One Company, One Point of Contact

Empowering American Scaffolding and Industrial Wire Rope to Reach New Heights

American Scaffolding and Industrial Wire Rope are Cincinnati-based affiliated companies that have a long history in the construction supply field.

Scott Lemen, vice president of operations, said 80% of his organization’s product offerings are used around cranes: “Our products are used to either lift things or climb things, and that’s the best way to describe it.”

An internal error that led to an $80,000 fraud chargeback was the initial wake-up call that prompted Scott to look harder at the companies’ payments processing practices and that ultimately led to the search for a new payments partner and the selection of Worldpay.

He realized that existing processes weren’t allowing employees to recognize possible fraud issues, and that the team needed more education on what to look for and how to prevent these situations. They were accepting payments but didn’t ever see or understand the back end of the process and how their actions could affect fees and impact profitability.

“In any business, you’re going to have human error, so you want to mitigate that as much as possible. We all make mistakes, from top to bottom. I make mistakes every day, and the question is, ‘Can I learn from those mistakes and do a better job next time?’ In this instance, we learned from it and moved on, and that's the best outcome,” he says.

The companies deal with online, telephone and point-of-sale terminal payments, which fall under Scott’s purview. Businesses that take card payments are required to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to demonstrate they are keeping their customers’ card details and private data safe.

Scott recognized he and his employees needed to be educated about what data they needed to collect for payments, as well as the best way to get it. He also wanted to know what he didn’t know. Additionally, he sought ease-of-use and a reduction in fees – all areas fulfilled by Worldpay.

With Worldpay, American Scaffolding and Industrial Wire Rope get great customer service and one point of contact, which were two of the biggest determining factors in choosing their new payments partner. Plus, not only have the organizations experienced a reduction in fees, but they can identify possible fraudulent situations and deal with them immediately.

With assistance from Worldpay, Scott has also been able to teach employees and help them understand fees and how the actions they take associated with payments can affect those fees and the bottom line. As a result, employees are now empowered by the awareness of how they can positively or negatively impact the companies’ success.

Understandably, the transition to and implementation of Worldpay systems needed to be behind-the-scenes and undetectable internally and externally.

According to Scott, “I’ve been through a lot of various implementations in all different areas that people say will be seamless − payroll, insurance onboarding, etc. There are a million things that could happen, but working with Worldpay really was seamless. We didn’t have any issues.”

Scott is also quick to emphasize how much he appreciates and values that his Worldpay relationship manager reaches out to him on a regular basis, often just to check in. If there’s an issue, he knows who to call and is confident she will provide a quick resolution.

Furthermore, Scott knows that his day-to-day contact is his voice within Worldpay, that he has an internal advocate. If he has any questions, he can rely on his account manager to provide the answers. “If I didn’t have that partnership, I would never have that voice,” he asserts.

Impact

Today, the companies are confident in their ability to prevent errors in processing, as well as can readily recognize possible fraud red flags. They have also reduced their fees by 10% and have taught employees how their actions affect fees which, in turn, impact the bottom line.