Digital account opening & customer onboarding best practices
Exploring the state of digital account opening and customer onboarding experiences in today’s business environment
Organizations know that providing an exceptional digital customer experience is a necessity to attract and retain customers in highly competitive environments. This is especially true when it’s not possible to distinguish based on product offering alone. In such cases, organizations need to focus on the experience, service, and convenience they provide.
Account opening and customer onboarding are critical stages in attracting new business and contributing to customer retention. They are often among the first areas that organizations look to digitize.
Today, we are moving towards fully digitized account opening and user onboarding processes. However, many organizations, especially financial institutions, are still using old systems and apps that slow down their digital projects. The result is a lengthy, semi-digital process that is difficult to get through for staff and customers alike.
In this article, we look at ways organizations across industries can streamline their digital account opening and onboarding solutions, ultimately improving customer experience.
Streamlining customer data capture
Typically, the first step in the account opening process involves customer data capture. This is the stage at which the customer enters their personal details.
Data capture remains a cumbersome process, whether manually (where the customer shows up at a branch for a face-to-face questionnaire), or digitally through inflexible, static PDF forms.
Applicants should be able to provide information on their own devices from almost anywhere. This eliminates the need for in-person appointments or branch visits. A streamlined digital process must be fast, user-friendly, and less prone to errors.
Digitizing identity verification
Organizations invest large amounts of money every year to attract and acquire new customers. However, if applicants have a bad onboarding experience, they often quit the digital account opening process. This means companies waste much of the money they spend on marketing offers.
A report by Sapio Research examined industry trends in online account origination, digital banking, and consumer abandonment. They found that
"for 90% of organizations, friction during the digital account opening process caused abandonment rates of up to 40%"
and in some cases even more.
The top reasons given for abandonment included:
- too many manual steps
- the process is too long
- friction caused by KYC (know your customer) and identity verification requirements
To improve the customer journey during identity verification, organizations can leverage ID document verification functionality to verify the identity of an applicant. Document verification is an innovative approach to digital identity verification. Digital identity verification is a strong alternative to traditional and in-person verification methods, enabling organizations to keep the workflow 100% digital. It also reduces abandonment as a result.
Organizations can use identity verification solutions to reduce friction in the account opening process. Real-time government ID verification can help reduce the risk of identity fraud, as well.
ID document verification involves confirming if an ID document, such as a driver’s license, passport, or government ID, is authentic. Typically, users do this alongside a form of biometric verification, such as facial comparison. Biometrics verification technology uses a selfie to verify if the person in the photo matches the person on the ID.
Liveness detection technology ensures the accuracy of the biometric verification process. It can detect spoofing attempts, like masks or photos of photos, and verify that the selfie is genuine.
Digitizing document approval and signing with eSignatures
Upon completion of collecting the customer’s information and verifying their identity, both parties normally sign an agreement to make the relationship official.
eSignatures make it easy and secure for users to sign documents digitally, benefiting both customers and organizations.
Maintaining a human touch during digital account opening and onboarding
In a world where digital is becoming the norm, achieving a successful onboarding flow can be challenging. Account managers must balance the convenience of the virtual world with the personal touch of the real world. Customers expect their financial service provider, telecom provider, and even healthcare provider to offer exceptional digital experiences.
For instance, the proliferation of existing SaaS companies that improve digital experiences, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or AI-based chatbots, are now proven and effective enablers of digital innovation.
Automation is no longer enough. Security, human connection, and collaboration are what we need. Today, we are making more decisions and transactions on digital platforms. Organizations need secure, virtual spaces where business processes and the creation and signing of agreements can take place securely.
Using video-based virtual environments, organizations can reduce their reliance on static online portals. Customers can open accounts online without visiting a branch, providing a convenient experience from home or work.
Customers believe that companies personalize their service, especially for higher-value transactions, through direct interaction. This increases the value of their connection to the organization throughout the transaction, while also providing the service they need.
The levels of security and identity verification required for account opening can be time-consuming. It can take multiple visits to complete all paperwork, applications, and identity verifications. A virtual signing room allows for these applications and account changes to be made in real time.
To strengthen security and compliance, video-based virtual experiences should also integrate digital identity authentication and verification. This verifies an applicant's identity and tracks compliance and non-repudiation.
OneSpan digital customer onboarding solutions
OneSpan offers various solutions to streamline and simplify digital customer onboarding. From OneSpan Smart Forms to Virtual Room, we can support your organization with a fully digital account opening process.
OneSpan Smart Forms
By leveraging OneSpan Smart Forms, organizations can create a more engaging, frictionless experience. Applicants can provide information on their own devices from anywhere. This allows them to continue their work seamlessly, regardless of the device they are using. OneSpan Smart Forms saves information when possible and automatically adapts to asking new questions based on previous answers. This reduces the repetitive nature of traditionally static online PDF forms and enhances the customer experience.
OneSpan Smart Forms creates signature-ready agreements once users answer all questions. You can instantly sign this agreement virtually using eSignatures. This streamlined digital process is faster, more customer-friendly, and less prone to errors.
OneSpan Identity Verification
Identity verification provides a secure and efficient way to verify applicants’ identities. The solution's advanced technology offers accurate and reliable identity verification, protecting organizations from fraud and helping to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
OneSpan Sign
With OneSpan Sign, any business can create an agreement chain with an unlimited number of employees. Employees can be given signature ability, view-only permission, or assigned any other necessary role.
Users can send documents to a group of stakeholders all at once or specify the order in which to view or sign them. OneSpan Sign enables users to complete those documents in minutes and pass them to the next stage of the process. This speeds up the account opening and digital onboarding of the new customer.
OneSpan Virtual Room
With OneSpan Virtual Room, advisors can help customers open accounts in real-time. Instead of multiple back-and-forth emails or phone conversations, digital account opening solutions like Virtual Room can help organizations provide a personalized experience. Virtual Room offers immediate assistance and addresses questions to finish applications in a single session, which improves customer service.
Robust identity verification enables organizations to verify both known and unknown applicants ahead of account opening. Comprehensive audit trails and the option to record the virtual session easily demonstrate compliance.
Transforming account opening with digital processes
Today's clients expect convenience and speed, it is essential that organizations respond to changing customer demand by offering a user experience built around digital channels.
Forcing a customer to use multiple channels (branch, online, etc.) or old processes can create bad first impressions and frustration. This can lead to account opening abandonment and negative customer reviews. Outdated processes can also impact customer attrition, as customers increasingly associate innovation with the value of products or services.
The good news is that modern and effective approaches to digital account opening are available in the market today. These approaches not only help prevent application fraud but also reduce unnecessary friction in the customer journey.
Whether considering account opening, employee onboarding, or other forms of first-day processes, organizations must embrace a digital transformation initiative to improve customer experience and engagement. We need to optimize these digitization efforts using innovative technology to deliver an exceptional digital onboarding experience, from beginning to end.
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Read now1 “State of Intelligent Automation Report: Customer Onboarding Drivers and Pain Points.” ABBYY, November 2022. https://www.abbyy.com/resources/report/customer-onboarding-drivers-and-pain-points/.
