Agent Assisted Payments

An Agent Assisted Payment enables your agents to process card payments without being exposed to sensitive card data. Using agent assisted payments, customers simply use the keypad on their phone or mobile device to tap in their card details while remaining in conversation with the agent throughout the transaction. Agents receive real-time feedback on their screens, such as bank authorisation codes, but they do not see any sensitive card details.

The Encoded process starts when the card holder is ready to make a payment. The payment form is pre-populated with essential account information such as reference/account number and balance amount. Then the agent “conferences in” Encoded’s payment server using their telephone. The card data is received, checked and the card issuing Bank returns an Authorisation code. The payment result is supplied to the agent in real-time and systems are automatically updated.

Agent Assisted payments are a way of taking payments which allow contact centre agents to stay in conversation with customers while processing credit/debit card details and be screened from sensitive data. During this process, contact centre agents are provided with real-time on-screen feedback, but are importantly protected from viewing any sensitive card details. Implementing Encoded Agent Assisted Payments significantly reduces the time, cost and resource required to complete PCI DSS, SAQ C-VT (3.2.1v).

Card holders can continue to talk to agents through out the payment process without agents being exposed to sensitive card data. Implementing the Encoded solution significantly reduces the time, cost and resource required to complete PCI DSS, SAQ C-VT compliance. In fact, of the controls covered in version 3.2.1 of the standard, agent assisted payments places 51% completely out of scope and 30% of the remaining controls are heavily reduced. This figure assumes that VoIP is used, if not then that figure is reduced further to 58.9% for PCI SAQ C-VT de-scoping.

Encoded’s Agent Assisted Payments solution bridges the gap between personalised customer service and enhancing security, whilst reducing the often-heavy financial costs of PCI DSS compliance. Customers use their touch-tone keypad to enter their card details while staying connected to the contact centre agent throughout the payment process. No cardholder data enters the contact centre therefore reducing compliance requirements.

Many disabled and elderly consumers may feel embarrassed when they cannot use traditional automated payment systems and prefer the human touch when it comes to payments. Encoded’s virtual terminal payments enable disabled or elderly customers to make assisted payments where the agent logs into a secure virtual terminal interface online to directly input card details.

For those contact centres required to record calls for compliance reasons Encoded uses the pause and resume method of call recording. The ContactBabel Decision-Maker’s Guide 2019-20 survey of UK contact centres showed that pause and resume recording (73%) with improving processes and training (64%) were by far the main methods used to reduce card fraud.

For multiple payments, recurring payments or returning customers, agent assisted payments linked to tokenisation enhances the customer experience. Tokenisation is the process of securely storing card data for future use as a token. Tokenisation can allow contact centres to be outside PCI DSS scope, as no real cardholder data enters the environment and makes it a less attractive target for data hacking and stealing data. Meanwhile, returning customers are not required to enter card details over and over again.

Contact centre agents can continue to talk to the card holder throughout the entire payment process. The card holder enters their card details into their phone using their keypad. At this point the DTMF tones are heard by Encoded’s Payment server, however, the agent can speak to the customer as required.

Encoded solutions are carrier, phone system and customer relationship management (CRM) agnostic, which means they can be integrated into most existing systems. Available as an API to allow for full integration or accessible with via a web browser any deployment is possible. It also means real-time reconciliation of payments is achievable. As the result of being directly integrated with the client’s database, via a secure web service, payment results are immediately available to agents.

Agent assisted means different things to different organisations but the end goal is the same: improved customer experience and commitment to security. Agent assisted also refers to technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to provide automated support to contact centre agents through real-time guidance, call transcripts, and recommendations. Agent assisted capabilities boost overall contact centre performance and include agent assisted payments, where the agent processes a customer’s card payment during a live conversation quickly and securely.

An agent-assisted transfer is a payment method where a customer provides their card details to an agent while remaining on the phone with them. This method is designed to be secure, preventing agents from seeing or hearing the customer’s card information. An agent-assisted transfer can be used for both inbound and outbound calls where the line is secured for customers calling in to make payments or when agents call to collect customer payments.