Welcome to Retail Checks and Balances, a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the bustling world of commerce and culinary delights to help you grow your business and win. Join us as we explore the fascinating stories, trends, and challenges that shape the retail and hospitality industry, from cozy corner cafes to sprawling shopping malls and everything in between. And now, here's your host, Kevin Spencer. 

Welcome again to another exciting episode of Retail Checks and Balances. Today, we have a special guest, Eduardo Alvarez. His friends call him Eddie, right? He is president, co-founder, sales director, head trainer for Transac Unlimited. Eddie, welcome. A man of many hearts, right? 

Yes. Thank you, Kevin. It's my pleasure to be here today and to participate with you on your podcast. Honored to do it. 

Oh, this is fabulous. I mean, I think when we first met, I mean, as we were talking previously, the energy of of being in business and being personable or amiable about people. I mean, I think that's important. And I get that good vibe, as you say, that energy that you present. So great. And that's an awesome fucking beard. Sorry. 

Thank you. Thank you, Kevin. I appreciate that. And, you know, that's something that's very difficult to fake. Kevin, you really have to love what you do in order for you to be able to exuberate that energy and that confidence to the customers and it come across as genuine. And I strive to do that, you know, every opportunity I have. to communicate with a partner or a client, a merchant, a customer. I try to reduce that to we're either giving or we're taking all the time. We're either giving somebody energy or we're draining their energy. So I try to make a point that every time I have an opportunity to interact, I want to breathe positive energy into everybody that I have the opportunity with. Because, you know, I tell the guys, you know, our goal is to turn everybody into a customer or everybody into a partner. You know, I call it doing alchemy. There's always an opportunity to work together. Sometimes, you know, I even encourage to be introduced to other people who do exactly what we do. Because I feel like if we're willing to, we can always find a common path where we can both help each other. For me, there are no roadblocks in business. I look at everybody as either I can help optimize their process or I can point them in the right direction to help them be able to take better advantage of something that's working for us. In the event that we can't work with them, it doesn't mean that we can't positively influence them and add value in some other way. networking BNI, just like you and I do, has really taught me that. And I take that giver's game philosophy with me everywhere that I go. And I try to add value from the most minor things to, in some cases, we can really change people's lives. This last week, we signed up a huge roofing company, which was actually referred by one of our colleagues, Cece, And that company is an extreme case, but we're saving them approximately $3,500 per month, about $42,000 per year in savings that we've been able to achieve by our, you know, award-winning patented interchange optimization process. And, you know, this particular merchant was doing a lot of corporate cards. and they weren't being qualified for the second, third, and fourth discounted tier of interchange rate that's only possible through the solutions that we provide. We have a strategic advantage when dealing with any customers that are doing a lot of corporate cards. Typically, those customers are using a gateway which only qualifies them for the Tier 1 interchange rate, which on a corporate card is 2.95 percent. You know, you're going to continue to process those cards the same way you always have, only processing them through our platform. We're going to include additional information, which is going to qualify that transaction for a discounted interchange rate up to 100 basis points less than interchange cost per month. And of course, depending on your volume, that could equal hundreds or thousands of dollars of savings monthly. And that's one of the ways that we're competitive, you know, in this market with that particular type of customer. 

So payment processing is a huge industry, you know. I'd like you to elaborate, you know, how do you differentiate yourself from your competition or everybody else who said, I do payment processing. 

Sure. Great question. First and foremost, we are an independent sales organization for Visa MasterCard Discover and OptiBlue of American Express. We make it possible for businesses to accept credit cards as a form of payment. We're not limited categorically by any type of business. Whether it's face-to-face payments, software integration, integrated shopping cart, we can set up any business to take a payment. Now, how we differentiate ourselves in a very competitive landscape, we pride ourselves first and foremost on customer service. You know, we don't put any of our clients in contracts. Everything is month to month. You know, we back up our service with a direct point of contact. Our merchants are never told to call a 1-800 number. They're never waiting overnight or the next day to get an answer to their question or their response. They're able to get somebody on the line immediately who has access to their account, who can see exactly what they're looking at, and who is authorized to effect change in order to solve an issue. So that's one niche that we serve. We're very customer-centric. Yes. We envision that the customer has a customer standing in front of them waiting to make a payment and something is not working and that's why they're calling us. We act accordingly. We know this is a split second thing. We don't want to lose this customer. Let us get on the line. I can't tell you how many times I've been on an airplane or on a boat or somewhere out in the field and I've had to quickly help a customer and do something and I'm happy to do it. because I know it's kind of what sets us apart from everyone else. Another thing that we do here internally is we don't departmentalize our staff. Everybody here is trained on every process from boarding the customer, to programming their hardware, to installing their hardware, to going live and training the staff, and then supporting them going forward. And it takes a long time to develop our staff to be able to encompass all of those moving parts. But we find that that's the best way to keep the churn rate down going forward. And right now, you know, we have about 600 merchants, predominantly mostly here in South Florida, but also spread out around the whole country. And we're proud to say that we have less than a 1% churn rate. So, you know, as the customers come, you know, they never leave. 

