At a time when home computers were just coming onto the scene — think 1984 Apple Macintosh — the founder of Real Green Systems realized how software could help him pursue his passion for growing green businesses, and run his lawn care business more efficiently. 37 years later, Real Green is the innovative leader in software for the industry.
Real Green’s journey to embedded payments is also rooted in innovation. According to Kellie Kucik, Head of Payments, the company has spent the last decade focused on developing its Customer Assistant Website. It syncs the Real Green CRM software with its lawn care customer end users, giving them access to online account creation and management.
Bill pay was an important part of Real Green’s passion for innovation. The company’s clients depend on cash flow, and having a credit card on file means technicians in the field can immediately invoice from their mobile app and see cash in their bank account 24 hours later.
We realized how much opportunity we bring to the table, as the nature of our industry is reliant in large part on recurring payments. Our first integrated payment solution was a referral agreement with a third-party ISO. We went through a couple of iterations.Kellie Kucik Head of Payments, Real Green
Planting the seed of embedded payments
Eventually, moving payments in-house became Real Green’s goal. Their first payment processing solution was a white-labeled ISO sales agent. A few years later, after Real Green was sold to a private equity firm, the new owners saw the untapped revenue potential from payments. The search was on for a middleware partner to help Real Green become a payment facilitator.
“We had six months to turn it around, and the only way to do that was to find a partner who could help us with the core settlement engine, the user UI, and an internal platform to run the business on,” Kellie said. “Otherwise, it would take us months and months of development to create it all, using a specialized team of developers with first-hand experience in the payments space. For us, it just wasn’t feasible.”
After trying a Payrix competitor, Real Green learned how important it was to have the right solution, backed by the right team. “We realized very quickly with the other partner that their solution was not what we needed to scale our business efficiently and successfully,” Kellie said. “A lot of key pieces of functionality were missing, and we were getting a lot of push back from our customers. It was time to pivot again. On a recommendation from a friend, we found Payrix.”
Accelerating customer satisfaction and growth
Real Green decided to go with Payrix Premium, Payrix’s payment infrastructure as a service solution. The solution enabled the company to harness all the benefits of being a registered payment facilitator – without the time and expense of building a technology solution in-house.
Kellie explained how Payrix offered everything they were looking for: An out-of-the-box solution that fit their needs, a highly responsive team for support, and the real-world experience of running a payfac and supporting a portfolio, just like Real Green was already doing. “The functionality was just there, and it was clear that people who had run a payments business had designed it,” Kellie said.
“That’s one of Payrix’s biggest differentiators. You can have the best developers, and people who have worked with payments technology since they were in the womb. But if you’ve never run a payments business, then you don’t have the unique perspective of someone like me who’s dealing with merchants on a daily basis,” Kellie added. “If you don’t know the payments business from the inside, you’re never going to be able to deliver a product as good as someone like Payrix, who’s working in the product day in and day out.”
Before signing on with Payrix, Kellie interviewed several Payrix customers to get an idea of how responsive the Payrix team was. She wanted to make sure their new partner would listen to feedback, take time to understand their specific use case, and was willing to develop a platform that better-served Real Green customers.
Everyone I talked to had great things to say about the Payrix team, and that’s continued to be the case. Having a partner like Payrix, who’s willing to have those conversations with you, and actually turn them into actions, is a game-changer for us.Kellie Kucik Head of Payments, Real Green
Real Green Systems implemented Payrix to its platform in August of 2019, launching to hundreds of merchants. Since then, that number has grown to almost 2,000. “It’s nice to finally have a best-in-class payments solution that saves our customers time,” Kellie said, “and helps them focus on growing their lawn care businesses.”
