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Leaders In Payments
Leaders In Payments
AI in Payments Series: Featuring Payarc Chief Revenue Officer Dustin Siner | Episode 389
Dustin Siner, Chief Revenue Officer at Payarc, brings 27 years of payments industry expertise and a fascinating journey that began with a psychology degree and a brief stint as a rehabilitation counselor. His therapeutic background proved surprisingly valuable in navigating the complex payments landscape, where relationship building remains the cornerstone of success despite technological advances.
Fresh from Payarc's recognition as ISO of the Year at the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), Dustin reveals the secret behind their meteoric rise - "The Payarc Way." This philosophy, built on integrity, empathy, courage, knowledge, and caring, guides how the company supports its network of 1,400+ independent agents, ISOs, and ISVs who generate an impressive 95% of their business.
While many competitors devalue the independent agent channel, Payarc doubles down on relationships with dedicated managers, responsive support teams, and proprietary technology platforms designed exclusively for partners. Their Partner Hub provides comprehensive tools for the entire sales process, from application to approval, while their suite of payment solutions offers partners competitive advantages in a crowded marketplace.
What truly distinguishes Payarc is their approach to artificial intelligence through their PIE AI program. Rather than replacing human interaction, they enhance it - helping partners analyze statements with PIE Agent Advisor, predict customer churn with PIE Churn, and enable merchants to gain business insights through natural language queries with PIE Merchant Advisor.
For agents, ISOs, and ISVs seeking a partner that values relationships as much as innovation in an increasingly consolidated market, Payarc offers a refreshing alternative where technology and humanity work together to drive mutual success.
Thank you. Scale their businesses one payment at a time. At Payark, ai is more than a buzzword. It is integrated into everything they do, from predicting merchant churn to risk assessments, to self-service tools. Join us for this special series on AI in Payments.
Greg Myers:Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast. I'm your host, greg Myers, and on today's show we have a very special guest, dustin Siner, the Chief Revenue Officer at Payark. But before we dive in, I wanted to mention a couple of things. We've had several people from Payark on the show, including Zach Martinez, the CEO, the CTO, john Minitaglio, as well as more recently, we had Jared Ronski, the co-founder and president, on the show. So I suggest you go back and listen to those episodes as well. But today we're going to focus on Dustin. So, dustin, welcome to the show. Thanks, greg, great being here, Great. So, if you don't mind, tell our audience a little bit about yourself, maybe where you grew up, where you went to school, where you currently live, a few things like that, sure.
Dustin Siner:Dustin Siner, chief Revenue Officer for PayArc. I grew up in the small town of Whitefish, montana, where there's snow on the ground nine months out of the year. I no longer live in Montana because I don't like snow, so I am now in the Dallas-Farworth area. I think we're pretty close to each other, greg. I went to school at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where Deion Sanders is gratefully turning around that football program, which is fantastic for us. I actually have a degree in psychology.
Dustin Siner:I thought I wanted to be a therapist. My first job out of school I was actually a counselor at a detox facility for drug and alcohol rehabilitation. After about six months I realized I didn't have the thick skin I thought I did. But I realized I could take my therapeutic skills into an arena that really needed it and that was payments. So I've been in payments for 27 years. I got my start at Bank Card Inc there in Boulder, which was actually the first registered ISO for Chase Payment Tech way back in the day, which was fun. We were acquired by Nova, which is now, of course, elevon, and I made my array into sales kind of growing up through transfers thesis ultimately became the senior vice president running the retail ISO agents and payment facilitator programs, and I now serve as the chief revenue officer here for Payark.
Greg Myers:Awesome, awesome. Well, let's dive in. And, as you well know, and hopefully the audience knows and if they don't, they're about to is that Payark was recognized as the ISO of the year at ETA, which was just a couple of weeks ago, and obviously that's a reflection on the growth and the commitment to your partners that you guys have and sort of this partner first approach where you really focus on the onboarding, the integration, the support that you provide agents, isvs and ISOs. So the question is, with your focus on this, how does this partner-first approach help you drive momentum and open new revenue opportunities across the board?
