answering the questions and artificial intelligence is working in the background., and boom, if everything, you know, if all the information matches up into the, you know, the internet world, right? It's crazy, right? Then you're approved. So everybody have a great day. Catch us at the Financial Brand Conference in Las Vegas. Come by the booth, we're right by the front door, big GoDaddy booth. Come by. Peace out. That was good, it worked. I wonder what the— I wonder what the