Summer is finally here. After working hard to get the year off to a good start, many of us are planning vacations to take a well-deserved break. I always look forward to the summer as my kids are home and I can plan little trips with them to reconnect and have some fun. If you’re like me, however, you probably never go on vacation without your laptop, so you can check in or lurk in the background to make sure all systems remain go.
Even when you can’t put business aside completely, you can still streamline your check-in process by setting up key performance indicators that allow you to take a quick glance at your business and know that all is running smoothly. Here are 10 best practices to help manage your business while on vacation — so you can actually relax.
Receiving a simple daily report showing your current chargeback rate, refund rate and how you are performing against VAMP requirements will allow you to spot-check for fraud problems even while lying on the beach relaxing.
1. Traffic Monitoring
It’s important to set up exception reports to see if you are receiving solid hits to your join page and your conversions are on track. Traffic is also important as you could have an issue with a traffic partner and take a big hit on sales — or even worse, experience a cyberattack impacting your ability to convert sales. Getting identified by the card brands as an account enumeration attack and having your merchant identification number (MID) temporarily shut down to stop the attacks would not only stress you out during your getaway, but turn off your ability to process payments.
2. Hourly Stats
A stats report that tracks sales, rebills and refunds on an hourly basis will help you track how your business is performing each day. I have an hourly stat email that I check each morning at the same time when I wake up. This quick glance gives me confidence that the numbers are on track with the normal daily trend. If we are off, I can pass the note on to a team member to make sure all is OK, or quickly spot an issue with a processor, a traffic partner or a host.
3. Chargeback, Refund and VAMP Reporting
A few bad days of fraud while you are out of the office can make for a tough month when it comes to keeping your ratios in line. Receiving a simple daily report showing your current chargeback rate, refund rate and how you are performing against VAMP requirements will allow you to spot-check for fraud problems even while lying on the beach relaxing, so you can catch any issues before they bite you. As a reminder, the calculation for VAMP is total fraud alerts (TC40s) plus chargebacks (TC15), minus disputes resolved through Visa’s Rapid Dispute Resolution (RDR), divided by total settled sales.
4. Website Monitoring
Several third-party monitoring services are available to track website availability and performance. One example is SolarWinds Pingdom, which provides uptime monitoring using distributed probe locations to verify that a site is accessible. It can generate alerts via SMS, email or mobile applications when issues are detected. These solutions typically perform synthetic monitoring, including HTTP/HTTPS checks, DNS resolution and response-time measurements, and can track performance trends over time. Some platforms also offer Real User Monitoring (RUM) to capture the experience of actual visitors. Other commonly used solutions include Datadog, Site24x7, UptimeRobot and WebGazer.
5. Security Tools
It’s important to invest in tools that let you sleep. Having good virus and ransomware protection in place will help protect your systems, so you won’t need to worry while you’re away.
6. Automated Backups
This was a big one from our operations team. If something breaks while you’re away, you want an easy way to restore it. Have a backup schedule in place. Daily is best if you can afford it. Then make sure to test restoring from your backup, to confirm everything is working. Nothing is worse than having a problem and realizing the restore button does not work.
7. System Updates
Have automatic updates in place for key software components, so you aren’t exposed to avoidable risks while you are away.
8. Automated Billing
By having as many of your service providers as possible on auto-renewal, you won’t have to worry about billing. This includes domains, hosting, SSL certificates and other tools. This helps avoid any interruption caused by a missed payment.
9. Delegation and Backup Support
Find your “twin” to step in and back you up while you’re away. If you’re a new or small business, this may be difficult, but over time, it’s important to train others to support you. One of our large payment providers offers employees a month-long sabbatical, which requires others to step in and provide coverage. I always feel concerned when our relationship manager goes on leave, but the process works. The team stepping in has consistently supported us without missing a beat. When I asked why they have this policy, they explained that it benefits employees and ensures there’s always backup in place, so nothing falls through the cracks.
10. Set Your Out-of-Office
Let people know you are away and whom they can contact if there is an issue. When people know you are on vacation, they generally want you to enjoy your time off. Your out-of-office message helps set expectations and ensures there is a clear path for support if needed.
Taking time away from your business should not feel like a risk. With the right reporting, systems and support in place, you can step away with confidence, knowing your business is running the way you expect it to. The more visibility and structure you build into your operations, the easier it becomes to truly disconnect and enjoy your time off.
Cathy Beardsley is president and CEO of Segpay, a merchant services provider offering a wide range of custom financial solutions, including payment facilitation, direct merchant accounts and secure gateway services. Under her direction, Segpay has become one of four companies approved by Visa to operate as a high-risk internet payment services provider. For questions or help, contact sales@segpay.com or compliance@segpay.com.