Dustin Siner:Sure. Well, first let me say what an honor it is to be recognized as the ISO of the year for the ETA and you probably know this, but there's almost 10,000 registered ISOs in the United States alone. So to be selected as the top ISO of the year is such an amazing honor and we're just so grateful for it. And we really couldn't do it without our Payark family, of course, our employees, but, almost more importantly, our third-party sales partners, and we have over 1,400 independent agents, isos and ISVs that we partner with across the United States and they represent 95% of our business and we've really enjoyed phenomenal growth over the last several years and that's thanks to the relationships that we've built with these partners, and it really is all about relationship. Business is about relationship. I think we forget that, but for us, we really make sure our employees are focused on the PayArc way. As we deal with our partners, our agents in ISOs and ISVs, they really are our top customer and we need to make sure that we treat them accordingly. So the PayArc way is really kind of built around five main pillars. It is focused with integrity, empathy, courage, knowledge, truth and caring, and those are the really you know, know the five pillars that we focus on when we're dealing with our partners. And it really starts with integrity right. We want to make sure that we are the white hats of the business, that we are following through in our commitments, that we do what we say we're going to do, that we are transparent with our pricing, our programs and that we just really follow through on everything that we've committed to our partners. And we also want to make sure we're practicing empathy, that we really understand and vocalize their perspective. Business is always fraught with challenges. Obviously there's a lot of rewarding opportunities that we can follow through on. But as those challenges arise, we need to make sure that we're empathetic with our partners and that we voice those concerns and we follow those concerns through to resolution. And then we have to make sure we're representing courage, that we have to make sure we're representing courage, that we have the courage to step up and lead. So, as these challenges arise, that we are embracing the challenge, that we are working with our partners to find resolutions and just really following through to see that situation to its end. We also want to make sure that each employee has the knowledge that they need to be successful, so we make sure each employee goes through rigorous industry training in addition to, obviously, the PayArc way and the systems that we implement. So we just want to make sure that we're giving our partners the support that they need from individuals that really have the knowledge to help them succeed through sales and through support and all the other different things.
Dustin Siner:We also want to make sure that we're truthful in everything that we do. So if we make a mistake, we want to make sure that we own that mistake, that we're being proactive and voicing that mistake to our customers. We want to be truthful in what we convey. We also want to make sure that we get ahead of any bad news that may transpire. So we want to make sure that we're truthful, empathetic and proactive to approach any issue that may come up. And, finally, we want to make sure that each employee demonstrates caring for our partners. Again, it's a relationship business Agents and ISOs especially, and ISVs. It's important that they know that we care about them, that we care about their success, because their success is our success. So we want to make sure each pay arc employee demonstrates that caring in their relationship with those partners.
Greg Myers:Okay, great. So this next question is kind of a two-part question. So how are PayArc's in-house solutions helping these agents and ISVs and merchants fuel their revenue growth? And then the second part what role does innovation play in giving those partners the tools they need to stay competitive?
Dustin Siner:Yeah, it's a complicated market, right? I mean the technology growth. If we can't keep up with the technology growth then we can't meet the growing demands of a complicated audience with business owners across a wide array of different vertical markets. So for us, again, the agents ISVs, isos being our core audience it really starts with making sure that we make business easy for them. So it starts for us with what we call our partner hub. So partner hub is where our partners live from the beginning to the end of the sales process. So we have our apply wizard which allows a partner to easily go in to a very intuitive interface to complete an application, submit it for electronic signature for their customers and then goes through an automated boarding process on our side so they can see every step along the way. What's happening with that application. Is it approved? If it's pending, why is it pending? And from a boarding process, where do we stand with deployment and all that good stuff. It also has a wide array of resources that they can leverage so we can, through our resource center, they're able to pull down a wide variety of sales and marketing assets. We have a number of different training curriculums. They can take advantage of assets. We have a number of different training curriculums they can take advantage of. It also has the ability to view support tickets so as any issue arises, they can submit a support ticket directly through there. They can see the status of those tickets. They can also see all the data related to their portfolio. They can see their customers' transactions. They can see chargebacks. So if those partners want to interface directly with those customers with any issues that may transpire, they can be proactive by viewing that data. And then we're starting to build in some AI to really kind of help those partners, through natural language, ask different questions to the system and have the system generate intuitive answers on the backside.
