If you know there is more you should be doing to protect against hacking, you’re never going to get a better reason to bring this up than Zappos, the reigning customer service monarch, just gave you.
When was the last time you, or anyone handling digital security at your company, was invited to a meeting about customer service? How many times have you been asked how you can improve the customer experience? How often are your anti-hacking efforts cited as one of the ways your company is customer-first?
If your company isn’t truly customer-centric, the answers are likely never, zero and not ever. Even companies who live and breathe customer service don’t always equate anti-hacking measures with happy, returning customers.
But that might have changed after online shoe store Zappos’ was hacked last week, resulting in a data breach affecting 23 million of its customers. The CEO sums it up well. “We’ve spent over 12 years building our reputation, brand and trust with our customers,” CEO Tony Hsieh said in a blog statement. “It’s painful to see us take so many steps back due to a single incident.”
Could they have prevented it? Were they lax? Was security part of their culture, just not publicly discussed so as not to become a target? I don’t know. We may never know. But if your company hasn’t asked your security team these questions, they should. And if you know there is more you should be doing to protect against hacking, you’re never going to get a better reason to bring this up than Zappos, the reigning customer service monarch, just gave you.
Sure, they’ll survive; after a more than a decade of fabulous customer service – purportedly 75%+ of their sales are from returning customers – they should have enough goodwill to not lose much for long. But what about your company? How many of your sales are from returning customers? What would a customer data breach do to their loyalty?
How we treat customer data is part of how we treat the customer. It isn’t the first thing your CEO might ordinarily think of, or the CMO or the head of the call center. But it might be in their top 10 for the next few days. Take advantage of it.
