Haris Markaki, Marketing Manager at Cardlink, interviewed by adbusiness

January 2020

15 years of supporting businesses

adb: This is the 15th year of the company’s presence in the Greek market.  What have been the most important milestones in this journey and what is the vision for the future?

H.M.: Yes, Cardlink is currently celebrating its 15th anniversary! It was founded in 2004 by Alpha Bank and Eurobank, aiming to establish a joint network of POS terminals in order to facilitate the development of electronic transactions in Greece. The integration of the above networks was completed in 2014, with the installation of over 80,000 points of sale domestically. In 2015, the company was acquired by Quest Holdings and EdgePay. By becoming part of the Quest Group, a new journey of investments and development began, which saw its network skyrocket from 100,000 points of sale in December 2015 to 250,000 in December 2019.
Today, Cardlink possesses the largest POS network in the Greek market and the most dynamic online payment portal for e-commerce businesses, serving thousands of businesses and consumers daily. It cooperates with all Greek banks and serves leading domestic businesses.
With pride and passion for the work carried out to date, Cardlink continues to move forward, aiming to contribute to the development of businesses. At a time of ever-increasing electronic transactions, we want to support our customers with cutting-edge technology in order to make everyday life easier and provide a smooth transition to this new era.

adb: Last year the company launched the new slogan “Cardlink works for you”. What does it signify for Cardlink’s strategy and philosophy? What new features does it reflect?

H.M.: “Cardlink works for you” was first launched in June 2019 and signifies our commitment and emphasis placed on supporting our customers and offering them technologically advanced and comprehensive solutions for the development of their business, so that they can focus on doing what the know best: their work, while leaving their concerns to us.

adb: Customer experience is very important in your field. How do you approach this issue?

H.M.: For 15 years we have been supporting businesses, aiming to constantly improve both their experience as well as that of their customers. This is a great challenge for us due to the vast number of businesses that place their trust in us and the very rapid changes taking place in the payment industry. The only way to deal with this challenge successfully, as we believe we have done, is for high-quality service to not be part of a process but part of our DNA. This is why we don’t cease seeking solutions to improve, so that we can offer our customers the best experience possible in every interaction.

adb: What are your plans for the immediate future? Are there any planned future steps?

H.M.: The future finds us prepared to meet the challenges posed by rapid changes in the payments industry. While recognizing our role and share of responsibility due to the size of our network and the millions of transactions we manage each year, we will continue to invest in expanding and upgrading our infrastructure as well as in the continuous improvement of our customers’ experience, in order to offer tangible solutions to the challenges they face. We accomplish this through the design of innovative products and services based on next generation technology, so that our customers, no matter of the nature of their business or the size and field of their operations, have to look no further than Cardlink to find the answer to all their needs in terms of accepting card payments in their brick-and-mortar store as well as their online one – and more.

The interview can be found here .