The Sewing Mom

Today, work was a little more interesting than normal. This morning the customer service phones were pretty slow so we were told to sign off the phones and complete our annual security training. I know, I know, this doesn’t sound too exciting, but it gave me 45 minutes of paid time without having to answer the phone! That’s a good time!

My job description covers everything from making hotel reservations to dealing with member loyalty accounts. Every time I speak with a customer, they are providing me with some type of information whether it’s just their name, or something more confidential like the credit card they are using for the reservation. Today’s security review was really about using common sense when it comes to handling customer data and keeping their data secure. This is so super important when ever we deal with credit cards and I have to hope that other companies are as vigilant about keeping this information secure. I know that sometimes customers will get annoyed with me because they give me their credit card information, I complete one reservation, they then want to make another reservation and I have to ask for the same information again. The reason is that we’re not allowed to write any of those numbers down and once we type it into the computer, it becomes encoded. So, for the safety of our member’s credit cards, it’s the company’s way of keeping their data secure.

If you ever provide a credit card number over the phone, you should hear keys typing so you know the number is being entered into the computer, not being written down! If you’re ever in doubt, ask! And don’t forget you can always be proactive and get a free credit score that will show you if there been any issues with any of your credit cards. Of course, hopefully your credit card company would have contacted you with any suspicious activity, but I feel like we can’t be too careful when it comes to our financial data and personal security.

Obviously fraudulent activity isn’t the only thing that can affect your credit score but, as a customer service agent, I for one am determined to keep our customer data secure, just like I expect other companies to do for me.