Dustin Siner:Innovation also comes in the way of what types of tools and products can we arm our partners with for sales. So we have a wide variety of proprietary platforms that we offer to those partners and they're all fully integrated in an omni-channel environment. So we have a PayArc app that resides through PAX Terminals, any Android device. We also have our PayArc app that sits in an iOS environment. We have our Curve POS platform, which serves the tall to the small a fully integrated POS platform which serves the tall to the small.
Dustin Siner:A fully integrated POS solution for retail restaurant owners, also mobile solutions that they can take advantage of, and all those feed into the PayArc gateway. So the gateway itself is where the merchants can go online. They can view their transaction data, their statements. They can also use that as a virtual terminal backup. So, for any reason their terminal's down, they can go online at any time with anywhere that has access to the internet and process payments.
Dustin Siner:So we offer that full, wide variety of products for our partners. And then, finally, because we are a financial technology provider, we have access to a wide variety of APIs that we can use to customize payment experiences. So, again, because it's a very complex market, we have sales engineers that can work directly with those third-party partners of ours and create dynamic solutions through integrated gateway offerings, integrated POS offerings or even payment facilitator offerings that would support things like split payments and things of that nature. So innovation is very important and it's also important that we make it simple for the partners to be able to integrate, so we give them a guided experience through the whole process.
Greg Myers:Okay, and next question again. It's kind of a two-part thing. Payarc's in-house tools are exclusively available to your partners, so what specific advantages does that unlock? And then how do these programs help agents and ISVs and merchants actually grow their business and gain a competitive advantage in this crowded space?
Dustin Siner:Yeah, it kind of comes back to what I was speaking to for the last question, Because these solutions are unique to the PR audience. The first advantage is our competitors can't step in and reprogram it right so that customer becomes engaged with a platform that is very sticky. It helps that merchant, that business owner, grow in a wide variety of different areas. It could be through making that business more efficient through employee management, time clock management. It could be in allowing that merchant to reach a wider array of consumers that want to meet that merchant where they're ready to buy, whether it be online or in person or so on and so forth. And again, because we are a financial technology provider with in-house developers, we can customize any solutions through a lot of unique engagements through our sales engineering team. So it really kind of sets us apart from that standpoint.
Greg Myers:Okay, well, what trends are you seeing specifically in the agent channel and what kind of performance and growth differences are you noticing, and sort of, what do you expect to see in the coming year?
Dustin Siner:Yeah, you know it's interesting. A lot of our competitors really devalue the independent agent channel and I think a lot of us forget why ISOs and agents exist in the first place. You know, 40 plus years ago, financial institutions were the only place where a business owner could set up credit card processing. Those banks realized they didn't have the market reach to find all those different business owners, and so the ISO program began. That's how it was born, by leveraging third-party sales partners that are really entrepreneurial in spirit and are very relationship-driven. Bankers are fantastic, but they're not physically out on the street visiting these businesses at their locations, where the agents especially are right there in front of those customers every day, and they are just absolutely phenomenal at building relationships, and so relationship obviously is a key word here that I kind of keep zeroing in on. Business is all about relationships, and so as the market consolidates and as a lot of our competitors devalue that channel, what that result looks like is a lot of different things. To support dwindles, a lot of the competitors will initiate price increases without consulting their partners and just to kind of boost their stock price or whatnot. A lot of times it means there's technologies that those competitors will only sell through their direct channels that they don't open up to the third party channels. And so for us, again, it's all about relationship, because agents are so entrepreneurial spirit, they are in the face of the market every single up to the third party channels.
Dustin Siner:And so for us, again, it's all about relationship, because agents are so entrepreneurial in spirit they are in the face of the market every single day.