The retention is 99%. 

Yeah. Wow. 

Yeah. 

Amazing. Now, you know, granted, uh, I don't like to be somebody's first merchant service provider, um, because then they take me for granted. They take my staff for granted. They think that all the companies work like we do. Right. I like to be your second, third or fourth, because by that time, Your attitude as well. Where have you been my whole life? You guys pick up the phone. You guys show up on a Saturday or a Sunday. You know, you guys are there when I need you. and everything works great and you're accountable. I've been working with this other company that I could never get anyone on the phone or I've been waiting weeks for a response to this email with a question. Those are just things that for us are second nature. I'd like to pride myself by answering the phone on the first or second ring. If I'm on a Zoom or I'm on a conference call, I'm going to shoot you a quick text. I'm going to take all my colleague who's ready to help you right now. I'll be available in 15 minutes, but you're always going to get an immediate response with us. That's one of the ways that we've separated ourselves from our competition. Then something I'd like to add unique about the merchant service industry, which makes it the best industry in the world in my opinion, and that is Kevin, that payments is a level playing field. What I mean by that is that, Kevin, let's say your company does $100 million a year in processing, and my company does $100,000 a year in processing. There's a big gap between that. Well, Kevin, just because you do $100 million a year doesn't mean you can call Visa and negotiate a lower interchange rate for you that I can't qualify for. When I say it's a level playing field, that's what I mean. I mean, it's a level playing field. So, you know, we compete in a market where we know that we're always going to be competitive. It doesn't matter how big the company is. They're still paying the same interchange than the guy who's processing small and the guy who's processing big. So they can't offer a lower interchange cost than we can because it's the same for everybody. Every year the card brands put out a matrix, they tell you all their cards, and then the fees for all those card types and for how you accept them. We're confident in our service. We compete against companies that are way bigger than us, and we're winning business every day. Taking merchants that were underserviced from those platforms, bringing them onto our platform, giving them better optimization, securing them savings on their fees, and then offering them a better solution which lowers their risk for fraud and for human error. lowers the amount of time that you have to spend manually entering cards, where now they're saved on file and you can just set them for automatic billing. We start by saving them money, but we end up keeping them and winning their business by really improving the overall process for how they accept payments. We look for the pain points, we look for the bottlenecks, and we alleviate that, and we utilize different tools, softwares, and relationships that we've been amassing throughout the years to really make sure that we have everything we need in order for merchants to process payments in the variety of ways that are needed in order for them to be competitive. 

I mean, I love that personalized approach. And I think in retail in general, I mean, because we all in retail, we're all selling something, whether a law firm, whether we're in payment processing, whether we're selling glasses, whatever, whatever it is, that personalized approach is super important because, you know, me personally, I don't like to call a number and hear, hi, you've reached it, then I have to go through five minutes of going through prompts to get to the person. I know large companies have no choice but to do it, but I think the personalized approach is really what makes your customers feel that you really care about them. And you're saying, you're the co-founder, you're the president, but you still give people access to you. And I think that's important in the sense that people know that you care and Also, being able to delegate, it's great that you're delegating and then you call back to follow up, hey, did you get through? Did you get your issue resolved? Do I need to follow up? And I think that's a great philosophy and I don't think you should stop that at any time in your business life. 

