Three highlights from the 2023 Decision Makers’ Guide

With calls to contact centres continuing to cost significantly more than other channels, many organisations are introducing automated and self-service service options for customer interactions. The DMG report states that 50% of Webchats are now handled by chatbots, automating answers and freeing agents to deal with more complex enquiries. This change has been mirrored in the increased number of automated and self-service payment options now available for contact centres, online and remote sales operations.

The report records the use of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) for payments, both post call and mid-call to have increased by a full percentage point this year over last year’s findings – from 4% this year to 5% and from 17% to 18% respectively. As a self-service option, IVR provides 24/7 secure payment options and reduced costs in comparison to agents taking payments.

Similarly, secure payment links sent using SMS or email have seen an increase in adoption for the third consecutive year. The benefits of PayByLink include secure payment and reduced agent time on the call. Card data is kept outside the scope of PCI DSS compliance and it can be linked with tokenisation, to allow for recurring payments.

It is clear that the trend for remote working will continue to present security issues for contact centres, with potential danger points for payments in the telephony infrastructure and CRM systems, as well as agents’ laptops at home. Fortunately, cloud-based applications enable secure remote working, while emerging new payment solutions protect customer conversations and card data, such as Encoded’s Fraud Prevention Platform (FPP). Working with an approved Level One PCI DSS supplier also ensures that data security is maintained when taking payments.

This move to the cloud is also reflected in the current adoption of hosted payment solutions, as the requirements and costs associated with more stringent payment processes and training increase. The DMG report states that 34% of this year’s respondents have chosen a third-party cloud solution to handle card payments.

The benefits of choosing a third-party provider mean that no cardholder data is passed into the contact centre environment, whether infrastructure, agents or storage. It is great for businesses that want to take card payments but don’t want to manage PCI DSS compliance internally.