By now, we all know that turning a customer from a one-time purchaser into a life-long advocate takes more than just a great product. For example, the 2019 State of Service report from Salesforce found that 80% of customers now consider their experience with a company to be as important as its products. But what goes into creating that great experience? Ensuring fast and reliable resolutions is part of it, so is personalization. However, a core element of creating a great customer experience that traditionally has flown under the radar is the importance of data protection and security. But, things are changing. According to a survey conducted by McKinsey, 87% of respondents said they would not do business with a company if they had concerns about their security practices, while 71% said they would stop doing business with a company if they gave away sensitive data without permission.
With many consumers still either sheltering in place or experiencing some degree of lockdown or quarantine, and support teams now working mostly if not entirely remote, the importance of delivering great and secure experiences has only become more significant. In order to provide the types of experiences that customers both want and need, support leaders must start by ensuring that their internal support tools and teams have the security features, knowledge, and best practices in place.
The Best Security is Cloud Security
The adoption and migration towards cloud contact centre platforms has been underway for some time and with COVID-19 and the shift towards remote work has only grown. Cloud contact centre platforms provide substantial benefits over on-premises systems, from operational and IT benefits to being able to provide a much more modern experience for customers. But one aspect that has been somewhat overlooked is the benefits and impact that the cloud can have on security and data protection.
Cloud contact centre systems make it exponentially easier and more efficient for support leaders to roll out security updates and patches, especially with teams and agents scattered across the globe. No matter where agents are, support leaders can ensure agents are running the latest and most secure versions by automatically pushing out updates. Support teams can build key security tools and features directly into their cloud contact centre, such as Identity Management, password management, and two-factor authentication tools, all of which add additional layers of security to ensure that no matter where your agents are, corporate and customer data is safe.
Proactive Compliance
Either not adhering to or falling out of compliance with certain global, regional, and industry standards can result in fines, loss of business, and a loss of trust from customers and employees.
For companies looking to expand their footprint into multiple countries and regions, laws and regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, EU-US Privacy Shield, and more need to be met not only for your organization, but for the companies that you will be doing business with as well. This also goes for industry-specific expansion. For example, in order to grow within the healthcare industry, both yourself and your business partners must be HIPAA compliant.
Proactive compliance can also be key for breaking into new industries or areas as the inability to meet or comply with these regulations can significantly hinder industry or regional growth and market presence. It is important to not only focus on achieving and maintaining compliance in the key areas of focus today, but also identify growth opportunities for your business and begin the process of achieving compliance in those areas in order to meet and accelerate expansion.
Employee Education is Key
The reality is, you can have the latest and greatest software, firewalls, password management systems, and more, but if your employees are not aware of best practices and what may or may not be suspicious behaviour, none of those systems matter. Employees are the first line of defense when it comes to protecting corporate and customer data, and now with the majority of them working remote, it is even more important to ensure they are following the right protocols, especially with agents using personal laptops and devices while working from home.
Now more than ever, support leaders must stay connected with their security and IT teams and provide tips, training, and software patches and updates for their workforce. If support agents are well versed in how to identify and prevent phishing attacks, breaches, and more, support teams can continue focusing on scaling and providing a great customer experience from wherever they are.
Guest Blog by Anand Janefalkar, Founder & CEO, UJET
