The Importance of Protecting Your Customers’ Data

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When it comes to prioritizing customer service, professionalism and positive behaviour are key. In addition to creating a great first impression and ensuring a one-call resolution, everyone in the office or call center must also make the protection of all customer data the number one priority. If your systems are breached and hackers are able to steal information, then your company could be put at great risk, so creating a cybersecurity plan is essential.

In order to make your business as secure as possible, we will talk a bit about why protecting customer data is so important and the preventative measures that your organization can begin today.

Why Data Protection Is Your Number One Priority

There are several reasons why protecting the data of your customers needs to be your primary objective. For starters, any piece of data that a hacker is able to steal can be used for malicious means.

Credit cards and social security numbers can be used to take out fraudulent loans or make bad purchases that could put the customer in financial ruin. Even birth dates, email addresses, phone numbers, and family information can be used by hackers to send out phishing scams or simply be sold on the black market.

If you have a major data breach and customers are negatively affected, then your company could be put in major jeopardy. First, there are the financial implications. It is said that in the last several years, the average cost of a data breach has reached over eight million dollars.

That money typically goes towards patching the vulnerabilities in your systems, paying potential fines, and working to repair your corporate reputation. Some companies are unable to handle such a hefty sum, and even if they are, once your customers lose faith in your ability to protect them, they may never trust you again.

That hit to your reputation can be the biggest negative impact of all. Just like how employees should never talk about the intimate details of their company, customers are skittish about what they share with corporations. Sometimes, a customer may not even realize that they are sharing their search history or personal details, and if it is leaked, then they feel hurt.

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The chances are that you are not the only game in town, so if customers go elsewhere for the same products, will your company survive? You never want people second guessing if you should be trusted, so take the proper precautions to eliminate the opportunity of a breach.

Educate The Staff

Now that you know what is at stake, it is essential that you train the employees about common scams and how they can prevent a threat from becoming a reality. In the last several years, there has been a 10% increase in the number of threats that are affecting companies and consumers, and when a data breach occurs, it can often affect millions of records. With that said, your teams need to learn how to be proactive against threats.

For instance, one of the most successful hacker tactics is the phishing email, which is a fake communication that looks to be from a real customer or from a person of authority like a manager or vendor. However, the email contains a link or attachment, and if either is clicked or opened, then you are opening a doorway for the hacker to enter, and from there, they can infiltrate the corporate network.

Since customer service organizations often get thousands of emails and communications every day, it is important that the employees know the signs of phishing so they don’t open the email and become exposed.

Signs of phishing emails may include:

  • An email that looks official but it is from a common carrier, like Gmail or Yahoo.
  • A communication that is not addressed to anyone specific but instead is “to whom it may concern” or “Dear sir or madam”.
  • Any email that has a link or attachment that you were not expecting to receive.

In addition to phishing, there are many other tactics that hackers use, including:

  • Installing malware on devices to steal the information within your network.
  • Ransomware scams where the hackers gain control of the network until a sum is paid.
  • A malicious employee that goes onto another worker’s unlocked computer and downloads customer data.

For all of these reasons, it is important to have cybersecurity training sessions that explain the threats and solutions. Once a lesson is complete, get the agent’s understanding in writing.

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Security For Remote Employees

These days, many customer service organizations have employees working remotely from their homes. While that can save a company money, if an employee is not actively covered by an in-house IT team, then other risks could arise. So, management needs to ensure that their employees have what they need to protect their home computers and the customers they serve.

Employees who work remotely should be extra careful to have passwords on all programs that include a detailed combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. Passwords should be changed every several months. Management should set up reminders for the agents. When a patron needs to send in a payment or other information, then have your customer service reps send a link to a password-protected PDF maker so they can have confidence that their data is safe.

Management should also ensure that all remote employee computers are equipped with antivirus software and that they run scans every week. Also, HR should block all unnecessary websites that employees don’t need for their jobs so they limit the chances of finding a virus. Finally, equip all computers with a virtual private network and encryption that will disguise their location and make data unusable even if a hacker is able to get to it.

As you can see, it is very important that your organization prioritizes the protection of your customer’s data. Consider the tips mentioned here, and you can have confidence that a hacker won’t prevent your company from doing its best work.

 

Dan Matthews
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