Order Insight - A Comprehensive Overview

Table of Contents

1. What is Order Insight?
2. How Does Order Insight Work?
3. What Information Can I Share with Order Insight?
4. What Chargeback Types Can Order Insight Prevent?
5. How is Order Insight Different from Other Tools?
6. Should Merchants Use Order Insight?
7. How Do I Start Using Order Insight?
8. What about Order Insight and Data Analytics?
9. Building a Comprehensive Chargeback Prevention Strategy
10. Conclusion
11. Frequently Asked Questions

For merchants, one of the most frustrating aspects of the chargeback system is the fact that result from a simple misunderstanding that could have been resolved if the customer had reached out. Unfortunately, whether out of confusion or frustration, many customers will go straight to their bank to dispute the charge. And without any insight into what actually happened, the bank will often initiate a chargeback.

The problem is that in that crucial conversation between the customer and their bank, neither party has the information needed to solve the issue. If the merchant was part of that conversation, many chargebacks could be prevented. While merchants might not be able to join in on those phone calls, there is a way they can participate in them: Order Insight.

What is Order Insight?

First launched by Verifi in 2017, before they were acquired by Visa, Order Insight allows customer service representatives at issuing banks to access information from merchants’ CRM systems in real time, enabling them to provide specific details about the transaction.

This helps cardholders recall unfamiliar transactions and can provide greater clarity to the issuer about whether a dispute is appropriate to escalate to a chargeback or whether the cardholder should be directed to resolve the issue with the merchant.

Order Insight fits into Visa’s overall strategy of trying to provide merchants, banks, and cardholders with tools to prevent disputes and streamline resolution.

When a cardholder calls their bank with the intention of demanding a chargeback, that is a critical moment in the life cycle of a dispute—at this juncture, it is almost always better for the merchant to issue a refund and avoid the dispute entirely, but if the cardholder isn’t talking to them, the merchant’s only hope is for the issuing bank to ask the right questions, determine that a chargeback is not appropriate, and convince the cardholder to pursue alternative resolutions.

With Order Insight, the merchant’s fate isn’t determined by how diligent and persuasive the issuers’ customer service representative is about handling chargeback calls. The issuer will have a pipeline directly into the cardholder’s transaction history with the merchant, and can provide specific and detailed information to cardholders who don’t recognize a transaction—as well as those who are hoping to pull off a friendly fraud chargeback.

How Does Order Insight Work?

Currently, Order Insight is is accessed through Visa Resolve Online, Visa's platform for dispute management.

Ordinarily, if a cardholder calls their issuing bank to file a dispute, that process almost always results in a chargeback. That means the merchant has to take the time to submit a response to the dispute, and even if they win, they still have to pay a chargeback fee.

Merchants can also face additional fees for failing to respond to a dispute in time, and can lose revenue if they lose a dispute. With Order Insight, however, the chargeback process can often be stopped before it even begins.

Let’s say a cardholder calls with that classic dispute-starter, “I don’t recognize this transaction.” Did they Google the merchant name on their bank statement? Was there a number listed, and did they try calling it? Who knows! The bank representative may ask these questions, which sometimes prevents the dispute from going further, but with Order Insight they can simply pull up the transaction details in VROL and read them back to the cardholder.

For cardholders who genuinely don’t remember a transaction, being told the name of the merchant and the products purchased is often enough to satisfy them.

With Order Insight, they don’t have to be persuaded to call the merchant themselves. The bank can access the very same information the merchant has saved, and can provide it directly to the cardholder, near-instantaneously, while they’re on the phone with them.

According to data provided by Visa, around 3 million chargebacks annually are initiated because the cardholder didn't recognize the transaction information when reading their bank statement or viewing their account online.

Sometimes a cardholder wants to file a dispute not because they don’t recognize the merchant, but because they feel wronged by them—maybe they haven’t received a long-awaited order and think the merchant is scamming them.

Order Insight can empower the bank to convey information about the product and delivery status that can ease the cardholder’s concerns and help get them in a frame of mind where they’re willing to extend some trust and patience to the merchant once more.

Everything Order Insight does happens automatically. Merchants don’t have to monitor and respond to Order Insight inquiries. The system retrieves the information through an integrated link for immediate, seamless transmission to the issuing bank’s call center.

Order Insight isn’t limited to phone support, either—banks can enable their apps and websites to display information received through Order Insight.

Every little bit of data that the issuer can use to jog the cardholder’s memory or convince them to contact the merchant can potentially save you from a costly chargeback.

Order Insight is designed to convey any of the following information from your CRM or ordering system:

• Detailed product description
• Quantity of items ordered
• Tracking and carrier information
• Delivery status, with signature confirmation
• Refund status
• Device and IP address used to place the order
• Merchant’s name and contact information, including phone, email, and website
• Customer’s name, contact information, and order history
• Transaction details including order number, payment card used, and authentication status
• Usage data for digital purchases, including location and frequency
• Notes about the customer or transaction

Order Insight is designed to cover a wide range of potential disputes, not just unrecognized transactions. Some merchants, because of the industry they’re in or the customer base they serve, deal with unusual customer service situations.

Order Insight’s expansive and detailed information sharing categories should give you sufficient flexibility to provide issuers with the right information to defuse and resolve the complaints that are most likely to lead to chargebacks for you.

What Chargeback Types Can Order Insight Prevent?

