Companies today are struggling to create trustworthy bonds with their customers. Complicating matters is the increasing amount of fraud that chips away at the trust a customer has in a brand. Fraudsters use all kinds of tactics to infiltrate your platform—IRSF fraud, bots and fake users, synthetic identity fraud, and account takeover fraud—often wreaking havoc on customer accounts and tarnishing trust in your brand.
The lasting impact of fraud and the effect on trust
An area rife with fraud is the initial onboarding process. Brands make significant investment to get those top-of-funnel prospects to the point where they want to create an account and sign up—yet, it turns out nearly half of fraud happens in accounts less than a day old1. On the flip side, we know that 49% of consumers are frustrated by long login and signup forms2. The takeaway is that businesses need to strike the right balance between protecting their customers and brand, while also ensuring a low-friction user experience.
Underpinning all of this is the need to cultivate customer trust. Customers have high expectations for the brands they do business with. We found in our 2023 Telesign Trust Index that 94% of consumers surveyed agree that businesses bear responsibility for protecting their digital privacy. That same survey showed that 43% of data breach victims personally stopped associating with the brand altogether and 44% told friends and family not to associate with the brand.
So, what’s a brand to do?
Businesses need to set up strict processes and technology that help prevent fraud while also taking the customer experience into account. It’s imperative that businesses take steps to prevent fraud at the outset and throughout the customer journey, while also creating an environment that demonstrates their commitment to customer trust.
Telesign is helping brands fight this assault on their hard-won brand trust with the Telesign Trust Certified Badge. This badge signifies that a company has employed powerful fraud prevention standards. The badge can be displayed at a variety of touchpoints to validate for customers that the company that displays it has taken significant measures to protect them from digital fraud. It can be displayed on a company’s home page, in a customer’s shopping cart or checkout pages, even in receipts and notifications—anywhere (and everywhere!) along the customer journey.
Trust Certified Badge gains momentum
The Trust Certified Badge is part of a broad set of initiatives launched by Telesign in July of this year under the broad banner of the Continuous Trust™ Authority. The Trust Certified Badge program is intended to take protection of the digital world as a safe place for customers to the next level by offering them tangible reassurance. The Trust Certified Badge is one way companies can tell their customers: “We hear you and we’re doing something about it.”
Vaas, a SaaS-based debt capital management platform, displays the Telesign Trust Certified Badge and many more are actively pursuing it.
Recently our Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Go to Market Strategy Kristi Melani spoke at a webinar sponsored by ISACA, an international professional association focused on IT governance.
“There are so many critical moments across the customer journey where there’s an opportunity for trust to be either earned or violated,” noted Melani. “Telesign has created a Trust Certified Badge that helps our customers demonstrate their commitment to building a secure, trustworthy experience for their consumers. It’s like a Good Housekeeping seal, letting buyers know that the brand is focused on delivering a safe environment.”
The Telesign 2023 Trust Index
In today’s digital world, trust is becoming a form of currency—without it, you can’t do business. Telesign’s recently launched 2023 Trust Index, a survey on digital trust, found that fear of digital fraud has risen significantly in the past two years, with half of consumers surveyed reporting it’s a greater concern for them now.
Telesign’s Trust Certified Badge can put consumers at ease, letting them know the brand displaying it has taken steps to:
- Protect customers’ digital identities
- Safeguard their digital ecosystems from fraud
- Proactively prevent and detect digital crime on their systems
- Respond to fraud threats when they arise
Continuous Trust has always been part of Telesign’s brand promise—it’s why we exist. The badge is just one way we have made it more accessible for the companies who use us to join us in a more unified voice to customers and the digital marketplace that says “we stand with you, you’re in a safe place.”
Learn more about the Trust Certified Badge.
- 1. RSA Security
- 2. 2021 Synthetic Identity Fraud Report, FiVerity
