Accepting Payments at Your Contact Centre

Ability to process payments via agent essential for every contact centre

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Accepting Payments at Your Contact Centre
Contact CentreInsights

Published: July 1, 2021

Anwesha Roy - UC Today

Anwesha Roy

In a world of digital presence and online interactions, the ability to process payments via an agent is essential for every contact centre. Secure and compliant payment processing capabilities can help you:  

  • Achieve first call resolution for customers struggling with online payments, by completing the transaction with agent support 
  • Increase cross-selling/upselling revenues by converting on-call opportunities into deal wins without delays  
  • Improve performance metrics like promise-to-pay by processing the payment from within the agent interaction  

However, getting started with payments can seem to be a challenge given the many compliances and regulatory restrictions around data privacy/security. Here’s how you can get started.  

Considerations Before You Start Accepting On-Call Transactions

The first thing to keep in mind before you allow agents to process on-call transactions is PCI DSS compliance.  

According to this set of standards set by the Payment Card Industry, you need to strengthen your network infrastructure, document your security protocols, define proper access controls, and identify/address system vulnerabilities before you open up your contact centre to fiscal transactions. Remember, 30% of agents reportedly have access to customer payment data even when they aren’t on call – vulnerabilities like these should be addressed before you can consider accepting on-call transactions.  

Training agents on the etiquette and security measures for telephonic transactions is also important. They mustn’t seem pushy or aggressive, customers must feel empowered, and agents must immediately report any bottlenecks to their supervisors.  

Finally, you need a secure and compliant solution to facilitate customer payments. Communication providers like TwilioRing.io, and 8×8 have dedicated technology tools to help your agents seamlessly process on-call transactions.  

3 Options for Accepting Payments from Contact Centre Customers

  1. Payment processing for inbound callers 

The customer calls your agent through a secure line, with the express intent of making a payment once ready. The agent UI is integrated with the payment service provider, allowing customers to enter their payment data directly without having to inform the agent. The caller enters their payment details through the keypad (it is never said out loud), and the agent monitors the transaction’s progress on the UI dashboard until complete.  

  1. Warm transfer during a call

Unlike the first approach, this type of transaction isn’t pre-planned. During the course of the conversation, the caller decides to make a payment, which is often the case during upselling/cross-selling interactions. The agent has access to a secure, PCI DSS compliant payment portal and call line on an ad-hoc basis, and if the customer is willing, they can transfer the customer to a secure like in a few seconds. Once on a secure line, the transaction progresses as usual. 

  1. Payment processing for outbound customers 

This is a common use case for debt collection, where a contact centre agent initiates the call with the express intent of receiving payment. They call the customer through a secure line so that the customer’s payment data is masked when entered into the keypad. The agent has the dashboard open on the UI and guides the customer through the transaction.  

 

 

Security and Compliance
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