Dustin Siner:They're giving us feedback about what the market needs, what the market demands, and we're able to provide solutions that they do such a phenomenal job expanding through the wide market that is out there. So we really hone in on making sure we focus in on those relationships. We have a dedicated relationship management team, so each of our 1400 third party partners have dedicated individuals that have decades of industry experience to help guide them through a very complex market. We also back them up through our support team that answers the phone in a minute or less. So, again, if they ever have an issue, they pick up the phone and somebody's there right away to help service that particular need. And again, because we are a mid-sized financial technology player, we're very nimble. So, as these more complex solutions that are needed in the market, we love the feedback from our partners, and we love working with them to design very innovative, complex solutions for a complex audience. So it's been just a fantastic run for us.
Greg Myers:Yeah, you mentioned a couple of things there. I wanted to just get you maybe to double click on. You talked about relationships, obviously incredibly important in this business. And then, as you and I, who've been in this industry a while, we've heard the death of the ISO right. That's been talked about for a long time, but ISOs and agents still have a role in this industry and I think they always will, and I feel like you're differentiating your business on sort of that white glove service right, being there for them at any time with the technology and the tools that they need to succeed. I mean, that sounds like the perfect formula, yeah.
Dustin Siner:Yeah, I mean, obviously our industry has evolved incredibly. There's a lot of financial technology players that have incredible innovative technology that they take to market. There's the integrated restaurant management platforms that we all know about. There's the ISV-driven Stripes and Addiens and a lot of the others the Toast platforms and they have absolutely incredible solutions. But I think what those companies miss really is making sure that they develop those relationships. So, while third-party ISVs and agents may love to take advantage of those platforms, they can't pick up the phone and call anyone. They don't have any flexibility in how they price their customer base. So, really, we approach the market through partnership. How do we win together? How do we resolve the pain points of the merchant base? How do we make sure that they know that we care about their business right? And so it's really a huge focal point for us is to make sure we're really honing on that relationship.
Greg Myers:Yeah, absolutely Well, you mentioned AI earlier, so let's double click on that a little bit. So in what ways does your Pi AI program directly drive sales growth? And maybe more specifically, how do the Pi churn, Pi agent and Pi merchant tools help sales overcome some of their persistent challenges in retaining merchants, closing deals and boosting revenue?
Dustin Siner:Yeah, isn't it amazing how far AI has come in such a short amount of time? I mean, I think every business is engaged at some level of AI and I know John Minitaglia was on your show recently, you know, talking a lot about what we're doing with Pi and, again, you know, I think, the way we view AI is AI is there and meant to boost the human interaction. It's not there to replace it. So I know a lot of our competitors. I was talking to a competitor of ours. I was at the Masters this last weekend, which was an incredible experience, by the way but I was talking to one of our competitors who mentioned they have 50 developers that are focused only on AI to be able to answer the phone, so they want to remove that human experience and have a bot physically speak directly with their customer base. We don't view it that way. As awesome as AI is and how human-like it seems to be, nothing will replace that human interaction and really being able to express empathy and carrying out all those other things that we talked about. And so, as we look at Pi, for us again, our agents, our third-party sales partners being our core focus, our core customer base, it starts with the PI agent advisor. So what the PI agent advisor does is it allows a sales partner to be able to scan a copy of a merchant statement. The bot itself will scan it. It'll tell the agent this is how that merchant is priced. Here's some ideas of how you might be able to save that merchant money in different avenues. Eventually, we'll also be able to advise that agent on solutions that they could sell to that customer base, whether it be something that PayArc offers through our proprietary platform or through any of the third parties that we support. It would tell that agent hey, maybe you should think about cross-selling. If they're using Toast, maybe they should check out Curve POS as an example. That PI agent advisor will also eventually be able to allow a partner to ask, through a natural language, different questions. Hey, can you show me in my portfolio who are my top customers and it would show, obviously, a breakdown of that. Hey, in my portfolio do I have any merchants that have chargeback increases? Is there anything that I should pay attention to? Is there anything I could educate that merchant on how to mitigate some of those chargebacks? So we can ask it through natural language and that bot will give it feedback that allows that human and enhances that human to be able to further educate their customer. So it's a huge focal point for us.
