The border between the physical and digital world is becoming increasingly malleable. We all have digital identities, And for many consumers, this is the only face they present to an organisation.

These identities allows consumers to interact with businesses from anywhere in the world without notice. But they are also vulnerable to compromise, and so identity verification measures must evolve to provide confidence and security in these new digital dimensions.

User experience is a crucial puzzle piece as businesses look to validate and verify the identity and location of customers for mutual security. Any security measure seen as being excessively restrictive or over-intrusive will attract the ire of consumers, but at the same time, organisations that compromise security in the pursuit of highly-optimised user experiences risk calamitous business fallout and reputational damage in the case of a breach.

With customer centricity becoming a centrepiece of strategic discussions unfolding corporate Australia, the dilemma playing out in boardrooms around the nation is how to accurately and securely verify customer identities without compromising the high-benchmarks for digital convenience that the market has set.

In order to achieve this harmony between security and experience, businesses are rethinking their fundamental structures and processes. Many organisations are beginning to ask how IT and security departments, traditionally far-removed from the end-user, can begin having holistic conversations and integrating CX into system architecture, rather than operating as closed, isolated business units. This conversation hinges on employees across the business recognising that a highly interactive, memorable CX journey only delivers sustained value to the organisation if it is supported by modern, effective data protection measures.

This tension between the competing priorities of consumers and organisations must be carefully navigated, as businesses manage the interplay between improved customer experience and bolstered security. Just as consumers will reward firms that place them at the centre of their business model, they will equally punish those that fail to implement strong data security measures to protect customer privacy.

Businesses are slowly beginning to translate the security protocols that govern our personal lives into commercial domains. Biometric authentication has matured as an established form of identity verification in our everyday lives, but the password is far from obsolete in commercial settings.

GBG’s identity verification solution allows businesses to take control of their customer onboarding process with layered ID document verification, biometric checks, and expert human review to gain more customers without compromising on compliance.

Almost 60% of delegates at a recent series of executive conferences on the future of data intelligence and identity verification, hosted by GBG, indicated customer identification and verification as their biggest onboarding focus; 84% indicated they expect new data access practices to transform compliance and fraud services.

Two key revelations can be drawn from these results, firstly, that the prevailing industry sentiment recognises a need for improved security measures to protect business and customer data, and secondly, that leaders have not settled on best-practice for achieving these results.

GBG services such as ID3global and IDscan have been developed in direct response to these prevailing industry concerns around data and compliance. These solutions enable businesses to meet regulatory requirements for data security, identify malicious agents, and customise risk profiles that maximise the number of cleared customers with which to transact – all in a matter of seconds. The verification of customers’ identity is crucial for businesses, but this thorough and detailed process must be conducted with pace.

Repetitive and time-consuming identity verification processes will only serve to irritate consumers and drive users towards competitors, while weak verification opens the door for cyberagents to access private data. In increasingly crowded and highly competitive markets, consumers can quickly and easily switch to a competitor if it is more effective at delivering the convenience and privacy that they demand.

Customer experience may well be the new competitive differentiator; but this differentiator is only sustainable when supported by effective cybersecurity.

Leading businesses are seizing the opportunities unlocked by technological advancement. However, for many organisations, the skyrocketing opportunity cost of postponing technological investments will prove fatal. Modern organisations, pressured by both agile start-ups and enormous multinational firms, must develop sustained, mutually beneficial relationships with customers in order to drive business growth. These relationships hinge on the organisation’s ability to achieve the twin goals of digital convenience and security.

Customer experience must be understood as a priority across the business, particularly in the security domain. Only then can businesses safeguard the consumer’s multi-channel, multitouchpoint journey. The gap between high calibre and flailing businesses is exponentially increasing – in the battle for consumers, customer experience and strong security must go hand-in-hand for organisations building for the future. Tomorrow’s market leader is the business investing in efficient, watertight security measures, today.