The world is becoming more data and technology-focused with each passing year. The pace at which we’re moving in collecting data, using data, and developing AI models – is intense. Data security is key when moving to new technologies and ways of using the data.
Companies have already been getting used to GDPR and other regulations related to the use and analysis of data. Privacy and consent are at the heart of using any customer data, but businesses may feel that they are having a hard time utilising the data that they have while ensuring they comply with all the regulations.
At the same time, every company in the world is now talking about different AI-based technologies and we’re all working towards making the most of what is out there while keeping security on our minds.
The European Union is trying to keep pace with these developments by updating and creating new regulations such as the AI act. The AI act will help regulate the use of AI in a variety of fields. It will most likely impact us all in one way or another.
So – why and how do you make the most of the data you have while remaining firm on keeping your data secure? What is holding you back and how can you push forward? Let’s dive into this topic in the following chapters that cover ways of securing data while making the most of the insights that can be found from customer conversations.
Why analyse customer conversations, what power do they hold?
Imagine that you can count every customer issue based on the times customers call, chat, or email you about this. Make development prioritisation decisions based on customer feedback. Measure the impact to the customers not based on simple NPS scores or CSAT scores, but going beyond that to the text, to the conversations, to the source that is your customer and what they tell you.
This is something you may have thought of already but have held back on in the search of secure solutions. It may also be a new concept for your company that has not been on the table.
Whenever there is data, there is a concern about privacy and data security – and that is how it should be. There are well-known standards for data security. One way you can be sure about a company’s focus on security is having the ISO/IEC 27001 certification. It is the world’s best-known standard for information security management systems (ISMS).
Limiting access to data based on specific needs
When you think of different roles within your company and think of various use cases for conversation analysis, then you can discover that there’s a lot of information that could be used from the customer conversations to improve the efficiency of processes and cut costs by making them more efficient. The conversations could be used as a source for improving customer service quality and training agents, and you could also assess your sales approaches and scripts – to name a few ideas.
There would be various departments, teams, and roles in your company that could use this access. And this again raises the question about security – how to do this in a secure manner? By giving the people just as much as they need and not more. This is where different ways of limiting access could do the trick, limits such as:
- only certain views and functions
- only the types of conversations that are suitable for the role (B2B vs B2C, call vs chat etc.)
- only specific conversation channels (based on call queues, for example)
- audio, textual, or both
- long archive of conversations or short-term access
Imagine entire teams, departments and your organisation uncovering the insights from your customer conversations with access to only what will benefit their goals. There is potential, but what other steps could we take to provide access to data with increased data security?
Access to conversation without access to PII
There may be quite a lot of personally identifiable information (PII) in customer conversations as customers most often contact customer service for the purpose of finding solutions for their personal issues. This creates a situation where access and security of this data come into play again.
A solution for the issue of identifiable information is anonymisation and masking of this data. How? Let’s give you a few examples:
- Use various technological features such as named entity recognition (NER) models to locate names, numbers, addresses, emails, etc. in the text and to mask them.
- Change the tonality of the voice and remove the PII from the audio by whitenoising it
- Add another layer of anonymisation by removing further content with blacklisting
This way, you could get all the business-critical content to help measure and investigate issues without concerns for customer privacy.
Considering customer consent for analysis
There are different ways that people consent to or refuse companies using their data for analytics. The most important part is that the individual has an understanding and control over how their information is used. For our context, the choice to “opt-out” or “opt-in” specifically pertains to the handling of personal data, more specifically in the context of customer support calls and analytics.
When an individual “opts out”, it means they decide not to permit the use of their data for analysis purposes. For instance, this could mean that their calls are not recorded or stored, and their data is excluded from being utilised in our analytical processes.
Keeping track of the opt-in/opt-out status and analysing or not analysing the data accordingly is therefore vital to consider when starting conversation analysis.
Powerful insights with secured data: Experience a demo of Feelingstream’s services
Feelingstream is very focused on data security as you can read from our Security page. We put a lot of effort into offering secure solutions for analysing customer conversation data in a variety of use cases. We are continuously increasing our offer of security-related functions and services. Our ISO/IEC 27001 certificate is an asset since it clearly confirms and demonstrates our company’s dedication to data security.
Protect your customer data while harnessing its power to propel your business forward securely. Experience our customer conversion analytics solutions in action with a live demo. Safeguard sensitive information and unlock its potential to drive growth. Get in touch today! Register for a demo call here.
