Various embodiments of the invention include a customer communication system comprising: a gatekeeper configured to receive digital identification data and to ratify the digital identification data by comparing the digital identification data to previously stored customer authentication data; and a customer relationship management system configured to receive a customer service request from an access device and to connect the customer service request to an agent interface, the customer relationship management system including authentication logic configured to authenticate a source of the customer service request using at least two methods, the two methods including: a) providing questions to the agent interface and ratifying responses to the questions and b) providing digital identification data received from the source of the customer service request to the gatekeeper and receiving an automated ratification of the digital identification data from the gatekeeper, the customer relationship management system being further configured to provide secure customer data to the agent interface only after the authentication of the source of the customer service request.
Various embodiments of the invention include an access device comprising: a display; a user input; an input/output configured to initiate communication to a customer relationship management system; an authentication agent configured to receive an authentication request from a customer relationship management system and to automatically provide digital identification data to a gatekeeper in response to the authentication request, wherein the authentication request includes an identifier of the customer relationship management system; an access control configured to limit access via the display to the authentication agent; and a processor configured to execute at least the authentication agent.