Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 63 | Page 65

CASE STUDY every conversation for training and quality assurance purposes ; yet would keep us out of scope of the requirements of PCI DSS .
Making the customer journey as seamless as possible was particularly important to our contact centre manager , therefore , we didn ’ t want to add any automation to our payment transactions .
Instead , it was important to keep our agents and customers in contact throughout the journey . We want to provide a very personal customer experience and so we want to handhold every interaction from start to finish .
Security was at the forefront of any solution decision , as well as minimising the risk of non-compliance to safeguard the organisation ’ s reputation and trust . Therefore , I spent time reviewing the market for options .
As an airline , we don ’ t need to store payment card information and so we needed a security solution that supported recurring payments through tokenisation . Having seen a demonstration of PCI Pal ’ s Agent Assist solution , it was very clear that it ticked all the criteria boxes : importantly being able to maintain customer contact , retaining call recording , yet with the required privacy and compliance requirements .
Can you tell us more about PCI Pal ’ s Agent Assist solution and the benefits realised ?
The PCI Pal ‘ Agent Assist ’ cloud solution uses a technology called DTMF ( Dual Tone Multi Frequency ). It ’ s a masking technology that provides a secure way of handling payments by phone . It does this without bringing our contact centres in scope of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard – known as PCI DSS .
The solution integrates with call flows and , at the point of payment , intercepts the keypad tones . This means the payment process is totally anonymous to our agents – no credit card information can be seen or is stored anywhere , yet our agents can still talk to customers to answer any questions as they progress through the checkout journey . This was very attractive to me and our call centre manager .
Importantly it also greatly reduces our scope of PCI compliance and means our agents – no matter where they are based – can support customer payments through any channel – even when they are homeworking .
Since rolling out the Agent Assist solution , adoption has been swift and we ’ ve had no complaints . It ’ s been very smooth and is working great .

I FELT WE WOULD BENEFIT FROM IDENTIFYING A

SOLUTION THAT WOULD LET US RECORD EVERY

CONVERSATION .

How has PCI Pal enabled Air Europa to stay in control of the customer experience ?
We were initially concerned that customers who are less proficient with technology may find it challenging to use their keypads , however , the contact centre team are able to remain on the phone to help all customers through the process and this is crucial .
I think customers feel assured that we have this extra layer of security in place and our agents have found it very straightforward as the call flow hasn ’ t really changed for them . If anything , it is boosting our customer experience .
Our agents like that they can guide customers , for example , if a payment card fails , the agent can suggest an alternative approach rather than lose the sale .
Working with PCI Pal enables us to stay in control of the overall customer experience . There is no comparison between Agent Assist and an automated ‘ payment line ’ solution : the customer receives a positive experience and Air Europa has higher payment conversions all while providing a great customer experience .
What does the future of this partnership hold ?
I foresee a really long relationship – our contact centre infrastructure is where it needs to be . This upgrade demonstrates that we look ahead at innovation and , importantly , always with the customer experience at the very heart of everything we do .
What advice would you offer other decision-makers looking to implement a payment security solution ?
Without hesitation , I would recommend talking to PCI Pal at the outset . The team really has listened , understood the brief and used their expertise to create a solution that is seamless – and gives me confidence that we are operating as securely and compliantly as possible . p
www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO EUROPE 65