With many services such as banking and shopping moving to online websites today, the need to verify the identity of customers is paramount. This is to prevent any forms of data theft or fraud and ensure that the user matches his or her account.
Over time, as technology advances, so does the hacking skills of hackers. As unfortunate as that sounds, the reality is that businesses have to up their customer verification process game and come up with new and creative ways to authenticate their customers and users.
This article will provide you with five useful tips that are easily implementable to improve your customer verification process. Before delving into the tips, let us go through the types of customer verification so that we’re on the same page.
Types of Customer Verification
The following are several customer verification processes that are widely used today. You’d have probably come across them yourself.
Age Verification
If you’ve ever stumbled upon a rated YouTube video, you probably had to verify your age by selecting the age group you fall within. Age verification is often used when there are contents deemed unsuitable for minors or when parental guidance is recommended.
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One-time Password
One-time passwords require users to accurately type in the given random sequence of numbers and alphabets, often in a cursive font.
Online Document Verification
As the name suggests, this method is used to authenticate the identity of the user, users have to provide information from their official documents which include their identity card, passport, or driving license.
Knowledge-based Authentication
Security questions such as “What is the name of your first pet?” are tailored to the individual and the answer is likely to be only known by the user. Knowledge-based authentication hence raises a barrier against potential hackers.
Two-factor/Multi-factor Authentication
Perhaps one of the more secure authentication methods is the two or multi-factor authentication. Users are required to go through at least two levels of authentication before being allowed to proceed. This could come in the form of entering the code number that is sent to your email or phone number.
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Credit Bureau-based Authentication
This authentication method requires the credit data of the users that are stored in the credit companies’ online network. Such information includes the name, social security number, and home address of the user.
Ways to Improve Your Customer Verification Process
To improve the security and reputation of your business, your customers should feel a sense of trust and reliability towards the online services that are provided. Given that reports and news of data breaches and scamming have been on the rise lately, it is now more important than ever to enhance your customer verification process to earn trust. Here’s how.
Use Identity Verification Software
Use the advancement of tech and artificial intelligence to your fullest by installing identity verification software for your online business sites.
Such software is designed to reduce the chances of identity fraud and data breaches. These types of software usually have to comply with global regulations so be sure to read the terms and conditions thoroughly before deciding.
When choosing the software, be sure that the needs of your business are addressed. Also, if your target audience resides all over the world, then the software should be able to offer real-time verification, as well as provide geolocation services.
Be Transparent And Candid
Your customers are human beings just like you. Assuming that they are rational thinkers, explaining your customer verification process will allow them to understand the rationale behind performing a few extra steps. They will more likely comply willingly and besides, they would probably rather be safe than sorry!
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With more initial collected data from your users, any future inconsistencies, such as a different email, should be flagged by identity verification software (assuming that it is installed). This definitely helps to keep user data more secure which is why it is important to be candid and upfront about the processes.
Automate, Automate, Automate!
That’s right. Automation is the way to go. Change the manual processes to automation if possible!
Customers value their time and efficiency and manual processes such as creating a new account are a big turn-off. According to a study, 17% of the respondents abandoned their cart instead of making it through the checkout due to the long and complicated checkout process. Furthermore, 24% of respondents found that having to create a new account was too troublesome.
One way to automate these manual processes is to implement behavioral biometrics.
Biometrics customer verification uses physical human traits such as one’s fingerprints and retina scans. These traits are unique to the individual and difficult to replicate. As such, you should consider implementing this feature on your online business site.
Single Sign-On (SSO)
SSO allows both the business and the users to save time and effort. By simply logging in to an SSO service such as Facebook and Google, affiliated websites will not require the users to re-enter their information.
For example, with a Gmail account, you can access other platforms like YouTube and other Google services by simply selecting the “log-in with Gmail” option. One simple click is all it takes.
Don’t Leave Them Hanging
Did I already mention that customers value their time and dislike waiting? If possible, always give them something to do while the system processes the information.
Ensure that these tasks are relevant to your business and to the customer so that they don’t feel like they’re wasting their time. For instance, requesting your users answer a security question (refer to point two) or sharing relevant information to kill that extra minute should be sufficient for the processes to be done and to keep the frowns away.
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Conclusion
There are no right or wrong ways to approach customer verification. There are, however, better and more efficient ways to do so. Try implementing some, if not all of the tips mentioned in this article to improve your customer verification process. Keep the smiles on their faces!
