Contact centres can now securely take phone payments faster while giving customers an even better experience, thanks to innovative changes to Eckoh's secure payments solution CallGuard.

Currently used by organisations across multiple countries and sectors, the patented CallGuard keeps callers' card details secure by never allowing their information to be stored, viewed or heard, protecting them, and Eckoh’s clients, against fraud and data breaches.

New features announced by Eckoh will speed up the agent-assisted payment process. Customers now have the choice to pay with their keypad or enhanced secure speech recognition, while agents use new tools to streamline the process, and managers get insights into calls to improve contact centre performance.

Eckoh believes the new features will help to further boost consumer confidence at a time when card-not-present payment fraud is at an all-time high and more agents are working from home. A faster and easier payment process also enables contact centres to improve the customer experience and help manage increased call volumes when they often have fewer staff available.

Improved agent and customer payment experience

Agents now have their own more intuitive CallGuard interface to help customers complete payment calls faster and with fewer errors, ensuring call handling time is minimised. Context-sensitive prompts guide them throughout the payment process, while also making training easier. The process remains fully PCI DSS compliant, keeping sensitive data out of an organisation’s systems — with agents unable to see, hear or record card details.

Speech recognition gives consumers more choice
Eckoh has a long heritage in delivering superior speech recognition services and has always provided a speech alternative to entering card details via a phone keypad, without the numbers being heard, stored or recorded. Speech data entry is helpful where callers are unable to use a keypad and for meeting the growing preference for engaging via a speech service. The CallGuard speech alternative ensures that the customer and agent are connect at all times. Eckoh’s expertise in speech recognition technology brings several benefits such as greater control for agents, more visibility of the process and availability in several languages.

Actionable insights for contact centre operations
The new configurable reporting dashboard provides managers with accurate, easier-to-understand insights into what's happening with their payments. They can check performance in near-real-time as well as viewing statistics for every call. Managers will be better informed to make decisions about staff scheduling and managing peaks — as well as predicting them.

Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer at Eckoh, explains: “The acceleration of digital adoption has meant that the need for stronger data security and tighter controls on fraud prevention has never been greater. This challenge has been exacerbated by the pandemic as consumers have turned increasingly to card-not-present channels such as phone, chat and web to make their purchases.

It remains a key priority for us to continue to innovate our technology, to ensure we are providing the very best, most effective and safest payment services for all our clients around the world. The new CallGuard is testament to this commitment and comes at a time when organisations need absolute confidence that they have chosen a solution that will meet their requirements both now and into the future.”

Launched in 2012, Eckoh’s patented CallGuard solution plugs a significant payment security gap for organisations that take payments over the phone. It has led the way in flexibility, fast deployment and robust payment security for PCI DSS compliance for contact centres and remote workers.

For more information and to see how it works, visit  https://www.eckoh.com/secure-payment-services/telephone-payments or get in touch.