Following high-profile data breaches, such as those at Microsoft, MGM Resorts, and Estee Lauder, customers are becoming increasingly anxious about the security of their personal information and whether the brands they buy from genuinely secure it.
So, companies need to make sure they are going above and beyond to secure their customer’s data and be able to reassure their customer’s too.
Here are 7 tips on how to ensure your customer’s data is secured.
1 - Have A Clear And Honest Privacy Policy
First and foremost, you must be transparent with your customers regarding how you store their data and how it is used. There is no point in trying to conceal any information or to try and be deceptive with your customers because the truth always comes out in the end and this could be highly damaging for your company’s reputation if you did attempt to pull something like that off. Trust is an important component in building long-lasting relationships with customers so make sure you are clear, honest, and transparent in your privacy policy.
2 - Speak To An Expert
Unless you are a data security expert, you are likely to have some gaps in your knowledge, which is absolutely fine. The best way to make sure you stay up to date and understand what is going on in the data security world is to talk to experts such as The Edmund Group who can provide high-quality consultancy for you and your company. That way you can rest assured that your security is up to date and fit in with all necessary rules and regulations. It is well worth the investment of hiring and talking to an expert as they are more than likely going to save you and your company a lot of money in the long run.
3 - Encrypt Data
Encrypting important data may seem like the obvious thing to do, however, you would be surprised at how many companies do not encrypt their sensitive data. People’s personal data and information are put at risk as hackers will be able to obtain and read the data, whereas this would be unreadable if the data was encrypted. It might seem all a bit complicated but the bottom line is that if companies fail to use the right encryption tools then they are increasing the risk of their customer’s data falling into the wrong hands. Cybersecurity attacks are a serious threat and hackers do not care whether your company is big or small and they will target any company they can.
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4 - Be Honest With Your Customers Regarding Their Data
Often, customers are cautious to share personal information with brands, owing to a lack of transparency between businesses and customers over how their data is handled. Transparency is not a usual business tradition but times are changing and it is important to adapt and stay up to date with the changing business-customer relations. Also, the saying honesty is the best policy exists for a reason and it can help build and strengthen brand loyalty among customers. Additionally, customers are more likely to engage with companies if there is value to their interactions. Research has found that two-thirds of people will share their information with companies if there is some kind of value for the exchange.
5 - Use Your Common Sense
A lot of data breaches have occurred due to a lack of common sense. There are lots of small preventative measures businesses can take to increase the security of their customer’s data, but sometimes when people are rushing or not thinking properly, these simple measures are forgotten. It is important that you remind all employees of the basics of data security and how important the matter is. Make sure employees do not send sensitive information via email and passwords should be changed frequently and should not be easy to guess. Create a culture of sensibility and responsibility and this should help increase the overall security of your customer’s data.
6 - Check Your Security
In this day and age, technology has become increasingly sophisticated and so it is not enough to simply use basic security measures anymore. Businesses need to do more to keep their customer’s data safe and part of that is testing your own security and trying to find vulnerabilities in the system before cyber-criminals do. To do this you may need to hire cybersecurity consultants or an ethical hacker to find the vulnerabilities in your security system. Investing in your security now has the potential to save you a lot of money in the future, because if you do become the victim of a cyber attack then hackers will hold your data and request a hefty ransom. Often companies are not able to afford the ransom and even if they do pay it tends to lead to a ruined reputation for the company and in worse cases even bankruptcy.
7 - Always Prepare For The Worst
It is crucial that you are always prepared for the worst and have a crisis recovery plan in place. If you do not currently have one then you should change this as soon as possible. Hackers have the potential to cripple your company and so it is important to have safeguards in place to reduce the disruption as much as possible for day-to-day functions in the workplace. Cyberattacks are always unanticipated and so the best you can do is to have a thorough contingency plan in case of a cyberattack. Hackers will target anyone, and nobody is safe as even Sony’s PlayStation Network has been attacked and the brand lost millions of dollars and their reputation was left in tatters. Most companies will have disaster plans at the ready and so cyber-attack scenarios should also be included in these plans. Do what you can to prevent attacks, but failing that your company has to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.
Secure data is one of the vital pillars that hold up a successful business and without this, companies will collapse. Security, privacy, and safe data are all things that need to be taken very seriously, and with these 7 tips, you will be able to ensure that your customer’s data is secure.
