Are Your Contact Centre Payments Safe?
Online payments in the contact centre grew rapidly during 2020, driven by the pandemic. In fact, the payment security market is now expected to reach $38 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of 16%.* The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) guidelines have also increased awareness of payment security and government initiatives towards promoting cashless payments.
PCI DSS compliance can be a complex yet highly important issue for the contact centre. Fines for non-compliance can be significant depending on the company and the duration and scope of the non-compliance. Add onto this the legal costs, settlements, and judgements that a client or credit card company may impose — not to mention the damage to the company brand and the resulting loss of future sales. This can get even worse if the non-compliance leads to data breaches, plus the payment services provider can impose further fines and penalties.
The Benefits of a Proven Contact Centre Provider
The best way to avoid PCI fines and penalties is to only work with a contact centre provider that’s highly experienced in the PCI DSS arena and has a long-established relationship with their payment security supplier. Vonage was one of the first contact centre vendors to formalise a partnership with the leading payment card security company, PCI Pal. That relationship has been nurtured over many years, resulting in deep knowledge and experience in advising on and deploying secure payment solutions for contact centre customers.
Whilst there are inevitably some costs associated with PCI compliance software, customers typically offset them against the significant gains in agent productivity, removal of human error, and having an audit trail that will easily satisfy a PCI DSS inspection. For example, a large real estate company in the United States calculated that the cost of the PCI Pal licenses to go with their Vonage Contact Center was significantly outweighed by time savings, accuracy improvements, brand image, and the peace of mind that they were not risking fines or penalties.
PCI Pal Features
Vonage offers PCI Pal Agent Assist, which allows contact centre agents to take secure payments over the phone. This provides a great customer experience, as the agent is available throughout the transaction to help the customer as needed.
Another option is secure PCI Pal IVR, which provides secure payments through IVR. This solution can either operate automatically 24x7 or be used during a call without involving the agent.
In addition, Vonage will soon offer PCI Pal Digital to secure digital payments to power an omnichannel payment experience. PCI Pal Digital provides secure payments through digital engagement channels, such as web chat, WhatsApp, social media, email, and SMS. The solution enables real-time and anytime payments to be taken securely, regardless of digital channel.
Conclusion
We’re excited to share that PCI Pal is available for both the cloud-based Vonage Contact Center and Vonage Business Communications. If your contact centre takes any form of payments and you want to provide a safe and legally compliant environment, then you should speak with the experts at Vonage.
*Source: GlobeNewswire: “Global Payment Security Market (2020 to 2025) — Growth, Trends and Forecasts”
