How much is too much? Are you losing customers by asking too many questions?

We’ve all been there. We try to apply for something or access an account for the first time on our mobile device and get frustrated at the sheer quantity of information we are asked to enter. Not to mention how often we have to backspace because we fat-fingered something. And just when we think we’re done, another screen pops up requiring even more information! Such friction often causes us to give up and exit out of the process. Sound familiar?

The above scenario translates to lost revenue potential for banks and lenders. What if you could cut down on the amount of information you require customers to input? What if most of that information auto-populated, shrinking the application time from minutes to seconds and from a few pages to a few fields? What if you could reduce the friction and improve your customer experience?

When dealing with digital applications or account access, you’re looking at a faceless consumer. You can’t look them in the eye and check their driver’s license while standing in front of you. So how can you trust and verify that the information the consumer has provided is accurate? This often leads to requiring more and more information in the application process. While trying to ensure one’s identity, you’re introducing more and more friction into the process. And many customers will leave, exiting out and never returning to the process. Adding more manual input fields also opens the door for innocent errors… and perhaps not-so-innocent ones.

Delivering an integrated and frictionless digital experience can help not only drive business growth, but ultimately improve loyalty. But where do you begin? In a recent webinar entitled The Impact of Digital Transformation on Customer Experience, Hrishi Talwar, VP of Digital Identity and Mobile Products at Equifax explains, “We really have to sit down and look at what the consumer is looking for, and reframe how we interact with the consumer with the consumer's lens on it, and that essentially means that we have to redefine some of the processes that we have in place.”

You cannot simply take existing offline processes and applications and replicate them in an online environment. Existing customers expect you to use what you have or know about them already to automate the process and prepopulate the ‘known’ information for them… and only ask for what is missing and required to complete the process. Why ask me to fill in my address when you know that already?

For more on the topic, you might find these resources helpful – InstaTouch Suite.