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Three Reasons Your Call Center Should Consider User Activity Monitoring

by Isaac Kohen, Teramind, Founder and CTO - May 1, 2019

Three Reasons Your Call Center Should Consider User Activity Monitoring 

 
By Isaac Kohen, Teramind
 
In October 2018, Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a striking rebuke to the data economy that powers Silicon Valley’s elite companies. In a statement to attendees of a European privacy conference, Cook described data misuse in militaristic terms, claiming it has been “weaponized.”
 
Cook’s comments are a not so veiled critique of other prominent tech companies, including Google and Facebook, that collect copious amounts of user data to facilitate their customer experience.
 
The merits of the battle between these tech juggernauts aside, there are obvious implications for companies of all sizes and in all sectors. The mindset about data collection and data misuse is rapidly changing among consumers and government organizations. In general, consumers are less trustworthy and governments are more stringent.
 
At the same time, companies need to continue to compete. More importantly, they need to continue to provide incredible customer service, the differentiating experience that encourages someone to be a repeat buyer or that drives them out the door.
 
Navigating this economy can be difficult. Companies must balance data protection and customer experience while continuing to be mindful of legal requirements and restrictions on data security.
 
Therefore, many companies are considering implementing employee monitoring software. To be sure, this is not the monitoring methodology of the past. It’s not the over-the-shoulder, big brother data grab that gave employees the creeps and abased their own privacy and initiative.
 
Modern employee monitoring software is precise and incredibly capable. Bolstered by advancements in AI and other ancillary technologies, employee monitoring software can protect against data leaks while also ensuring that companies provide an incredible customer service experience. It’s at once a security protocol and a catalyst for high-quality customer service.
 
It’s this duality that makes the technology so popular, and there are specific reasons to consider implementing the technology at your company.
 
#1 Quality Customer Service 
 
Providing incredible customer service requires maximizing digital interactions. Call centers, online chats, and social media interactions all comprise a cumulative customer service experience that can create repeat customers.
 
Activity monitoring offers companies an inside look at their representatives’ strengths and weaknesses, encouraging a reflective process that can identify customer service inefficiencies while elevating best practices.
 
What’s more, activity monitoring provides comprehensive metrics on response times and customer satisfaction, which can support future training initiatives or it can position managers to intervene when customer service reps encounter problems that they cannot solve.
 
In this way, any company can assess the quality of their customer service priorities so that they can best differentiate themselves from the competition.
 
#2 Comprehensive Behavior Analytics
 
In today’s legal and regulatory environment, incredible customer service is meaningless if companies can’t protect their customers’ data. The tangible and reputational cost of a data breach is enormous, and companies are striving to protect themselves by implementing robust Acceptable Use Policies to set boundaries on data access and misuse.
 
Modern employee monitoring software can leverage user behavior analytics to identify high-risk activities, alert IT administrators to suspicious activity, and ensure that employees comply with the organization's stated boundaries.
 
Most employees have access to user data that doesn’t directly impact their work, so knowing when an employee goes out of bounds is increasingly critical. Fortunately, monitoring software ensures that employees only access appropriate data, and it achieves that level of oversight without violating employee privacy or requiring a manager to continually peek over their shoulders. For example, modern software can proactively and automatically block out private data like financial information, so employees aren’t compromised in the process.
 
In other words, capable monitoring software evaluates everything that’s relevant to the business but can disregard anything that isn’t.
 
#3 Data Loss Prevention
 
Of course, when an employee decides to go rogue and steal user data, this malicious data exfiltration attempt must be stopped. Modern employee monitoring software is equipped to do just that.
 
IT administrators can implement data loss prevention rules that ensure that customer data remains secure. From a single, intuitive dashboard, admins can set data movement parameters among cloud, private cloud, and on-premise data systems. This might include temporary and automatic restrictions to messaging apps or other services that could offload company data.
 
When companies deploy this powerful software, they can have confidence that their data will remain secure, preventing a veritable PR disaster. Taken together, employee monitoring software supports the critical duality of customer service and data security.
 
Tim Cook’s statements were a shot across the bow of their primary competition, but they should resonate with every company striving to compete today. By evaluating customer service methodologies and automatically protecting user data at every level, companies can plan to succeed in a challenging regulatory environment where consumers are becoming increasingly incredulous and governments are taking action.
 
Maintaining competitiveness may be more difficult, but companies can differentiate themselves by providing compelling customer service experience and protecting their users’ information. Employee monitoring software helps with both.
 
 
About the Author: Isaac Kohen is the Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Teramind, a leading, global provider of employee monitoring, insider threat detection, and data loss prevention solutions.
 
 
 

 
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