How much training revenue could I expect to collect via credit card?
13 September 2021
There’s no doubt that electronic card transactions are still on the rise in New Zealand. What many organisations want to know, is “how important is it to my business?” If you are in the training sector, this article will help answer this question.
Trading Economics reported New Zealand’s credit card spending hit a record high in July 2021 at $5,357 million. Stats NZ data shows the number of transactions per head of population continues to rise year on year. Neither source offers any data relevant to the training sector.
When Booking Rooster was founded in 2010 many businesses were reluctant to offer credit card payment. They felt their customers would not want to pay this way or were concerned that the fees would eat into their profits. That changed rapidly.
Now, every training business using the Booking Rooster course management software offers optional debit or credit card processing. So what has driven the move to offer credit card processing in the short course market? The key reasons are:
- Improved cashflow due to being paid quicker.
- Increased course enrolments purely by giving people more ways to pay.
- Reduced time spent chasing slower payers.
- Reduced ‘no shows’ due to the ‘commitment value’ of paying at the time of booking.
Many training businesses that are still considering a course management system that includes credit card processing options wonder what portion of training course fees their business could expect to be paid up front by debit or credit card. To answer the question, Booking Roosteranalysed aggregated data for the 12 months to 31 August 2021, excluding one business that only added credit card processing late in 2020.
The results show all training businesses received a significant portion of revenue via credit card. Most of these businesses operate in a business to business, rather than business to consumer environment. Many get a large portion of their income from private courses where payment is inevitably on invoice. Even so, the analysis of aggregated data shows:
- Overall 16% of course revenue was collected by debit or credit card
- All businesses collected at least 8% of their revenue this way.
- The median across all training business was 19% - almost one-fifth of total revenue.
- One business collected a staggering 60% of their income via debit or credit card.
- The next highest level of uptake 29% of course revenue received this way.
While it is possible that some of these businesses have training income that isn’t channelled through the Booking Rooster platform, most use the platform for all courses, including private courses.
Some businesses still have concern about potential revenue loss through credit card processing fees. With Booking Rooster it is possible to pass on the credit card costs to bookers as a ‘booking’ or ‘credit card processing’ fee. The option was added to the platform in late 2020 in response to growing demand – primarily from the events sector. Training businesses currently tend towards absorbing the processing fees to maximise the uptake of the payment option. The cashflow advantage and reduction in accounting costs are considered to greatly outweigh credit card processing fees.
If you have questions about debit and credit card processing for the training sector contact Booking Rooster on connect@bookingrooster.co.nz. The Rooster’s training sector business process team have extensive experience in payment processing as the software works with six different credit card processing services, including two that offer time-payment options. They also continue to offer payment on account, via internet banking or via store cards like Farmlands card.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Moira Moroney
This article was researched and produced by Booking Rooster co-founder and process architect, Moira Moroney. Moira has a strong background in business process improvement, marketing and customer engagment. Her career spans over 35 years in a mix of corporate, SME and entreprenuerial environments. Connect with Moira on LinkedIn, email or by call her on +64-7-575-6903.
