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 Twilio, Ring.io, and 8x8 have dedicated technology tools to help your agents seamlessly process on-call transactions.