How to find the right identity verification service for your business

You want to keep your company safe. And you want to keep your customers happy. And you want to make sure you’re totally compliant with any regulations you need to meet.

The delicate balancing act of keeping all of these bases covered presents a challenge to any business, whether they’re brand new, or they’ve been doing this for a while. So alongside our recent webinar, we thought it was crucial to take a look into the questions you should ask yourself when you’re looking for an identity verification service and how these could help guide you to the perfect provider.

First, ask yourself, is building trust between your business and your customers or users important to you?

We know, this one should be an obvious yes. But it’s important to ask, and to ground yourself with this thought - if your customers trust you, then they’re much more likely to feel safe doing business with you and they’ll keep on coming back. And that’s what every business should want.

Security

By not having online identity verification at onboarding, or even at the transaction level, what problems could occur?

If you don’t know who your customers are, or to be more accurate, you can’t trust that they are who they say they are, then how can you trust their actions are honest? And how can you be sure that no-one else is getting hurt due to a lack of security on your part?

It’s crucial to have that transparent relationship with your customers and users from the outset.

Are bad actors hurting your customers and your business? What’s the financial impact?

Financial fraud is incredibly serious, and it hurts a lot more when it’s hitting you in the bottom line. This may not be a question that’s easily answered, but beyond the obvious examples of fraudulent transactions, fines, and damage to your reputation, think about how much money is spent on employees putting in time to try and stop fraudsters who didn’t need to get in the front door.

KYC Compliance

What is the identifying information you need to know?

There’s a lot of data you can gather from an identity document, but you don’t need it all, and you shouldn’t spend time on data that’s not necessary. So look at the details below and think about which ones you need to know from your customers.

• First Name
• Last Name
• Date of Birth
• Date of Expiry
• Document Number
• Date of Issue
• Personal Number
• Gender
• Nationality
• Address

What KYC regulations do you need to strictly comply with, and could this evolve in future?

Yes, we’re going to mention those four little letters that changed the lives of countless business owners not so long ago - GDPR. And ok, maybe you aren’t somewhere where you’re strictly affected by GDPR, but customer data is a hot topic and it needs serious consideration.

Is there any additional data you want to know, which may be helpful to your business?

Revisiting the first question in this section - there’s the data you need to know, and the data you want to know. Perhaps an extra detail on your customers will help you offer them a better service - maybe you’ve got a lot of customers or users from an unexpected country and you could refine your service to make things even better for them? That extra bit of data could be the difference maker.

Customers

How will online identity verification impact your user experience?

This is where you really put your identity verification service provider to the test - getting to know your customers should never feel like an insurmountable task. It shouldn’t be a hurdle for customers signing up and it shouldn’t hurt your number of happy customers. Make sure your identity verification process feels like a seamless part of your product.

How do you want verification to be optimised - do you need absolute fraud prevention, a faster process to allow customers to get in quick, or a blend of both?

This will depend entirely on your needs, but any great provider can tweak the process to hit your sweet spot. You’ll likely want a blend of both, keeping customers happy while stopping bad actors, but you need to be able to set the dial where it’s most effective for you, balancing speed, accuracy, and fraud prevention.

Your business

What are the KPIs you need to hit after you’ve introduced IDV?

This is how you’ll measure your success with your new provider. It’s likely you’ll be able to test their service out before signing a contract, so really look at their response times, the accuracy rate, and rejections and resubmissions. Look at internal metrics and make informed decisions about whether they're the right choice for you, and how long you want to be tied to them for. 

How many verifications do you expect on a monthly/yearly basis?

Pretty straightforward this one - but look at how many sign-ups you get and look at future predictions in terms of how you hope/expect to scale over time. This will help inform the cost of your verification service, and hopefully assist in negotiations so you’re not paying for verifications that you won’t need. And finally, think about if and when you’ll need to reverify your customers, whether for more significant transactions, or authenticating account logins.

What support do you need from your verification service provider?

Signing a contract with an identity verification provider should signal the start of a partnership - not becoming just another customer. Will they scale in step with your business, and what will you need on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis from them? Consider these factors and make them part of your agreement.

Could you do it in-house?

This is an easy calculation to make - taking into account how many verifications you might be dealing with (as answered a question ago), and then considering how many people you’d need to hire to take care of them. Do you need a verification team, or a larger verification department? And is there any obvious advantage to doing it in-house for you, or will trusting a provider take that weight off your shoulders? 

We’ve gone through a wide range of questions you might wish to consider before choosing an identity verification provider for your business, and you can go even deeper into the topic with our downloadable worksheet. Download it, complete it, and you’ll have a great idea of what you need from your online identity verification service provider! 

If you’d like to know more about Veriff’s product specifically you can check out our identity verification page, talk to our team about what we can offer you, or even complete the worksheet and send it over to give us an idea of what you’re looking for.