• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Customer Login

Appstar

Qualify Now!

  • Solutions
    • Retail
    • Mobile
    • Point of Sale Solutions
    • E-Commerce
    • Industries
  • Partners
  • Company
    • Careers
    • Training
    • Reviews
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Video Library
    • Platinum Benefits Program
  • Contact Us
  • Get Started

What it Takes to Survive Almost Two Decades in an Ultra-Competitive Industry

What it Takes to Survive Almost Two Decades in an Ultra-Competitive Industry

February 5, 2019

If you don’t already know it, the credit card processing industry is extremely competitive. It’s hard to win customers and easy to lose them. Customers will leave you for a couple of bucks or one bad transaction. Reviewers and competitors will call your company a scam and warn others to stay away.

It’s also challenging to recruit, train and maintain a great team. It’s not an easy job—it’s mostly sales and customer service. When you hear from a customer it’s probably because they have a problem. Rarely will a customer call you up out of the blue to tell you what a great service you provide, even when you do. All this comes with the territory.

Yes, sometimes we are quite passionate when trying to sell our services. We do it because we know we can save them money or provide better service, or both. When a bank is gouging a retail customer because they don’t know any better, what should we do? Do nothing, or try to educate them as to how AppStar can help them keep more of their hard-earned money? When viewed this way, we’re less of a sales organization and more of an education company. We’re in the business of educating small businesses how they can do better for themselves.

Credit card processing is also a complicated business. Small business owners rarely understand all that goes into taking care of their money and getting them paid on time. But that’s okay. That’s what we’re here for.

How we survive with our customers

We’ve been around for 17 years so we must be doing something right. We start by offering the lowest rates while providing excellent customer service. But that’s only the beginning.

We’ve survived by having integrity, fixing problems when they occur and not constantly raising rates with no notice. We’ve survived by offering a friendly voice on the phone rather than placing customers on hold. We’ve survived by being honest, which includes admitting to a potential customer when we can’t help them.

We’re proud of our customer service. We’re friendly and patient with our customers. And we try to do right by them as evidenced by a Yelp reviewer who said we’ve, “gone above and beyond in helping us in the matter of taking care of a large transaction and making sure the funds are being sent to us…”

Above all else, we always act in our customers’ best interest. We resolve technical issues quickly. We’ve even been known to unwind an order if there’s even a question that the error is ours. It’s why our customers tend to stay.

How we survive with our team

Just as we have very low attrition with our customers, most of our team has been around long enough to develop ongoing relationships with our customers. Over half have been with us a decade or longer. That says a lot.

We’ve survived by paying our team members well. We’ve survived by working with our new recruits until they get up to speed and don’t let go until they succeed. We’ve survived by providing excellent training.

Our partners are just as crucial to our survival as our team. That’s why we offer our outside sales consultants one of the best commission structures in the industry. It’s also why we help them develop new skills like consultative selling, lead generation, networking and account management. We want our outside sales consultants to hone these skills even if they don’t represent us forever.

We understand that AppStar can only go as far as the team will take us. That’s why we invest so much in them. It’s one of the keys to our survival.

We’re not perfect

Few business are. But we care about our customers, about our team and work hard to rectify any issues that we can. And that has allowed us to not only survive, but thrive in an ultra-competitive industry. Lasting almost two decades, we must be doing something right.

If you think you might like to take advantage of our services or join our team, let us hear from you.

Share this post:
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
AppStar Footer Logo

Corporate Office
4619 Viewridge Avenue, Suite C
San Diego, California 92123

Call Us
(866) 754-5368
Recruiting Hotline: (866) 712-3547

Solutions

Retail
Mobile
Point of Sale
E-Commerce
Industries

Partners

Company
Careers
Training
Reviews

Resources

Blog
Success Stories
Video Library
Customer Login
Contact

Follow Us

dashicons-facebook-altdashicons-linkedin
dashicons-instagramdashicons-youtube
dashicons-twitter

Privacy Policy - Web Accessibility - Site Map

© Appstar 2025. All rights reserved.
Design by TinyFrog Technologies

Appstar Financial is a registered Independent Sales Organization of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Concord, CA and Fifth Third Bank, N.A., Cincinnati, OH.
The Clover name and logo are owned by Clover Network, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of First Data corporation, and are registered or used in the U.S. and many foreign countries.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. View our privacy policy. Dismiss
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Popup Img

Don't miss out!

Qualify to receive $400 today

"*" indicates required fields

Popup Img

Don't miss out!

Qualify to receive $400 today

"*" indicates required fields

Consent
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.