(Note: This story appears in the May 2021 issue of ED Magazine)

The ease-of-use clubs need from a trusted point-of-sale provider — coupled with the chargeback protection you expect — make ChargeSavvy a one-stop-choice for critical areas of club operation. And with the company’s new merger, it has a bevy of resources to aid your club today.

As a club owner or operator, good help can be agonizingly hard to find these days. Well, you can stop the search party. ChargeSavvy is here to heed that call.

Whether it’s through its established POS system, the company’s renown and constantly evolving chargeback protection, or the strides the company is making into the digitization of money (think tokenization, blockchain, QR code payments, digital wallets, etc.), ChargeSavvy is here to help you and the industry at large.

Not only is ChargeSavvy here to revitalize the industry as it — and the world — rebounds from an ongoing pandemic, but it has more capital and backing to do it than ever. That’s thanks to GreenBox POS INC, a Nasdaq publicly traded company that is a financial technology company leveraging proprietary blockchain security to build customized payment solutions.

“They’re monsters in the payments space,” explains Jeff Nickel, ChargeSavvy COO, who has been with the company as it has grown from single-faceted solution to multi-pronged problem solver. “We actually had a very good (2020), but we felt that in order to do the things we want to do that combining forces with (GreenBox) was going to allow us to do those things.”

So yes, ChargeSavvy is mounting an all-out offensive to come to the industry’s rescue.

Seeing Green
Before the GreenBox merger ChargeSavvy was, among other things, a PayFac. A PayFac, or payment facilitator, is a sub-merchant account for a merchant service provider to provide payment processing services. But with GreenBox’s means, ChargeSavvy has acquired its own all-adult Bank Identification Number (BIN).

“We have unlimited banking power in the adult space, e-commerce and card-present club now, which is monstrous for us,” says Nickel. And that’s just the tip of the ChargeSavvy iceberg.

“We’ve got some really huge things happening that are going to have colossal impacts for the clubs to protect them and their revenues, which is really what ChargeSavvy is all about,” he adds. “Now we are partnering with GreenBox so where we can protect everything: protect them against these frivolous lawsuits, protect them against staff loss and all kinds of various things that affect the club owner that maybe the club owner isn’t even aware of, not to mention being able to roll into full blockchain.”

If you’re hazy on blockchain, cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and the like, here’s a quick explanation: Blockchain is a digital database containing info, like financial transactions, as well as the technology utilized to create that database. Cryptocurrency is digital-only currency that has no regulating authority. Bitcoin is the most well-known cryptocurrency.

This isn’t to fill your head with senseless fiscal tech talk. On the contrary, digitization is happening — and quickly.

Consider that 60-plus countries are working on their own digital currency (see above about no regulating authority), or that the largest crypto exchange in America, Coinbase — with an estimated 56 million users — was scheduled to go public on Nasdaq as of the time of this writing. And all this in a short dozen years since blockchain technology emerged.

This propels Nickel to the subject to tokenization.

“Because of new relationships and because we are the banking system and everything else is in place now, we’re going to be able to tokenize every transaction and every club,” he says.

“Instant payment lets the clubs use their credit card payments from that same shift to instantly payout entertainers. It’s cashless and the funds can hit the entertainer’s bank account 24/7, even Saturday at midnight.”

— Jeff Nickel, ChargeSavvy

To illustrate, let’s say two guests walk into Tootsie’s Cabaret. They want to get a VIP table and a bottle, and let’s say that’s $500. One of the guests picks up the tab, their card is run onto the ChargeSavvy system and that guest signs the bill. The system gets the authorization and thanks to the autonomy ChargeSavvy now has, the club has the $500 in its account immediately.

“Instant payment lets the clubs use their credit card payments from that same shift to instantly payout entertainers,” says Nickel. “It’s cashless and the funds can hit the entertainer’s bank account 24/7, even Saturday night at midnight. The technology that has been implemented is incredible.”