Absolutely, Kevin. Thank you, you know, for those encouraging words. And that is part of the secret sauce, right? You know, we call it, we call it a SPOC, a single, what is it? I don't know what the, what the anagram is, but basically it's a direct point of contact, a single direct point of contact. And we find that that makes the whole process faster, smoother. When the merchant calls, Kevin, we know it's Kevin calling. Most times, we already know the question before they even ask it because maybe it's, you know, if it's the first of the month, it might be a question about your merchant fee, right? You know, so there's different markers, but by having a direct point of contact, you save time. Everything goes smoothly. And more than anything, you know that we care, right? Because we're answering, hey, Kev, how you doing? You know, what's going on? How can we help you? What are we doing today? And it's a different level, a different level of relationship that we have. And, you know, later on when our When our competitors come around and try to poach that account, are they going to be able to maintain that relationship at the level that we've been maintaining it? Probably not. Most of those companies, those salesmen are out just selling. They're not customer service. They're not inspiration. They're not implementation. They're not any of those. So you're never going to see him again. Is that the relationship you want with your processor? The guy who's taking the money from your customer's bank and taking it to your bank? You want to be in good communication with that individual. You know, you want to have them on, on speed dial. Right. Um, so, you know, we take that responsibility seriously. Um, you know, it's our honor, you know, to, to be in charge of, of the most important part of your business getting paid. Right. We want to make sure that, you know, technically when you hire us, Kevin, to be your merchant service provider, you're basically getting a free employee. And that employee's role is they're in charge of anything. That's a payment, right? If it's a credit card payment, that's the guy who's in charge. You know, here locally, you know, we've been honored to be the merchant service provider for the city of Sweetwater, going on five or six years now. And prior to working with us, you know, the city was, they were very poorly managed. You know, they were being grossly overcharged in payment acceptance fees. When they were referred to me, you know, I came into the city, I created them, you know, eight different merchant accounts for their eight different departments, and we were able to offer them our patented and award-winning Interchange Optimization Solution, which saved them $77,000 their first month of processing with us. That was a partial month. Needless to say, we've had them for six years. They're very happy with us. Prior to working with us, not only were they overpaying grossly, but they were also grossly underserviced. Ninety percent of the calls that the IT department was getting in the city were all merchant account related. So I'm working with our, we didn't only save them money, but we took all that support off the plate, right, they have about 40 clerks in the city, they contact me when they need help. And our solution is such that they don't need a lot of help. Right. You know, needless to say, the city loves us. They're not getting calls. You know, they're optimizing their rates. You know, we've streamlined their whole process. Several departments have terminals. Some departments just use software. But I'm on first-ranked basis with the finance director. I'm on first-ranked basis with all the department heads and the clerks. And I'm able to help them immediately whenever they need help. And that was something that they didn't have with their previous, you know, merchant service provider. 

And what differentiates you as a business as well is the fact that you have a storefront. Most people in this industry that you are in, they're working from home, they don't have something for their... I mean, some people say you really don't need a storefront, but I think having a brick and mortar for your business really shows that you exist. I mean, some people would disagree with that, and that's fine. But I think that's an important factor for you as a business, right? 

Absolutely. Thank you for highlighting that, Kevin. You know, you've actually visited us here in our office and we are the only ISO store on the planet Earth that I know of. You know, right now I have my logo in the background, but I'm here in the store right now. Right. And we are, you know, We are a brick-and-mortar retail storefront location. We have live devices on display. Most of the hardware that we use here, we keep it in stock. We have this physical location because we found that in our industry, most merchant service providers are basically in an office somewhere in a high-rise if they have a physical location at all. They don't receive customers there. We feel it's important to have a storefront because we want to take all of the dishonest parts out of this business. We want to be available to be audited any time of the day. Our customers are welcome to come here, enjoy some of our coffee, maybe pick up some receipt paper if they're running low, or come by and just see maybe some new hardware or new software that we're starting to implement. We find that it gives customers a peace of mind knowing that you're not a fly-by-night organization that they can't go and keep you accountable for. We want them to come here every month if they like, and we'll sit down with them and we'll go through their statement with a fine-tooth comb. They'll find that in the majority of the cases, we've over-delivered on what we promised we said we were going to do. That's the goal, really. Under-promise and over-deliver. 

So you've have, you have, um, I mean, you talked about your, um, your achievements as a business. Um, do you, do you have, um, I need to talk about this, the city of Sweetwater, but do you have any great achievements that you would like to share in terms of your business or personal or you as a person? 

