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5 Ways for Contact Centers to Keep Customer Data Safe

5 Ways for Contact Centers to Keep Customer Data SafeIt’s more important now than ever before to ensure your customers’ data is safe. An article by Matt Tumbleson discusses cyber security and the challenges companies often face when trying to protect their customers. There are so many channels through which customers contact brands, including live chat support, email, text messaging, and more, that hackers and other cyber criminals have much more access to breach data. In addition, many digital channels, such as texting, are very easy to hack and many companies aren’t aware of it and they’re unprepared to protect their customers properly.

Outsource call centers handle hundreds, if not thousands of calls each day. The customers calling your contact center rely on you to handle their issues professionally, efficiently, and empathetically, but you also owe it to them to ensure their information is safe. It seems like there’s always something about a data breach in the news, and for good reason. Cybersecurity is always in jeopardy and many companies simply aren’t prepared for attacks. If you want your contact center to be as safe as possible from data breaches and cyber-attacks, the following are a few ways you can get started.

  1. Maintain PCI Compliance: If you handle credit card transactions with your contact center, there’s no excuse for not maintaining PCI compliance. This compliance helps to ensure you have a secure system that is up to standards to defend against breaches.
  2. Consistent Cyber Security Training: Human error is one of the top reasons companies succumb to cyber-attacks. It can be as simple as somebody clicking a link in a phishing email that sets off a chain reaction. Every company should provide routine training sessions to all employees across every department to keep everyone on the same page on company security expectations and the warning signs of potential hacks.
  3. Redundancy: Have redundant systems set up so that even in a worst-case scenario, you have backup to keep your customer information intact and safe.
  4. Encryption: Implement a strong, rigid encryption setup on all computers so that information is locked as soon as it enters the CRM or other systems.
  5. Password Security: People roll their eyes when they’re told to make sure they don’t use the same password over and over again. Everybody laughs at the notion of using a password such as “12345” or even “password”, but it’s shocking how often people actually use these passwords even today. Employees at all levels should be required to have complicated passwords for their login credentials. Many companies even use password management services that store all passwords in a “vault” and frequently update them to make it more challenging for cybercriminals to decode them.

This blog post is based on an article from CustomerThink. To read the article, please click here!

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