Payment Security Remains the Weakest Link

New research has shown that even contact centre IT managers are reluctant to make payments over the phone in their personal lives due to the possibility of data breaches.

Syntec’s annual research survey, conducted by Davies Hickman, showed that 62% of IT Managers and Operations Managers in contact centres are reluctant to make payments over the phone in their personal lives due to the possibility of data breaches.

56% of consumers were revealed to have the same concerns, highlighting contact centres as a weak link for payment security.

Consumers in the annual Syntec survey continue to express a clear preference about how to overcome this barrier to trust and to sales, with 49% saying in 2015 that secure technology should be used to hide the credit card details from the contact centre agent – with only 11% able to agree that ‘Organisations I buy from over the phone will keep my personal and card payment details secure’.

“Our survey is now in its 4th year and shows that the contact centre industry, both in consumers’ eyes and by its own admission, is still failing to do enough to reduce the potential for fraud,” said Simon Beeching, Director at Syntec.

The research reveals that IT and Operations Managers in contact centres agree with this consumer sentiment, with 74% of consumers surveyed having said: ‘As a general rule, I don’t think companies should be allowed to keep my credit or debit card details on their databases’.

The approach to resolving this dilemma highlighted in the report is ‘de-scoping’ technology, where consumers can use the touchtone signals of their phone keypad (DTMF, or ‘dual tone multi-frequency’) to convey their card numbers for payment authorisation, either in mid-conversation with the agent or using an automated system. This bypasses the call centre agent and any call recordings and also de-scopes the contact centre environment from the PCI DSS regulations.

“This de-scoping technology is a win-win for both consumers and contact centre managers,” continued Simon Beeching. “DTMF solutions such as Syntec’s CardEasy ‘keypad payment by phone’ system prevent the sensitive data from entering the contact centre environment, improving customer trust as well as reducing compliance hassle and costs for the organisation at a stroke.”

Syntec’s new PCI DSS White Paper recommends that sensitive payment card data should no longer be allowed to enter into the contact centre environment, nor be available to agents or their organisations to store or record.

Click here to download the White Paper