Year by year, the number of global data breaches continue to skyrocket, with data breaches exposing numbers of records that go well into the multi-billions. This has led to a substantial increase in identity theft and account takeovers worldwide as businesses continue to look for powerful and reliable ways to confirm that someone truly is who they say they are.
The primary way for businesses to do this quickly without dissuading a potential customer from going deeper into their site is a crucial part of enjoying sustained business success. Beyond this, companies must now build a strong and diverse fraud-prevention system in order to comply with anti-money laundering measures, otherwise known as AMLs.
As potential identity thieves continue to become more advanced and more difficult to identify, companies have had to start relying on some truly advanced technology in order to keep their business safe, their customers safe and more.
In fact now, identity verification goes well beyond the traditional and physical methods of authentication. If you do not already have a thorough identity verification process, consider the fact that companies that do now rely on a program that is 30 percent artificial intelligence, 20 percent biometrics and identity management, and 19 percent reliant on Blockchain technology!
Clearly, identity verification is leading the charge when it comes to utilizing the most advanced tech available to us in the digital age. The reason why taking advantage of this kind of forward thinking is so crucial is because there is simply so much risk when it comes to working on the internet. Even if you already have what you believe is a strong identity verification process in place for your company, the truth is that you have to constantly make sure that you know your customer and keep them safe from breaches while you also keep your own data safe as well.
Ultimately, this includes checks such as face-matching using selfies, data extraction from documents, liveness detection, auto-checking watchlists and automatically scanning for signs of fraud or fraudulent documents.
Though there is little doubt that you have heard how important identity verification is, it is possible that you are not yet quite convinced that it truly is one of the most important things to focus on as your business grows.
For that reason, we have taken the time to break down the many reasons why focusing on identity verification on your site should be something that you commit quite a lot of time, though, energy and resources to. Let’s get started!
It helps you improve or maintain a strong reputation
Before we get into the safety aspects of identity verification, we thought that we should start off with something that any business owner can understand easily. Simply put, having strong and safe identity verification checks on your business’ site is going to help you better build and maintain a fantastic reputation.
A strong reputation is crucially important for any type of business, that is any size in any market or industry. That is especially true if you do a lot of your business online. In a time where there has never been more consumer choice, it is truly so easy for people to hop from one business to another all while sitting on their own couch at home. While you may no longer have the ability to make your customer feel right at home at your brick-and-mortar location (if you even have one), you can absolutely make them feel safe and secure while they click through your site and look at the great products and services that you offer.
That is why trust from your customer base is more important now than it ever has been in the past. Customers are continuously looking for companies that they feel they can rely on. One of the top ways that consumers are able to feel that way is if they know that their information is being kept safe and secure. In this time of so many highly publicized data breaches where some of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world have been victimized.
When your company runs identity checks on your site, it signals to anyone who visits your site that you are serious about building trust and keeping them safe when they are visiting your site. Remember that along with the overall quality of your product or service that you offer, trust is one of the most important ways to actually build a relationship with a customer in this digital age.
Failing to identify this need and use it to your advantage not only hurts your business’ reputation but can actually end up leading to serious data breaches which can in turn destroy any semblance of trust and brand loyalty that you have built with your consumer base.
Avoid fines
In the past, major companies have faced fines that have reached into the billions of dollars because of their inability to identify and control money-laundering schemes that were using their site as a tool. For that reason, AML and KYC systems have become incredibly important.
AML refers to a handful of regulations, laws and general procedures that have been made specifically with the idea to stop the practice of declaring illegally gathered funds and legitimate income and revenue. This pairs tightly with KYC, which is the process that a business must go through in order to identify their customers and assess the risk level of illegal activity.
Making sure that your company is adhering to both of these highly important protocols is crucial if you want your business to avoid costly fines – or in even more serious situations, facing jail time.
Making sure that your company is implementing an efficient and streamlines ID verification system and software that aligns with AML and KYC requirements is going to protect your business, yourself and the rest of the people who depend on your company.
Improve customer service
When customers were polled to ask what the most exciting aspect of a customer experience was with a given company, do you know what the largest portion of those polled answered with? They answered with customer experience.
In this day and age, consumers of all ages and types want an experience that puts them first every step of the way. For many, what that means enjoying what is known as a “frictionless” experience from beginning to end. This also applies to identity verification which means not asking the customer for too much information and instead getting the information you need about them in other places.
This means that you can create a really smooth and smooth workflow that eliminates most- if not all – of the needs for manual entry and paperwork which can often take several days to process. As a result of this, customers will enjoy a smooth onboarding experience and – most importantly – get access to the product or service you are offering without them having to jump through too many hoops to do so.
If you are able to integrate biometric solutions as well as digital identity verification tools and methods such as automatic scanning, facial recognition, liveness detection and more means that your customers will be able to gain access to what they want without having to wait for hours or even days to get started.
For most businesses, a great identity verification process will likely look like this in four simple steps:
- Step 1: gather identification documents such as passports, ID card or driver licenses
- Step 1: verify the authenticity of the ID documents
- Step 3: carry out customer authentication to make sure the person presenting the ID is the same person that the ID relates to
- Step 4: create a report for audition purposes
Though this process is quite useful, it can certainly take a bit of time to actually process these documents, especially if the work is all done manually.
That is why moving to a more digitized process is a lot more convenient so that identity checks are able to be carried out in the background with almost no time at all. Having a streamlined process that is digitized in place is known to dramatically improve conversion rates for companies no matter the industry. A good customer experience keeps people coming back again and again. When it comes to identity verification, this means making the process far simpler, which makes it more likely that you are going to convert.
What’s to come?
The technology that identity verification depends on is only going to become more and more advanced. And it’s better, because those who are trying to take advantage of weaknesses in the process of identity security. In the near future, it is possible that the blockchain will make identity security more decentralized, faster and available for everyone on the internet.
In the end, when it comes to your business, you will benefit from being at the forefront of security in your industry. You will benefit from a safer site and a more positive user experience.
