Improve your reputation and customer relations with these ways to better protect customer data.

One of the best ways to serve your customers is to run a safe, responsible, and secure business. When customers shop at your store or purchase your services, they trust you with sensitive information about themselves, their needs, and their finances. Mishandling that information puts you and everyone you serve at risk. No matter the size or purpose of your company, you must prioritize security for both physical and digital data. Preserve your reputation and take care of your clients with these ways to better protect customer data.

Uphold PCI Compliance Standards

All businesses have a different set of compliance standards to meet. Paying attention to these regulations ensures that you follow best practices for your industry. If your company handles financial information or money transactions, you’ll have to follow regulations that guarantee the security and privacy of this data. Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) exist to protect cardholder data. If your company uses card payments at all, you must ensure that your IT infrastructure is PCI DSS compliant. Respecting regulations such as these tells customers that you’re serious about security and responsible enough to handle their personal financial information.

Be Careful With Physical Data

Keeping physical files or a hard backup of information can come in handy if you can’t access your digital files for any reason, but you must protect these files. One of the best ways to better protect customer data is to take good care of your physical files. Protect against natural disasters such as fire or flood by keeping physical files in safe containers. It also helps to have a digital backup of your information so that you can always access it, even if you lose the physical file. When you get rid of hard data, make sure you destroy it. Paper shredders and hard drive wipes are good ways to destroy information so that no one else can access it once you get rid of the file.