The importance of making customer authentication and onboarding seamless is now more crucial than ever. The more obstacles customers face, the likelier they are to bail on the whole thing. Meanwhile, regulations are piling up fast, and banks need to go all out to confirm customer identities. Juggling these two crucial aspects in the onboarding process greatly influences customer retention rates because, let's face it, nobody wants to go through a maze just to open a bank account. 

Seamless onboarding? I want it now 

Banking used to be all about physical branches and paperwork. But not anymore! We're in the age of smartphones and instant everything. People want their banking to be as easy as ordering a pizza. 

With all these changes, though, come new challenges. You've got to keep your customers’ data safe from cyber threats and make sure the whole process is up to the regulation. This often leads to bottlenecks in the process, turning digital onboarding into a time-consuming, paper-laden experience that bears little resemblance to what your customers expect. 

Onboarding encapsulates the customer's journey from initial interaction to becoming a fully-fledged account holder. A seamless onboarding process is characterized by its efficiency, minimal friction, and the ability to swiftly integrate new customers into the financial ecosystem. Allowing customers access to your products and services without unnecessary obstacles or delays involves employing advanced technologies, such as biometrics and multi-factor authentication, to ensure a robust yet user-friendly verification process. 

Easy as a Sunday morning 

Let's be real – passwords are the unsung villains of the digital age. Forgotten, hacked, or recycled, they often fall short in the security department. Face biometrics operate on a simple yet powerful premise: your face becomes your key. No more juggling passwords or forgetting PINs; no more costly and error-prone one-time  passwords. Biometric customer identity verification not only streamlines the onboarding process but also adds an extra layer of security, as facial features are distinct and difficult to replicate. 

Traditional onboarding can feel like a bureaucratic obstacle course. With face biometrics, it's a red-carpet affair. Picture this: your customer needs to open a bank account. So, they check out your website and decide to hit the "open an account" button. But wait, there's a twist – now they have to upload some ID proof and twiddle their thumbs for a couple of days until it gets the manual approval. 

Of course, they're gonna scout around for a bank with smoother processes. They’ll find your competitor and bam! Snap a quick selfie, and voila – they’ve won a customer. The process becomes seamless, quick, and user-friendly. The days of waiting for document approvals or scheduling in-person appointments are replaced by the immediacy of facial recognition technology. 

The financial industry got some cool new kids on the block – those fintech companies and other up-and-comers. Embracing advanced technology is not merely a strategic move; it's a necessity for survival and relevance. Improved user experiences, streamlined processes, and enhanced security measures offered by fintech competitors have set a high bar. So, if banks don’t want to get left behind, they must rethink processes and invest in robust, user-friendly customer-facing technology. 

Face biometrics are not just changing the face of onboarding; they're revolutionizing the way we interact with our financial institutions. As we bid farewell to cumbersome authentication methods, the era of face-first onboarding is ushering in a future where banking is not just secure but also as easy as a Sunday morning. 

Before you go 

If you're still hesitant about jumping on the face biometrics bandwagon for onboarding, take a peek at our ROI calculator. It'll break down just how much time and money could be sitting pretty in your pocket by embracing a digital ID solution. 🤑💡