Trust Over Everything: Leveraging Technology to Connect with Customers

Leveraging new technologies to better connect with the customer

If there’s one thing that businesses recognize — regardless of their industry, size or location — it’s the importance of trust. A crucial factor to ensuring success, trust is more vital today than ever before. In an age when life has become arguably impersonal and we’re purchasing goods and services online from people we will never encounter in real life, the ability to establish trust holds our economy together.

However, as the saying goes — trust is easy to lose and even harder to regain. For example, public trust in the financial services sector sits at only 55 percent. On the contrary, trust in collaborative consumption — that is, the sharing economy, online marketplaces, rideshare drivers and such — remains astronomically high at 88 percent.

To promote a deeper understanding of knowing your customer, Trulioo has partnered with PYMNTS for an ongoing report, the AML/KYC Tracker™.

Download the Tracker to stay on top of the latest trends, techniques and information regarding AML/KYC

It’s no surprise that trust is fleeting — especially with bad actors finding increasingly inventive ways to commit fraud against unsuspecting victims. For instance, of late, fraudsters have been more and more focused on mobile services, with one-third of all fraud attacks worldwide reportedly targeting mobile during the first half of 2018 (a 24 percent year-on-year increase).

While companies can’t be expected to solve all the world’s problems (like why the public’s trust in large scale institutions is lacking or the burgeoning issue of online fraud), they can work to increase the level of trust people have in their business. For businesses within heavily regulated spaces such as payments, finance and gaming, this means being cognizant of, and addressing, risks associated with the likes of security, privacy fraud and theft.

A recent survey of decision makers from financial institutions (FIs), investment firms and asset management and insurance companies in North America found that many are choosing to scale up their defenses, in an effort to build trust and decrease the risk running of afoul of regulations. Companies surveyed were using up to four (but in some cases, more) technology tools to support these efforts.

However, doubling down on technology as a means of defense is a much easier feat for larger organizations — whereas fledgling financial companies often don’t have the established reputations, nor the resources, which affects their ability to encourage customers to trust them with their sensitive details.

Payments and money management app STACK is a prime example. Nicolas Dinh, chief operating officer at the Canadian financial startup, spoke with PYMNTS in the latest installment of their AML/KYC Tracker about the key forms of fraud facing financial firms right now, as well as how companies can leverage new technologies and partnerships to gain customers’ trust.

To learn more about these tactics, read the September AML/KYC Tracker™, which also includes information about: