How Can Enterprises Deliver Better Customer Experiences with Unified Identity?

Introduction

Admit it; you won’t make a purchase online if you’re not happy with the platform's usability and ease of access! And this is what happens with everyone.

Well, the thing is, every user is already interacting with global brands and knows what a great user experience feels like. This is enough for you to understand that meeting that level of consumer experience is the key to business success, especially when the competition is neck-to-neck.

Although it’s essential to deliver a great user experience to your potential customers, knowing when to deliver a frictionless experience makes all the difference.

Whenever a user lands on your website/application, how it’s treated in the first couple of seconds decides whether you’re getting a new client or just another random user.

It's up to you whether you’re bombarding a user with bulky registration forms or offering them a seamless registration process that immediately builds trust.

So, does it mean identity management has to do something with user experience?

Undoubtedly, yes!

Let’s look at some aspects of unified identity and how brands leverage the same to engage users and foster business growth.

What is Unified Identity? Why Does It Matter Now More than Ever Before?

Unified consumer experience can be defined as consumers' perceptions (conscious and subconscious) of their relationship with the brand during the entire life cycle.

Gartner defines a unified experience as "The practice of designing and reacting to consumer interactions to meet or exceed their expectations and thus increase their satisfaction, loyalty, and promotion."

Moreover, it's about getting to know consumers so that you can create and deliver personalized experiences that attract them to stay loyal to the brand or company and "promote" it to other people. That's the most valuable advertising tactic that exists.

The concept of unified consumer experience may sound idealistic, but anyone who rejects it is woefully out of context.

Consumers have become a competitive differentiator in today's hyper-competitive and hyper-connected global marketplace. There is tangible business value in maintaining a compelling consumer experience that can:

• Strengthen brand preference through omnichannel experiences.
• Increase revenue with existing consumer sales and new sales from word of mouth.
• Enhance user login experience with single sign-on (SSO).
• Improve loyalty (and build advocates) through meaningful and memorable consumer interactions.
• Lower costs by reducing customer churn.

By incorporating the concept of unified identity, businesses can gain every chance of standing ahead of their competitors.

Now let’s look at aspects emphasized by established brands worldwide to enhance user experience and build trust.

#1. Omnichannel experience for frictionless registration.

An omnichannel experience comprises a multichannel approach to sales, consumer service, and marketing. It necessitates delivering a consistent consumer experience regardless of how consumers interact with the brand.

An efficient and well-designed omnichannel platform yields an excellent consumer experience as a by-product. To accomplish that, businesses must understand consumer journeys over devices and channels.

Here’s what big brands get when they leverage the true potential of an omnichannel experience:

• Improved insight into the consumer journey
• Consumer trust
• Enhanced consumer retention
• Rising consumer loyalty
• Elevated sales

#2. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and risk-based authentication (RBA) for secure authentication.

Multi-factor authentication is considered one of the most efficient ways of providing improved security in recent times. The multiple layers ensure that users demanding access are who they claim to be. Even if cyber criminals steal one credential, they'll be forced to verify identities in another way.

With the world heading towards more criminal sensitivities, brands use multi-factor authentication as part of their consumer identity and access management (CIAM) platform to build and maintain solid consumer trust.

On the other hand, businesses now rely on a more stringent security mechanism- risk-based authentication that helps reinforce the security of consumer and business data.

Risk-based authentication is a non-static authentication system that considers the profile(IP address, Browser, physical Location, and so on) of a consumer requesting access to the system to determine the risk profile associated with that action. The risk-based implementation allows the application to challenge the consumer for additional credentials only when appropriate risk level.

It is a method of applying various levels of stringency to authentication processes based on the likelihood that access to a given system could be compromised. As the level of risk increases, the authentication process becomes more complicated and restrictive.

Hence, managing security doesn't necessarily mean compromising user experience with MFA and RBA. This further boosts engagement and trust in a brand.

#3. Single sign-on (SSO) for omnichannel experience.

Let’s face it. No one likes remembering credentials. They seem to exert a lot of pressure on the memory. What's worse is many use the same username and password, irrespective of the application they are using.

This is where single sign on (SSO) comes into focus and works like a breeze!

Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication method that allows platforms to use other trustworthy sites to verify users. Single sign-on enables users to log in to any independent application with a single ID and password.

SSO is an essential feature of a consumer Identity and access management (CIAM) platform for controlling access and has been considered a game-changer for big brands for years.

The Bottom Line

Since consumer experience is the key to business success, understanding the market trends could help businesses gain a competitive edge. And when it comes to engaging potential customers on your online platform, the role of a unified consumer identity can’t be overlooked.

Enterprises that have incorporated a reliable consumer identity and access management (CIAM) platform in their identity management strategy are already getting more conversions and generating leads when compared to the ones that aren’t.

Hence, it’s the right time for enterprises to understand the importance of rethinking their identity management strategy around a cutting-edge CIAM solution.