Dustin Siner:We also have our PyChurn we talked about, so the churn advisor. What that does is it allows us to scan up to a thousand different data elements that basically help us identify when we might be at risk of losing a customer. We all know it's much harder to lose a customer it's much harder to replace that customer than it is to find a new one, right. So this tool will allow us to scan support tickets, anything that might be happening within a regional demographic, and it gives it a percentage of a risk that that customer might leave us. And we've been able to drill down up to 85% accuracy, that different risk level. And so, internally, what that does is we're able to relay to our sales partners hey, these guys are at risk. You might want to pick up the phone and give them a call. You might want to stop by and say hello, just make sure you're again focusing on that relationship so that merchant knows you care about them. If they have pain, let's solve that pain so we don't lose them. It's extremely important to us.
Dustin Siner:We also leverage AI, obviously, to help us through risk mitigation and loss prevention.
Dustin Siner:We're able to leverage AI to show us when fraud might be happening and we can reach out to that merchant and let them know.
Dustin Siner:Maybe there was a data hack or maybe they have an employee that were doing some things that were unscrupulous.
Dustin Siner:We can also use it to predict potential losses, so if a merchant might be at risk of not being able to cover different fees, it gives us an alert right so we're able to help dramatically proactively approach potential losses, which is a huge problem, I think, for all of us in this business. It helps us through automated underwriting and a lot of other different things. Again, ai it's amazing how far it's come and what it does to allow us to grow. Finally, we leverage AI through our high merchant advisor. Again, merchants are able to log into our platform and they're able to ask, through natural language, different questions hey, what are my top sales hours over the past month? If they wanted to address times when they might be able to put on a special promotion to help boost sales, they could ask different questions. To do that, they could also ask you know, what are my top SKUs, what are my top products that I can sell Just by typing in a simple question into the system.
Greg Myers:So Pi has really come a long way to really help boost our business. It's fascinating what AI is doing. I think what's interesting and important is that companies that are embracing it, like you guys, are out there talking about it. You're not sort of hiding behind it, not off doing things and not talking to your partners. In fact, you guys have productized it, which is amazing, and you're out there talking about it. I mean, that's part of what this whole series is about is really how is AI and payments progressing? You know what are companies doing, how are they becoming successful using AI? So I think you know you guys out there talking about it and, like I said, productizing it, I think is an amazing step and the runway is huge for AI.
Dustin Siner:It really is, and if you're not embracing AI, then you're going to be way behind the times, right? So you know. Again, I think it's important that we don't devalue the importance of the human interaction and the relationship, but how do we leverage AI to just promote that experience? So whether we're using AI to grow our knowledge base? As a support rep is on the phone, they can ask a quick question hey, I can't figure out the troubleshooting on this and a bot can very quickly spit out answers so that merges on the phone for minutes instead of potentially hours. You know, to solve those problems. So amazing what AI can do.
Greg Myers:Absolutely Well, dustin. It's been a great conversation.
Dustin Siner:I just wanted to thank the ETA again for recognizing us as the ISO of the year. I really want to make sure everybody knows PayArc is 100% focused on third-party sales Any agents, isos, isvs that are looking for a quality partner, especially in a time where the market continues to consolidate. There's obviously big news today about a couple of major players that emerged here recently and you know a lot of. There aren't many players out there that are focused on that independent agent ISO market and so we're here. If you guys are interested in looking for a new home, please give us a call.
Greg Myers:Okay, well, dustin, thank you so much for being on the show. I know your time's very valuable, so again, thanks for being on today. Thank you, greg, I appreciate it, and to all your listeners out there, I thank you for your time as well.
Speaker 1:And until the next story. Thank you for joining us today as we discussed how Payark is leveraging AI to transform payments. To learn more about Payark, visit wwwpayarkcom.