Small Business Can Do Better to Protect Their Customers

I took the quick path to dinner tonight by ordering take out delivered to my hotel. And, as I normally do, I put that order on my credit card.

When the delivery person arrived he had the guest check in hand along with my credit card receipt. Written on the guest check was my credit card info -- in big bold letters.

When asked what happens to that receipt, the delivery guy said he keeps it until the end of the night and then it gets thrown away. I said, "Just thrown away?" "Yep," he says. "At the end of the night we throw all of them away." "Not shredded?" said I. "Here, why don't you keep it," he said as he thrust the receipt in my direction. I smiled and said, "Good answer."

In this age of rampant identify theft, this situation is unacceptable. The best I can say about this example is that he didn't lie and he did give me the paper. Of course there's probably another copy at the restaurant!

You have a responsibility to your customers to protect their information. And you can get in hot water with your merchant company if they find out you don't. It's no fun to be a victim of a stolen credit card number (which I've experienced), not to mention full blown identify theft (which I have not experienced -- knock wood).

Take a look at the procedures you are using to protect this sensitive data. Make a change if you need to. If you're customers find out you're not doing everything you can to protect them, you may soon find you have no customers to protect.