By Casey Rivers 
You need people to trust your business and there’s a myriad of ways to do this. Much of the trust-building process is built around your products and the reputation your company brings to the table. Having said that, it’s often the smaller features that have the biggest difference.
Identity verification is one of those features. It’s not something that necessarily impacts your products/services themselves – yet it goes a staggeringly long way to prove you’re a reputable company. How do you set this up and use it to your advantage? Read on to find out.
What Is Identity Verification?
Identity verification refers to the various steps a customer goes through to confirm they are who they say they are. This normally forms part of the buying process and can consist of one step, two steps, or as many steps as you see fit.
You also have different levels to this – the most basic of which is something like email verification. And that’s where this starts getting interesting as a tactic to build trust in your business and boost growth. You see, the more advanced your identity verification procedures are, the more trustworthy you appear.
How To Use Identity Verification To Build Trust
Before a customer buys a product from you or creates an account, make sure they have to pass at least one proper identity check. It may seem like an inconvenience, but modern software makes the verification process happen a lot faster than you think. PrivateID can scan faces and produce results within 25ms, so that hardly impacts the customer experience at all.
Having this initial verification step shows the customer you’re serious about privacy. You’re not letting anyone sign up or claim to be someone they’re not. It’s actually extra important when you implement it before checkouts. Customers will know it’s almost impossible for anyone to pretend to be them – even if they might have access to their bank details.
The secret is to avoid overdoing it. Don’t make customers go through 5 different verification checks before they can buy what they want. One is normally enough – especially if it’s a simple and secure one like facial recognition. When you overdo it, that’s when customers get annoyed and are more likely to leave.
Why Does Identity Verification Build Trust?
We’ve alluded to it already, but identity verification builds trust with customers because they feel more at ease. There’s also this interesting assumption that untrustworthy companies won’t bother with security checks like this. If someone interacts with a business for the first time and it displays a high-tech, professional identity verification step, then it looks like that company is properly legitimate.
The simple fact is that an illegitimate or non-credible business won’t take this step. Adding it to your company processes can be one of the easiest ways to get a leg up on your competition. If you’re implementing facial recognition – or other identity scanning techniques – and none of your rivals are, then it shows consumers you go the extra mile.