Clover offers simple payment solution for business members

When John Torres, executive director at Maryland Farm Bureau, and his team needed a quick and simple solution to accept credit card payments at their Young Farmers Dairy Bar during the Maryland State Fair, they turned to Farm Bureau Bank and Clover, a point of sale system that can be used by business owners in a variety of industries.

Farm Bureau Bank’s merchant services provided by Clover offer a variety of solutions to help individuals manage their business. Clover allows users to accept more types of payments, protect businesses from fraud and manage merchant accounts online. Ohio Farm Bureau members who sell products directly to customers may be interested in Farm Bureau Bank’s merchant services products offerings like Clover.

“Clover has a lot of really great apps that help with invoicing, payroll and really anything that a business would need, and it has really great hardware options,” said Andrea Kanter, Farm Bureau Bank treasury solutions manager.

Maryland Farm Bureau has worked with other vendors over the years to accept credit card payments, but as their relationship grew with Farm Bureau Bank, a decision was made to try Clover.

“We’ve grown our relationship with Farm Bureau Bank greatly throughout the past several years,” Torres said. “Farm Bureau Bank said ‘Hey we have this merchant services provider called Clover’ and they encouraged us to check it out and we decided to see if Clover might be a better fit for what we are trying to do at the state fair.”

Clover benefits to members

State Farm Bureaus, county Farm Bureaus and Farm Bureau members with a business are eligible for discounts on transaction fees. According to Torres, that’s what made working with Clover very attractive.

“Because we do banking with Farm Bureau Bank and since that relationship between Farm Bureau Bank and Clover was already there, it was really easy to collect payment and have transactions directly deposited into our account,” he said.

According to Torres, it worked out wonderfully.

Additionally, because Maryland Farm Bureau only uses Clover a few weeks throughout the year, there are upgrades and downgrades in service that can be made so that they are not paying for more than they need during certain times of the year.

“Now that we’re doing more business with businesses, we’re seeing a lot more referrals come through for Clover,” Kanter said.

Customer management

In addition to processing payments, Clover can also be used for customer management. Businesses can use their Clover devices to track customer information, including contact information and purchase history, that can allow users to create targeted marketing campaigns and improve customer service. Clover is flexible, user-friendly, and can be customized to meet the specific needs of each individual business.

Maryland State Fair — Maryland Farm Bureau uses Clover to process payments at their Dairy Bar at the state fair.

“From the back end, I will say it is the most user-friendly of the three or four I’ve worked in for the dairy bar in the past,” said Parker Welch, organization director for Maryland Farm Bureau. “It’s simple, self-explanatory and easy to navigate.”

With the right tools, the Clover system can be a beneficial tool for managing all aspects of a business.

“Training is usually done in a few minutes as shifts of volunteers are changing,” Welch said. “Thankfully it only takes a few transactions for someone, whether technologically savvy or not, to learn how to use it.”

In the first year of the subscription, Maryland Farm Bureau continues to find new, unexpected ways to use the service.

“We do several fundraisers at our state annual convention,” Torres said. “People who participated in the live and silent auction were able to do so using Clover as well. So, Clover has turned out to be beneficial beyond our initial expectations.”