Why Seamless Authentication is the only way

"I want my service now"

None of us want to make an effort. We want everything to go smoothly, fast, to the point and without any effort. This is especially true when it comes to service providers. If, God forbid, I have to contact a service provider, it will usually be after failing to complete what I wanted to do on my own. And by that time, I'm not happy. When I talk to an agent, I want him to know who I am and what I want, and provide me with a quick, pleasant service. The last thing I want is to be bothered with questions regarding the nature of my call or worse – proving that I am indeed who I claim to be.

This is one of the main challenges that organizations have to deal with: keeping the customer safe without hurting the customer experience while maintaining efficient service.

As contact centers evolved from Call Centers to Contact Centers to Customer Centers, customer experience has always been a top priority. We have witnessed the move from single-channel, to multi-channel, to omni-channel, to opti-channel. All in an attempt to put the customer in the center and provide them with the best customer experience.

On the other hand, the constant rise in fraud forces contact centers to devote more attention to fraud prevention, including the authentication process. Unfortunately, most authentication practices hurt customer experience as they are bothersome and time consuming. 

How Can We Provide The Best Customer Experience?

Today, more contact center operators realize that making the authentication process seamless is key to providing the best customer experience.  The use of disruptive technologies, like voice biometrics for example, has proven that there is not necessarily a contradiction between fraud prevention, customer experience, agent experience and efficiency.  The beauty of it is that the customer is not required to do any effort because it all happens seamlessly in the background. In addition, seamless authentication appears to be even more secure, because if a caller doesn't know he is being authenticated, he definitely can't manipulate the authentication process performing a fraudulent activity or bypassing the authentication.

Thus, in the past few years we see many organizations that adapt the seamless authentication approach using technologies such as voice biometrics, device verification and phone number validation. These organizations, and their customers, enjoy improved customer experience and higher customer satisfaction as callers receive immediate service.

Why keep the authentication process seamless?

  1. Best customer experience – the customer isn't required to do anything
  2. Best agent experience and efficiency  – the agent isn't required to do anything, which means less exposure to human errors and less time spent on authentication during a call
  3. Best security for  the customer – stronger authentication and better protection against fraud attempts when the individual is not aware of being authenticated

Can Multi-factor Authentication Be Seamless?

In the past we have witnessed more legislation around multi-factor authentication (PSD2 and MIFID2 are just a couple of examples). Step by step, the world is moving from single factor authentication to multi-factor authentication. While this is definitely a positive step in terms of fraud prevention, the implications on customer experience could be devastating. Does this mean that organizations that already improved customer experience by allowing seamless authentication will now need to take a step back and go back to those bothersome authentication processes?

Well, the answer is not necessarily. Even when applying multi-factor authentication, organizations can still stay focused on customer experience. If a customer already got accustomed to seamless authentication, introducing a new authentication method which is not seamless (like one-time SMS generated password) will have a double negative effect on the customer experience.

The good news is that multi-factor authentication can be seamless. Authentication technologies that require no effort from consumers are available and have been proven efficient. Voice biometrics, behavioral biometrics, as well as phone number and device validation technologies are just a few examples. These technologies are seamless, secure and complement each other. Combining some of them together can provide the best authentication experience while adhering to the strictest security regulations.

So remember, multi-factor authentication can still be seamless. It's just a matter choosing the right authentication methods.  Want to learn more about our Real-Time Authentication Solution? Click here

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