We all understand that most parks and recreation departments operate lean with a dedicated staff. That also means that any changes to systems and processes are considered carefully.
Any interruption to critical services can be extremely detrimental to the experience they’re committed to providing. Especially so when you’re talking about patrons’ wallets. That’s what Terry Bugas, Accounting Coordinator, was experiencing at the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District.
Reports were out of balance and customers were getting charged multiple times for what should have been single transactions. That’s why when Vermont Systems PayTrac offered the opportunity to have one vendor and one call for support that she knew she could trust, she worked to convince everyone involved that it would be a smart decision. Following is a conversation about her experiences in the process.
What made you decide to go with PayTrac?
Bugas: We were using (a competitive vendor) as the middle person, and I was out of balance every single day. Customers were constantly being double, sometimes triple charged. There was a problem with it bouncing back and forth between RecTrac and (the competitive vendor), and then it would just spin. Customers would try again and that would charge their card. I'm the person that balances all of that. I’d have to reach out to the customer and let them know that their card had been charged too many times, but I'm fixing it. It's been very nice not having to do that anymore.
Did it take long to get up and running?
Bugas: When we pulled the trigger to do it with all of our online commerce credit cards, the day that we signed up was the day it started. It was more of a question of getting everybody else comfortable with the switch. I wanted to do it from day one. I just had to convince management that this was a good thing.
What was your impression of the implementation team?
Bugas: Awesome. Everybody is awesome. I had one scenario that was a little bizarre and I needed results right now. When it comes to PayTrac, they (Vermont Systems) are even quicker than other work orders or tickets.
How much time have you saved?
Bugas: Here's an example. When we have our registration day, we can have anywhere from 30 to 50 pages of transactions. Before we switched over, it would take me the weekend to go through it. I would have to go through each transaction to figure out where the error was. With the switchover, as soon as I printed my reports, I was balanced. It was just totally seamless.
What would you tell another department considering moving to PayTrac?
Bugas: That you won't be sorry. You’ll be so happy that you did. It's seamless. It's so much easier. Even if you have somebody who disputes a credit card, they're right there to help you.