The importance of mobile-first onboarding

Our CEO, Christina Luttrell wrote an article for Forbes Technology Council, an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Read the article below or see the original here.

In today’s highly competitive, digital-first economy, businesses must provide an onboarding process that is convenient and secure, and they should prioritize mobile. Fifty percent of the world’s population now owns a smartphone, and mobile banking has even replaced online banking as the consumer’s primary choice for banking. While there is no doubt about the many benefits of mobile transactions for both businesses and consumers, the threat of growing fraud is looming on this very vulnerable channel. How then can businesses both stay competitive and prevent fraud?

Don’t risk customer abandonment

Onboarding the majority of legitimate mobile users conveniently and safely is a challenging process, and there’s a lot at stake in getting it right. Entering lengthy identifying information on a mobile phone or tablet is cumbersome and often leads to form abandonment. In fact, mobile shoppers are consistently more likely to abandon an online shopping cart compared to users shopping on a desktop. So as consumers increasingly rely on their mobile devices for everyday tasks, optimized mobile journeys must be top of mind for businesses. By employing technology that can merge steps together, reduce manual error, pre-fill forms and take customers seamlessly through clear and quick steps, businesses will dramatically reduce abandonment.

Secure transactions with identity verification

Employing identity verification technology can reduce fraud, allow customers to feel more secure in transacting and make the process smoother. Document authentication paired with selfie ID verification provides a secure, nonintrusive way for mobile customers to sign up for a new account or service quickly.

Businesses can simplify the onboarding process by employing the customer’s smartphone camera to quickly capture a government-issued identity document. In this same step, and in seconds, the authenticity of the ID can be validated to ensure that it is not expired, tampered with or forged. Subsequently, the customer can be prompted to snap a quick selfie and in seconds the image of the ID can be compared to the selfie with algorithm checks for 1:1 face matching, checks for liveness rather than using a fake image or deepfakes used to commit identity fraud.

With the data obtained from the ID capture, the business can also pre-populate online forms to speed up checkout and reduce manual error as well. This entire process can be automated and takes less than 10 seconds. Combining document authentication with a selfie verification solution gives businesses greater assurance that identity is legitimate and translates to less drop-off, less fraud and higher conversion rates.

Best practices to optimize for mobile

While it is nearly impossible to eliminate all friction from the onboarding process, here are some best practices for any business delivering a mobile onboarding experience:

Reduce the steps for customers: With mobile-optimized ID capture, businesses can validate a government-issued ID and pre-populate an application form in one simple step, making the account opening process that much faster and easier.

Make the process nonintrusive: Employing the user’s smartphone camera to capture an ID image or snap a selfie can help to make advanced identity verification feel as familiar as another everyday task.

Keep it quick and seamless: Combining document authentication with selfie verification in one automated workflow reduces customer friction while better enabling businesses to transact with trust.

Establish trust and transparency: Ensure that your customers know you value data privacy and let them know that their data is safe. And by going the extra step to verify them with confidence, you are showing them you are also protecting them—not just your business—against fraudulent transactions.

The bottom line is that consumers conduct much of their lives from mobile devices— this includes opening and accessing financial accounts, gaming and purchasing goods and services among other many things. The balance of security and convenience remains the ultimate challenge to keep customers, winning their trust and loyalty, and it all begins at onboarding. An inconvenient onboarding experience will likely drive consumers to take their business elsewhere, but with optimized mobile customer journeys that build and enhance trust, organizations can confidently deter fraud while delivering a positive experience.