Merchant error chargebacks are those where the merchant failed to provide the product or service the customer purchased or misrepresented it in some way. When a merchant error chargeback has a genuine basis in a mistake that the merchant made, that is a legitimate chargeback—but one that the merchant should never experience again, if they’re smart.

A merchant error chargeback always represents an opportunity to learn from your mistake and improve your business operations to correct the problem that caused the chargeback to occur.

When a genuine merchant error is uncovered through an Order Insight inquiry, there is a chance to learn and correct the mistake. For example, let’s say a cardholder calls their bank to file a dispute about a delivery they never received.

Through the Order Insight inquiry process, they learn that the merchant gave the wrong address to the carrier. Armed with this information, the cardholder could call the merchant and get an immediate refund rather than going through the chargeback process.

While it can sometimes prevent merchant error chargebacks, friendly fraud is where Order Insight truly shines. Many cardholders will dispute a charge simply because they don't recognize it from the description. That makes it important for merchants to use a billing descriptor that their customers will recognize, but even the best billing descriptor won't stop a customer who's forgotten the purchase entirely.

When a confused or forgetful customer calls their bank to dispute a charge, the bank's representative can retrieve information about the purchase through Order Insight and share it with the customer, helping them recall what the transaction was for.

Many attempts at friendly fraud involve deceiving the bank in some way in order to get them to file the chargeback. The intentional fraudsters will lie outright, claiming that they never received the product, never authorized the purchase, and so on. Order Insight can stop this tactic in its tracks by providing the bank with detailed order information such as delivery confirmation.

Order Insight can also prevent chargebacks resulting from a miscommunication or lack of communication between account holders. For example, if a woman calls to ask about an unrecognized transaction on her account, she may receive information through Order Insight that the shipping address contained her husband's name. That may tell her that it was her husband who made the purchase, and she should ask him about it rather than filing a dispute.

Merchants can usually win when they fight friendly fraud chargebacks, as long as they have compelling evidence to support the fact that they processed and fulfilled a legitimate transaction and upheld their terms of purchase.

Order Insight can give merchants an opportunity to provide this evidence before the chargeback happens.

Fighting friendly fraud chargebacks is important, but it’s also costly and time-consuming. When possible, it's best to to take measures to prevent them as well. Order Insight can form a key part of a chargeback prevention strategy, especially when used alongside root cause analysis to reduce chargebacks organically.

Order Insight was created to address a specific point in the dispute process: the cardholder informing their bank that they wish to dispute a transaction. For full and comprehensive protection against fraud and chargebacks, merchants must have coverage at other points in the life cycle of the dispute.

At the beginning of the cycle, when the transaction is taking place, authentication tools like 3-D Secure, AVS, and CVV can be deployed to screen out true fraud. Third-party fraud detection tools can be used here as well.

Next is the point where the cardholder initiates the dispute, and this is where Order Insight comes into play for Visa transactions. Mastercard has a similar product in Ethoca Consumer Clarity, and providers like Chargeback Gurus can combine these services and more under a single platform for convenience.

Immediately after the dispute has been filed and submitted for a chargeback, chargeback alerts are activated. Merchants who subscribe to these services will have an early warning that gives them a chance to issue a refund and avoid the chargeback, but their time to act is limited, and if they fail to issue a refund in time, the chargeback will take effect.

After this point, the chargeback will be official and the merchant will be debited the transaction amount plus the chargeback fee. However, the transaction amount can still be recovered through the representment process.

Should Merchants Use Order Insight?

Order Insight can be a valuable tool for uncovering fraud and resolving customer concerns at a critical point where these issues could otherwise become chargebacks.

Aside from the obvious benefits to merchants of a reduced chargeback rate, Order Insight can help you retain more customers through increased satisfaction and loyalty, and reveal weaknesses in your operations that are leading to disputes or exposing you to fraud.

Despite its benefits, most merchants still haven't started using Order Insight. While it does take some effort to set up, the advantages it provides can be incredibly rewarding for merchants who want to reduce chargebacks and stay ahead of the competition.

How Do I Start Using Order Insight?

To use Order Insight effectively, merchants need to have it integrated with their CRM so that it can provide automatic responses in real time to Order Insight inquiries. This may or may not be a job the merchant’s tech team can easily handle in-house.

Chargeback management firms can assist with data integrations like these as part of building up your chargeback defenses and developing a comprehensive strategy for dealing with chargebacks at every point in the dispute cycle.

What Data can Order Insight Provide?

Every transaction that Order Insight stops from turning into a chargeback is a useful source of data. From Order Insight analytics you can learn how many chargebacks you’ve prevented, which chargeback reason codes Order Insight could not prevent, which issuers generate the most dispute activity for you, and what data was used to deescalate Order Insight disputes the most frequently.

It’s also worth taking a close look at which disputes made it as far as the next phase in the cycle, and whether you exchanged any communications with the customer during this time. If you had the opportunity to issue a refund but failed to take it, it’s important to understand how and why that happened.

Chargeback management firms can analyze this data and report on their insights. Each chargeback you receive is a wealth of information about your business processes, customer expectations, product quality, and other factors that contribute to disputes and chargebacks. To prevent the most challenging and persistent chargebacks, you have to understand exactly where they are coming from and what it would take to stop them. Those are the answers that data analytics can provide.

Companies like Chargeback Gurus who have been specializing in chargeback management for years can assist merchants in devising chargeback prevention strategies, implementing tools like Order Insight, and turning raw data into reports and analytics that can show you exactly what you need to do to get your chargebacks under control.