I mean, we're here talking business, Kevin, you know, I would be remiss to tell you that the greatest things I've achieved in my life were business related. I have many, you know, achievements in business, but if I had to tell you my greatest achievements, it would be, you know, becoming a father, you know, being a husband. Those are my greatest achievements. 

That's my number one. That's my number one. 

Right. I have a great wife, Lily, and I have two, you know, beautiful young boys, Eddie and Eli, and that's my why. You know, that's why I get up every day and I work hard in order to provide them you know, a comfortable life. You know, I also have, you know, a great team here at work, which is my extended family. You know, we all are like-minded individuals. And, you know, we like to say that, you know, we have a family culture here. You know, we're about building each other up, not about tearing each other down. We're in a competitive business, but we're not, you know, we're not developing our staff to step on people's throats out there to get things done. We take a very organic approach with every customer. We do it right from the beginning. We don't lie, cheat, or steal. We win our business based on honor and delivering results. If I'm proud of anything we've achieved, it's that I've been able to attract this group of guys to come together and to have a common goal. I think in business, my greatest achievement is the team that I've been able to put together. And in life, it's my wife and my two boys. 

The morals and values of family are really what really makes you successful in business. I mean, there are people who don't have families and are successful, but it's not the same thing. I mean, the entire self-gratitude that you get for business really comes from being family-oriented. you get that step into because you need those two to feel energized. You need that family to feel energized, to push on day by day. Those are the ones that help you in the stressful fucking days, right? The stressful days, you need your family to keep that well oiled. Yeah. Tell me, tell me about your hobbies. Let's, let's hear about Eddie. 

My hobbies are extensive. Um, I am the, um, youngest of seven siblings. Um, and I'm the, um, there's a six year gap between myself and my next older brother. I'm the baby of seven. Um, so, When we were all together on family vacations, because of the big age gap in all of the siblings, there wasn't a lot of activities that we could all do simultaneously that everybody enjoyed with the exception of one, which was fishing. Fishing was the one activity that all seven of us could do at the same time and everybody was having fun. So that became, you know, my favorite pastime. I've been fishing since I was three years old. I have pictures of myself, you know, catching fish at three. And I haven't stopped. You know, I've been blessed to have several friends and family who also have been bitten by the fishing bug. And it becomes a passion. It's an expensive one. And, you know, funny story, you know, periodically, you know, I like to make the joke that I don't go fishing, I go catching. because a lot of people go fishing but not a lot of people catch fish, right? So I've been blessed to always do well when I go out and that comes with years of practice and knowing where to go and how to do it. But you know what happens is A lot of people, they marvel at the beautiful pictures of the big fish that I hold up, and they say, man, please take me with you. I want to go. And I'm like, OK, you want to go? Be ready at 2.30 a.m. Be at my house. We're going to drive three hours to Marathon. We're going to be on the boat at 5.30. We're going to load the ice, load the chum. We're going to fish until the sun goes down. Then we're going to come in. We're going to clean the fish. We're going to clean the boat. And then we're going to drive three hours back and you'll be home the next day, maybe at 2 a.m. oh wait a minute man i don't know if i could do that i'm like okay well then you know that's what it takes i love i love to fish the only the only problem i have is is the seasick i get seasick so so i i have the water has to be flat i have the cure for that kevin i have the cure i got the answer for you tell me what's the cure My whole life I've been getting seasick, Kevin. It never stopped me from going out, okay? I get seasick at the dock, okay? I smell the diesel, I get sick. But then somebody educated me. You know who it was? It was a Coast Guard. A Coast Guard, a Coastie educated me. And he told me something that has really changed my life. You're supposed to take the seasick pills the night before You don't take them the morning of. They do you no good if you take them the morning of. You take the C-Sec pills the night before you go to bed, and when you wake up, you're perfect. You're ready to go. And if you're out there the whole day, you might need to take two more before the end of the day, but that's the trick. That's everything. Kevin, you do that, you'll never get C-Sec again. 

Okay, I'm going to try. There's a favorite that I take that I threw up because you're right, you go outside, you try to get the fresh air, but you get the smell of the diesel and then it's gone. You're done. You're done. Thanks for that. I mean, that's great. If that works, then I'll surely go out and fish with you for sure. 

