Clear lines of communication between the merchant and the cardholder are an integral component to successful credit card processing. When cardholders do not recognize a charge or have difficulty reaching the merchant with questions, it opens the door to cardholder disputes and chargebacks.

A dedicated Member Help / Member Support or Customer Service / Customer Support website is one way that online merchants can keep the lines of communication to the cardholder open. Investing in a dedicated support URL now and the accompanying customer support infrastructure now can lower chargebacks and decrease cardholder disputes over the long term.

A Member Help / Support website is an effective way to provide cardholders with easy avenues to contact the merchant and for the merchant to offer cardholders quick and easy responses and resolutions. When used as the merchant’s descriptor, a Member Help URL delivers to the cardholder’s billing statement a fast and familiar way for the cardholder to recognize the charge and get in contact with the merchant. In fact, some cardholders may even be more likely to contact a merchant using a website than a toll free customer service phone number.

Using a web address as the descriptor is more effective than using the company name or the product name because it allows the merchant to provide the cardholder with direct access to information and resolutions without having to take additional steps or do any extra work. Using a dedicated Member Help  / Member Support URL as the billing descriptor is better than using the company home page because the merchant can deliver specific resolutions to the cardholder without the cardholder having to do the extra work of searching around the website.

The merchant can even anticipate cardholder questions and provide content and tools to speed resolutions, such as clearly stated contact information with dedicated customer service email addresses and toll free customer service phone numbers, product information, terms & conditions, refund policies, cancellation policies, and billing policies. Making these policies clear and easy to find will minimize cardholder confusion and the potential for disputes. Providing clear contact information will make it more likely that the cardholder will contact the merchant to resolve disputes. Along with being clear, policies should be accompanied by features that make it easy for cardholders to resolve problems. Provide feedback forms for terms & conditions and auto cancellation and refund request tools.