PCI Compliance is key to building trust with your customers. It signifies that your business can be trusted with sensitive card data and maintaining that trust can be imperative for building customer confidence.
But what happens if your company experiences a data breach? The results can be catastrophic, not just financially but for your reputation. How you handle the situation can make the difference between regaining consumer trust or affecting the perception of your business into the future.
The consequences of a data breach
Getting hit with a fine for non-compliance can seem the least of your worries when a data breach occurs. Along with any financial liabilities, you’ll lose the trust of your loyal customers and you can feel as though you are in a firefight to manage your reputation.
60% of customers already feel that online merchants are not doing enough to safeguard their sensitive data. When Uber tried to cover up a significant data leak, customers responded by launching the #DeleteUber campaign and their nearest competitors were able to challenge their position as market leaders.
It proved a valuable lesson; that the protection of credit card and other personal data should always be a priority. If you’re hit by a breach you need to evaluate the situation, minimise the damage as quickly as possible and notify anyone concerned to demonstrate transparency.
Managing your reputation after a breach
Customers trust search engines when they’re researching your business. 65% consider this to be a reliable source of information on your reputation [1]. If you’ve suffered a data breach, the way forward is to align your future business decisions with your customers' needs to begin to recapture their confidence.
59% of customers believe that their personal information is vulnerable and 62% [2] have been notified of a data breach that resulted in their personal information being lost or stolen. Customers involved reported a loss of trust in the business, with a third taking steps to terminate the relationship.
In fact, the reputational damage you’ve suffered is far from irreparable. It starts with an acknowledgement that you can’t change the past but you can make decisions that affect the future. You can rebuild those trust-based relationships if you’re prepared to be transparent about the way you process data and communicate clearly with your customers.
Reconnect with your customers
Good reputation management is critical in building loyal customers who trust and promote your brand. Transparency and communication are effective building blocks to creating a relationship that reconnects customers with your business. But your customers need to know that they can trust you to safeguard their data. 91% say that a company should demonstrate transparency as to how their information is used and protected.
A strong privacy policy and the ability to demonstrate to customers how their data will be used as part of the customer experience is one element of the equation. However, protecting sensitive personal information against data breaches can be a daunting and complex task that can land you back at square one, struggling to rebuild trust.
PCI Compliance can help
If you want to demonstrate to your customers that the safety and security of their data is of paramount importance to your business, you need to join the 55% of businesses globally who have achieved PCI compliance.
Whether you choose to become PCI compliant yourself or outsource your data storage to a third party, PCI compliance sends a clear signal that you take the security of your customers' data seriously. The layers of security that compliance requires also make your business a less attractive target for attack by hackers.
Achieving PCI compliance allows your customers to trust that their sensitive information is safe with your business for peace of mind. Trust is foundational for customers engaged in purchasing your products and services. That extends from the moment of purchase to safeguarding payment data. PCI compliance allows you to demonstrate to customers that you’re serious about security, thus building and enhancing your reputation.
Building trust with PCI compliance
Nobody wants to experience a data breach. By achieving PCI compliance you’ll increase trust in your brand and improve your long term resilience. If a breach does occur, you’ll be in better shape to start restoring your reputation and rebuilding consumer trust.
If you have the infrastructure and processes in place to achieve PCI compliance you’ll need to follow the 12 point security guidelines and institute robust encryption and storage methods for any credit card data your business processes. If that’s beyond your capacity, outsourcing presents a smart way to achieve compliance by expediting data processing and storage to a third-party provider.
At Paytia we offer a range of PCI compliance solutions for your business. Our unique telephony solution enables you to collect payments without needing to verbally ask for credit card payment details. We hold the highest Level 1 PCI DSS compliance and are fully compliant with GDPR data guidelines. If you’re aiming to build trust by putting your customer’s security first, why not contact us for more details.
[1]Edelman
[2]Dataprivacymanager.net