Say goodbye to chargebacks
The thing that put ChargeSavvy on the map was its chargeback protection. “Now, none of our clubs are ever going to have to fight a chargeback again,” proclaims Nickel.

Come again?

“The system is going to be completely automated because now the chargebacks are going to have to hit our BIN before they would go to a chargeback center,” he adds.

Let’s say after that bottle is ordered, the guest who paid gets a text from their bank asking to verify the purchase. Guest says they didn’t order the bottle. Boom, chargeback.

Back to the Tootsie’s example.

Tootsie’s (or any club) may not be notified for days or weeks about the chargeback. And meanwhile, the guest still gets the bottle.

“Our system is going to get notified instantly,” Nickel says. “It’s going to pull the data file and it’s going to fight the chargeback right now, while (the guests are) still sitting there, it’s going to instantly fight it on the club’s behalf.”

The system will also send out a notification so the club knows about the potential chargeback in the moment, enabling Tootsie’s to go to the guests immediately and ask about the chargeback in question.

“That’s the kind of software we’re getting done for our clubs,” says Nickel. “We’re putting the power back in our club’s hands, because for too many years the banks have really strangled the clubs, making them feel guilty for the kind of business they run. Just fighting a chargeback is a pain in the ass, you have to prove you’re innocent. We’re trying to turn the tables on that.”

None of our clubs are ever going to have to fight a chargeback again. Our system is going to get notified instantly. It’s going to pull the data file and it’s going to fight the chargeback right now, while (the guests are) still sitting there, it’s going to instantly fight it on the club’s behalf. — Jeff Nickel, ChargeSavvy

During COVID, markets saw a huge influx in chargebacks and even Amazon wasn’t unfazed. This prompted ChargeSavvy to challenge its development team to produce data files for any type of e-commerce transaction.

“This is what my job is now: How do we make life easier, more legally secure and more cost-effective and profitable for our club owners, especially now when they need it the most?” Nickel says. “Our club owners need every penny they can muster right now. We kept every one of our clubs live through the entire COVID shutdown. My job is to make sure that the money you say are supposed to have, you will have, and it will be secure and you won’t get hacked and you can count on it. That’s what we promise you.”

“We believe in this industry!”
If there’s one thing Nickel talks about as zealously as he does the advantages ChargeSavvy presents to the gentlemen’s club industry, it’s how fiercely he defends that same industry.

“We believe in this industry,” he says. “The gentlemen’s club industry is as important as the nightclub and restaurant (industries) and anybody else. I hate the stigma that’s attached to it. And we’re trying to change that. We’re trying to help our owners, they are true are professionals. Gentlemen’s club owners are running a business no different than Microsoft runs theirs or Dave and Buster’s runs theirs, so we want to take some of that burden off their shoulders.”

“Club owners, while they understand they need technology, they don’t want to learn it. And I don’t want them to have to learn it. I want them just to be able to have it and make it as simple as possible.” — Jeff Nickel, ChargeSavvy

And ChargeSavvy isn’t just spouting platitudes with the goal of luring new club owners and operators, it’s putting its money where its mouth is. ChargeSavvy, which has been chronicled in the pages of ED Magazine previously (most recently as the cover story in the November 2020 issue), has climbed the sponsorship ranks. What started as a booth at previous EXPOs has evolved into a full-blown sponsorship for the 2021 EXPO in Miami. All this in the hopes that those not taking advantage of ChargeSavvy will see its benefits firsthand.

“What I’m most excited about introducing to the clubs is twofold: one, technology that’s going to simplify their life without them having to learn technology,” he says. “That’s a big key because club owners, while they understand they need technology, they don’t want to learn it. And I don’t want them to have to learn it. I want them just to be able to have it and make it as simple as possible. And more importantly, I want to demonstrate to the clubs just how financially strong we are, because that matters to the clubs.”

For more information, visit chargesavvy.com, call (708) 272-8170, or stop by in-person at the EXPO at booths 88, 89 and 90.

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