‘Sign-up’ is part of the customer experience

The ability to register for a service in a seamless, friction-free way, is an essential but often overlooked part of the customer experience.

We’re all familiar with the concept of providing connected, engaging CX across marketing, sales and customer service channels. Over the last couple of years, the importance of supply chain transparency has become key to CX too. But what about the need to verifiably identify yourself as part of the registration process for services — financial services, for example — that really need to know that you are who you say you are?

Why we care. We care because there are widely used identity services out there (used by branches of government) that are far from friction-free. Anyone who has spent time trying to take photographs of physical documents and upload acceptable version of them to a website understands this.

From the marketing perspective, anything that encourages users to abandon registration and look elsewhere for more easily accessible services, is a bad thing. Think of this as reflecting the changes we’re seeing in the buyer’s journey (both B2B and B2C). Buyers are looking for ease, speed and as much self-service as possible.

Onfido acquires Airside. The international automated identity verification platform Onfido seeks to smooth the sign-up process by using scanners to gather and match documentary and biometric information. Today it announced the acquisition of private, digital identity sharing technology platform Airside Mobile.

Airside, through its Airside Digital Identity App, allows users to carry their digital identities on their smartphones. Once verified, the identity can be used to access many services without the need to re-verify. For example, the app is used by major airlines and the TSA to fast-track passengers through airports.

“We plan to take Airside’s proven approach to the airline industry and apply it to other sectors requiring high customer assurance, such as financial services — providing a single, trusted view of each customer’s identity,” said Onfido CEO Mike Tuchen in a release.