WFH Challenges Got You Down? PCI Pal’s Rapid Remote Helps Contact Centres Navigate the New Normal

Due to the current unprecedented situation we find ourselves in, many of us have been thrust into a new remote working world that has left some companies feeling uncertain and underprepared. For contact centres in particular, this new environment may be completely foreign. According to Contact Babel’s recent Inner Circle Guide to Contact Centre Remote Working Solutions, only 4% of UK-based contact centre agents were working remotely full time up until recently. In fact, in a Contact Babel survey of over 200 UK contact centres, 26% of respondents had sworn off remote working altogether in 2019, making today’s lockdown a rude awakening for many businesses operating in the sector.

A question we have discussed at length in the past is ‘How can contact centre agents working remotely take payments securely?’ and our answer has always been the same. DTMF masking solutions like Agent Assist allow remote agents to take payments whilst complying with the PCI DSS. But in the current battle for business continuity, organizations are now faced with a slightly different challenge. A surge in remote working globally means contact centres taking payments are having to adapt and adjust their compliance strategy without negatively impacting the customer journey.

In order to meet these challenges, we launched our Rapid Remote solution in April 2020, enabling remote agents to quickly continue handling customer payments while maintaining security and compliance standards. Rapid Remote enables credit and debit card payments to be securely handled using DTMF masking technology. And it’s easy. Customers who need to make a payment simply enter their card details using their telephone keypad. The details are captured in our secure cloud, suppressed both audibly and visually from the agent, and automatically transmitted to the Payment Service Provider (PSP) for authorization. None of the credit card data enters the company’s environment or is exposed to the agent, vastly reducing the scope of PCI DSS.

As with all our solutions, Rapid Remote is entirely cloud-based. This allows for quick deployment in as little as 48 hours – perfect for any organization that may have found themselves underprepared for taking payments securely in remote working conditions. Additionally, no specialist telephony equipment needs to be deployed, as Rapid Remote allows remote workers to use existing non-centralized telephony such as mobile phones, remote extensions on PBX systems, or Voice over IP platforms.

But just as important as the functional benefits, Rapid Remote gives your customers peace of mind. At a time where cyber criminals are trying to exploit the current situation, it is vital that contact centres do all they can to ensure that their customer’s data is handled securely and does not end up exposed in remote workers systems, easy pickings for hackers.

If you’re one of the 84% of contact centres that have now moved to remote working (according to the latest Contact Babel survey conducted in April 2020), contact PCI Pal today to learn how Rapid Remote can help you quickly ensure payment security and compliance for customers.