After upgrading their infrastructure and beginning an aggressive growth strategy, Mountain State Waste needed to reduce their merchant service fees and see some real savings in their billing process.
Mountain State Waste (MSW) is one of the largest private waste and recycling haulers in the state of West Virginia. Over the last few years, they have grown into a regional waste hauler servicing parts of Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio. Headquartered in Weston, WV, MSW has been in business since 2013 when its principles acquired the assets of a local solid waste company. This acquisition strategically positioned MSW to take advantage of some emerging and historically monopolized markets. After spending some time to upgrade infrastructure, MSW began an aggressive growth strategy within 24 months that included implementing commercial front load service as well as three acquisitions in North Central West Virginia and one in Southern West Virginia. As of July 2019, Mountain State Waste is now a leading regional hauler with 15 counties in West Virginia as well as servicing approximately 20,000 customers in southwest Pennsylvania, southern Ohio and Eastern Kentucky and that number continues to grow.
Rising Processing Fees
Due to the rapid and continued growth, Mountain State Waste noticed that their credit cards fees were rising month after month. Thousands of dollars were going to the credit card company and the processing company. They also noticed they could not accept American Express through their processing company, which was causing an issue.
“We had a feeling we were overpaying for merchant services. In the two years I’d been in the position, we had not reviewed or had someone review our account,” Austin Lucas, Finance Director of MSW said. “We decided to have someone take a look with hopes of seeing some real savings.”
Switching Over
As luck would have it, Austin and JP Phillips, Vice President and General Manager, attended an event by the Morgantown, WV Chamber of Commerce, where they met Bill Johnston, Business Development Manager for CardWorks Acquiring.
CardWorks Acquiring, headquartered in Syosset, NY with regional offices in Pittsburgh, PA, Orlando and Tampa, FL, is a leading payment provider in the waste management industry. They offer their clients industry low rates, state-of-the-art products and unparalleled 24/7 white glove customer service. With their partnership with Merrick Bank, CardWorks processes more than $4 Billion annually.
“We had just talked the week prior to meeting Bill about finding someone to review our statement. The next week we met Bill, it was truly the right place and the right time. We talked for a while and invited him down to our headquarters,” Phillips said.
During the meeting, their assumptions were correct. They were overpaying and by a lot—throwing away thousands of dollars that could have been put to use elsewhere. However, as great as saving the money was, one more hurdle awaited Johnston and CardWorks. Mountain State Waste has a customer database in which all payments are processed. They have thousands of customers each month who are set up on recurring payments.
“I had a few sleepless nights about those transactions because we made the change at the end of the month when those are processed,” Lucas said laughing. “The implementation took less than 15 minutes and the test transaction worked perfectly so I had nothing to be worried about.”
“I told Austin and JP not to worry. Saving Mountain State Waste money was the easy part and making the switch while saving their database was even easier,” said Johnston.
The implantation was done on the back end of their current database. Johnston, along with the CardWorks team, handled the implantation and got Mountain State Waste switched over and processing within a week.
A Real Value
While CardWorks notes that saving hundreds and thousands of dollars is the easy part, the real CardWorks advantage is that everything is handled in house. From having your very own dedicated agent to call on, to underwriting, white glove customer support and a chargeback team to help you if one should occur. “We love to save companies and businesses money, especially in the waste and recycling industry,” Johnston said. “But the real value comes from our team. We give our clients 24-hour support, whether that’s from me or our support team. We value every client big or small. Not only do we offer support, but also the latest technology so they can process more efficiently.”
CardWorks offers several payment solutions that make your company process run more efficiently. From standalone chip reading terminals, phone readers, access to point of sale systems, Authorize.net and their very own industry leading CardWorks Gateway, which offers ACH transfers.
“Since we made the switch to CardWorks, we haven’t had any issues or glitches. The process was seamless. They did a great job and the change has saved us thousands of dollars. If a question arises, Bill is always available. He takes the time to review our statements and makes it a point to attend and sponsor our annual waste haulers association meeting,” Phillips said.
“From meeting at an event to doing business together to becoming friends, that’s what it’s all about. Maybe they will take me on their fishing trip next year,” Johnston joked. “I couldn’t ask for better clients and its exciting watching their company grow.”
Continuing Relationship
Mountain State Waste continues to grow, by recently purchasing a 34,000 square foot facility that will be home to their northern West Virginia and Pennsylvania operations. The facility is being updated to include modernized offices, a newly designed truck maintenance shop and parking for the fleet of trucks and equipment. The remaining warehouse space will be converted into a state-of-the-art solid waste transfer station.
The relationship between Mountain State Waste and CardWorks has been great. While they meet a few times a year to go over their current statements and better processing standards, they also get together for West Virginia University football and basketball games as well as tailgates. Proving that CardWorks stands behind their words. Said Lucas, “Everyone likes to cut costs, and making this change to CardWorks with Bill has helped us spend that money elsewhere.” | WA
For more information, contact Bill Johnston at (304) 479-5464 or e-mail [email protected].