By choosing a career as a therapist, you’ve stated to the world that you want to help people. During your sessions, you shouldn’t have to worry about how you’re going to get paid and the pile of paperwork required in order to receive your fee. Accepting credit/debit cards help reduce your chances of a high-quality client turning into a financial liability who doesn’t pay his or her bill. There are many other benefits to accepting credit cards in your practice:
1. Increase your cash flow and reduce accounts receivable – getting paid today is always better than getting paid tomorrow, and almost everyone would agree with that. However, by not accepting credit cards, you’re choosing to get paid later by invoicing and “hoping” they will pay their bill when it’s due. By swiping their charge card right after your session, you reduce the time it takes to get paid and reduce your accounts receivable at the same time.
2. Double or triple your sales – the reality is that the world is going paperless at an ever-increasing rate. It’s a proven fact that people will spend more money when they’re using a credit card than when they’re paying cash for their services. By accepting credit cards, you increase your chances of clients remaining in treatment and selling additional services. You won’t hear “oh I don’t have money to pay for the extra long session” due to a limited quantity of paper money, and covering your off-hours crisis calls immediately will certainly help your bottom line.
3. Increased trust due to credit card logos – many people trust a business that accepts credit cards more than ones that don’t. This might not be a factor of whether a business is reputable or not, but if a client sees that someone accepts credit cards then there’s a certain assumption that the business has gone through their bank, had their financials checked out, and is on the straight and narrow. Your practice could be the most trustworthy business, but a lot of younger people expect credit and debit cards to be accepted and are used to carrying a card rather than cash for their payments.
4. Less chance of a bad debt arising from accounts receivable – the fact is that some people forget or choose not to pay their bills. By accepting credit cards, you’ll reduce your risk that the person they choose not to pay is your practice. Since you will be getting paid upon delivery of your service, you will greatly reduce (think almost 0%) chance that someone will stiff you for a bill.
Overall, accepting credit/debit cards in your therapy practice is a smart move. The increased cash flow alone will pay for the fees that the credit card services will charge, not to mention the reduced postage and paper costs of mailing lots of invoices. It really becomes a no-brainer when people trust you more and your receive payment at time of service.
If you don’t have the capability of accepting cards right now, we want to let you know that integrated credit card processing is now a feature of the Automated Medical Assistant online therapy billing solution. Read more about it here.
