Did you know that the financial services industry has suffered 125 data breaches in 2017? That number accounts for 14% of the total number of breaches and is up 29 percent from the previous six months. Finance companies have seen five million records stolen and the numbers are only growing. Cybercrime has also been estimated to account for 39% of the threats facing the financial sector.

With the drastic uptick in financial data compromises, especially in recent months, consumer fear is spreading like wildfire. The potential for identity theft has increased astronomically and financial institutions are doing everything they can to build back customer confidence and trust; below are a few great ways to accomplish this in the wake of recent industry breach events. As it turns out, building account holder trust often comes down to customer engagement.

3 Ways to Build Back Account Holder Trust with Customer Engagement 

#1 Education

Knowledge is power and a quick Google search will tell you consumers are hungry for information on how to safeguard themselves against fraud. Arming them with the tools and information they need to protect themselves and their families is a great place to start. When you empower your account holders to make smart decisions about their financial security, it’s a win-win.

#2 – Speed

Building customer trust and loyalty is also about swiftly and painlessly addressing fraudulent situations when they do occur. When a customer’s debit or credit card is lost, stolen or compromised, instantly issuing a new card to them in a branch is a quick and effective way to remedy the situation and build customer loyalty.

Making them wait 10 days for a new card to come in the mail is not.

Switching to instant card issuance is easy with the Card@Once® solution because it’s a cloud-based service. All you need is an internet connection and a power outlet to set it up.  One of the big differentiators in instant issuance is the ability to provide cloud-based services. Cloud computing is a major trend in finance—one report showed that 61 percent of financial institutions are developing a cloud strategy within their organization.

Cloud computing allows for a number of increased security measures like constant monitoring of data and better encryption tools, as well as increased transparency, real-time logging and incident reporting mechanisms. Cloud services are also cost enablers because they reduce the number of in-house resources needed to monitor the data.

There are a lot of players in the instant card issuance space, so it’s important that you do the research before selecting a partner. Because consumers are so focused on data security, it’s more important than ever to get to know the technology potential partners provide and familiarize yourself with all of the data security and safety aspects before adopting instant issuance.

#3 – Communicate Directly with Account Holders the Priority of Data Security 

Protecting sensitive customer data should be a top priority for financial institutions and this needs to be communicated across the institution: from the in-branch tellers, to the contact center. Know where your sensitive data is stored, clearly label those assets so that employees and management know to handle it with extra care, and train employees on cybersecurity best practices. After all, the weakest link in data theft is your employees.

Finally, be sure that your institution has an appropriate incident response plan in place in the event that a data breach does occur. 

Really, if you focus on breach follow-up actions by keeping the account holder’s needs and experiences in mind, you’ll not only win the customer engagement battle, but win the customer’s trust.

 

Card@Once is a registered trademark of CPI Card Group, Inc. U.S. Patent No. 8,429,075.
EMV is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo LLC in the United States and other countries. All rights reserved.