New York, NY - - FFLGuard is an innovative program offered by a collection of lawyers, subject matter experts, and professionals who provide participating Federal Firearms Licensees across the country with cost-efficient access to legal compliance specialists - delivering educational training and rapid response services - with a focus on safeguarding the viability of the client's FFL through proactive firearms compliance. Those clients participating in the FFLGuard program are a collective of FFL's that subscribe to heightened compliance standards and best practices, and who also agree to cooperatively pool their financial and intelligence resources for FFLGuard personnel to serve as the "on-call compliance team" and general counsel for all clients.
FFLGuard boasts retail firearms dealer clients who have distinguished themselves as "the best of the best." To that end, FFLGuard believes that its clients should receive better rates, superior deals, and greater service accommodations than any other firearms retailer from any firearms industry service provider. To accomplish this, FFLGuard identifies and approves such firearms industry service providers by bestowing the FFLGuard "Approved Service Provider" (ASP) seal of approval on them. The FFLGuard ASP endorsement is reserved solely for firearms industry vendors who earn FFLGuard's gold-standard rating for their unparalleled superiority in not just meeting, but exceeding, the expectations of FFLGuard clients while permitting FFLGuard, without exception, to continuously advocate on the clients' behalf.
Specifically, to earn status as an FFLGuard ASP, the service provider must deliver a greater value to FFLGuard clients than it delivers to any other FFL, and the ASP must agree in advance to allow FFLGuard to continuously represent and advocate on behalf of the FFLGuard clients - at all times - in order to assure sustained value and support for FFLGuard clients.
Christopher Chiafullo, National Coordinating Counsel for the FFLGuard program, notes that "...it appears that everyone else is quick to just throw out names [to retailers] as a referral, and offer 'wham-bam-thank you ma'am' quick-fixes, without being there [for the retailer] through thick and thin. At FFLGuard, we treat our compliance-related services as a process, not an event... and our clients more like partners. We wanted to extend this approach to other aspects of our clients' businesses, and continuously advocate on their behalf with service providers from start to finish.... "
Shooting Sports Merchant Processing Solutions (SSMPS) now joins the ranks of the FFLGuard ASP. FFLGuard clients identified "Merchant processing" as second only to "insurance coverage" insofar as (1) their difficulty in dealing with these service providers, and (2) their desire to have an agent continuously monitor and advocate for them with these service providers. James Fitzsimmons, principal at SSMPS, agreed that the fluctuating fees and percentages make dealing with a merchant processor, even his own, a difficult task for FFL's. "Dealing with one hub -- FFLGuard -- to manage the merchant processing needs of its clients makes it beneficial to everyone involved." Fitzsimmons also observes that: "Being an FFLGuard ASP sets us apart from the other merchant processors, gives us leverage to provide incomparable rates to retailers, and associate with a brand in FFLGuard that is beyond reproach."
Chiafullo concludes: "Here's the bottom line: If an FFLGuard client has a problem with an ASP, they make one phone call: to us. We take it from there.... Quite simply, there is no equivalent imprimatur in the firearms industry than the FFLGuard ASP, and it signifies an unmatched mark of excellence."
More information on SSMPS can be found at www.shootingsportsmps.com. For more information on the FFLGuard program, visit www.FFLGuard.com or call 1-888-FFL- GRD1 (1-888-335-4731), follow them on Twitter @FFLGuard, "like" them at www.facebook.com/fflguard, or review their online videos at www.fflguard.tv.
