Whose Identity Is It Anyway? – Why Digital Verification Is Crucial For Your Business

In today’s digital-first world, customers are looking for faster and frictionless ways to complete their online processes. 

According to wpforms.com, “81% of people have abandoned a form after beginning to fill it out.” The data further states that “More than 67% of site visitors (...) abandon form(s) forever if they encounter any complications.”

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That being the case, the need to ensure one’s identity is verified frictionlessly is crucial from a regulatory, fraud, and consumer experience perspective. However, the existing means of verification—such as in-person ID checks or having to supply copious amounts of documentation to prove address or identity—are extremely cumbersome.

Businesses are at a tipping point. They now have the opportunity to meet these new expectations and create long-term, consumer-first strategies for better customer engagement and even new revenue streams.

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How can businesses build best practices to establish and re-establish trust?

Application abandonment at the time of onboarding can be a cause of concern for financial services and other businesses. For example, according to a study cited by Prove, “It takes anywhere between 70 and 120 clicks to open an online account at a traditional bank.”

These clicks essentially involve time-consuming requests for personal information like proof of address, photo ID, or other official documents like a passport to verify legitimate customers. However, there is an opportunity now to disrupt these methods, leveraging a phone-centric approach.

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Enter Prove’s Identity Verify™ API

Our Identity Verify API is paperless and in real-time, utilizing the phone number to verify consumer identity. Prove's technology relies on various phone intelligence attributes that are paired with device information and data from authoritative identity verifiers to enhance the efficacy and accuracy of identity verification and authentication.

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Furthermore, the technology is designed to meet both regulatory needs and business/risk management. Prove's technology follows a unique "Ownership" to check at the time of onboarding. This check helps determine whether a consumer is associated with the number or not. This can be returned as a flag or with granular information to determine accuracy and availability.

Digital onboarding is the first step to establishing a reliable relationship with customers. That foundational element can then be leveraged going forward by businesses to support a number of key elements:

• Meet regulatory and compliance requirements: Have confidence in who is registering or applying for products.
• Reduce fraud and build confidence in the customer: Enabling new opportunities to engage safely.
• Cost reductions, leveraging automated processes of identity verification: Reducing the number of referrals and quicker decisioning.
• Reduce manual errors by ensuring a thorough identity verification

Here’s a look at some key opportunities for technology-led identity verification across industries:

Financial Institutions and Services: Customer behavior dictates that banking is moving primarily to phone or hand-held devices. Therefore, it’s important for banks and financial institutions to replicate existing physical robust processes with a digital-first mindset. A phone-centric identity approach ensures a relevant and dynamic method of identity verification to align with customer expectations.

Gambling: In the online and offline gambling industry, identity verification helps keep a check on credit card fraud, stolen identity charges, etc., and also helps in promoting responsible gambling. Digital identity verification automatically helps in confirming a consumer’s name, age, address, and other regulatory requirements. 

Government Services: Identification checks ensure that the government is dealing with a verified person. They allow government agencies to approve tasks such as signing legal documents, filing taxes, receiving benefits, and so on—all remotely, securely, and without friction.

E-Commerce: Identity verification can help reduce identity theft, decrease processing time, minimize cart abandonment, and protect the company and consumers from misusing any data.

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Winning and retaining customers with Prove

To increase revenue and offer a good CX, businesses must ensure their digital onboarding is completed with little or zero friction. 

‍All these checks are not only helpful in winning new customers but also retain and offer an enhanced customer experience to the existing customer base, building out the concept of reusable identity.

Businesses can win customers by understanding their needs, offering new opportunities to transact, and, more importantly, staying relevant. The growing interest in digital is here to stay. Businesses can benefit from this rising interest in digital services simply by improving efficiency to safeguard their customers and themselves. 

This transition to digital verification needs to meet your customers' expectations, offer flexibility, build trust, is 100% compliant, and ultimately drive revenue for your business. 

To determine a winning strategy and understanding how you can address your customers' needs with Prove, please share your details with us:

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