Well, we're going to make that happen. You know, and another thing is I try to buy the non-drowsy stuff. when you can, right? Because a lot of that stuff will make you drowsy. If there's an option to get the non-drowsy, get the non-drowsy. Because I like to get out there and talk, you know what I mean? And especially if I'm with buddies and those buddies like to drink, right? I'm not a big drinker, you know, I'll pretend. I'll have one or two, right? The buddies that don't get out a lot, you know who they are. They're on their fifth or sixth beer and you haven't gotten to the fishing spot yet, right? And I love those guys because I know I'm gonna out fish them, right? So I'm encouraging them, yeah, yeah, yeah, drink it up, baby. Get all those beers. And when I'm on my 10th or 15th fish, I'm like, hey, how's it going over there, big guy? You know? That's my favorite. That's my favorite. But if I take the drowsy stuff, then I'm quiet. And you'll know right away, hey, what's wrong with Eddie? Why is he so quiet, you know? And it's because I couldn't find the non-drowsy stuff. But that's my favorite hobby and pastime. Kevin is fishing. I did play a lot of sports when I was young. I got to play baseball in college, which was a lot of fun. You know, my whole life I played football, baseball, tennis, basketball, you know, and I got to play baseball at the college level, which was a great experience. I went to university at Belton University in Elgin, Illinois. And I got to play baseball up there and and you know, I have you know still have great friends, you know all across from college and and that really Kept me out of a lot of trouble when I was young, you know They say I don't hand I don't hands are the devil's workshop and when I was young I didn't really have time to get in trouble. So I was going from practice to practice and really learning how to win and learning how to lose and learning how to be part of a team, which are all things that serve me well in business and in life. And, you know, those highs and lows that you experience in sports when you're young, they really prepare you for what life's going to throw at you. You know, not everything is going to go your way. And, you know, I was just telling the guys before I jumped on the podcast with you, you know, that in life you have to be gracious in victory. You have to be gracious in defeat. and you're gonna miss 100% of the shots that you don't take. So feel free to be bold enough to plant that seed and to give your ask, put your ask out there. The worst that can happen is they say no, but if you don't ask, you'll always regret that you didn't take your shot, right? So my whole philosophy in life and in sports is be tenacious. Give a second, third, and fourth effort because that might be the difference in you and the next guy. That next guy might be more talented than you, He might be more athletic than you, but if he quits at the first sign of adversity, that's your opportunity to jump in. Right. And I feel like, um, you know, I did that in my sports career, you know, I was always competitive and everything I ever played, but really my superpower was my effort. You know, I was not willing to fail. Um, and that's kind of the philosophy I take with me and everything else that I do. Um, you know, I try to win, uh, and you know, I'm, I'm, I'm gracious in my victory and I'm, and I'm gracious in my defeats. And I try to learn from my defeats and never repeat those mistakes. 

Fantastic. I mean, this has been great, Eddie. I mean, and I'm calling you Eddie because I'm your friend, right? 

You are my friend, Kevin. 

And I mean, how do people find you on your social handle and website? 

So our website is TransactULTD.com. That's the abbreviation for unlimited. So TransactUtahLimaTangoDelta.com. And on there, you can see some of our you know, feature some of our about us, some contact forms. So customers are always welcome to reach out there. Also, you know, you can call the office anytime. Come on over. 754-701-0045. We're in Davie, Florida. You know, we're retail storefront, 4900 South University Drive, Davie, Florida, 33328, unit 111, right next to the T-Mobile. Um, and we're here Monday through Friday, uh, nine to six. Um, but we're on our phones 24 seven. Um, and you know, we work with restaurants, uh, retail stores. legal, medical, higher education, software. Anybody who takes a payment, we're their payment processor. That's the goal. We'd like to be able to help whoever we can. Um, and, and we treat everybody the same, you know, from the small merchants to the large merchants, everybody has a direct point of contact. Uh, everybody gets the same, you know, preferred pricing. Um, and, and we're looking to, you know, grow the portfolio. Um, and we're not willing to cut corners. Uh, you know, we're going to give the maximum amount of optimization to every single opportunity that we have. Um, and that's kind of, you know, how we set ourselves apart, you know, from, from the competition. 

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thanks for joining me today. Gonna have a busy season. Everybody has to transact to buy those holiday gifts, right? That's right. Buy that food. So thank you very much, Eddie. Have a great Christmas, great New Year. Thank you. So well. Be well. 

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