PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TRUSTID, the leading provider of pre-answer caller authentication, has released a new report on the state of call center authentication, based on a recent survey of contact center professionals.
The survey suggests that although knowledge-based authentication continues to dominate, the market appears ready to move in a new direction, as contact centers are seeking new ways to increase operational efficiency, improve the customer experience and fight fraud more effectively.
Key insights from the report include the following:
- Knowledge-based authentication (KBA) remains the default option. The overwhelming majority of respondents’ contact centers (92 percent) continue to authenticate their callers by asking about personal information.
- There is widespread lack of confidence in KBA. Contact center leaders understand how easy it is for a caller to impersonate a customer, and only 10 percent of all respondents felt very confident in KBA’s ability to authenticate callers accurately.
- There is strong dissatisfaction with existing authentication approaches. Overall, 31 percent of respondents said they are somewhat or very unsatisfied with their current authentication methods, likely due in large part to KBA’s longer agent handle times and negative effect on the customer experience, as well as the false sense of security it provides.
- The market is poised for a new technology adoption cycle. Awareness of other authentication options is growing, and more than half of survey respondents indicated that they are somewhat or very familiar with voice biometrics and pre-answer phone call analysis.
- Customer adoption and use is critical for a new technology to thrive. Respondents ranked “quick and easy customer enrollment” as the most important criterion for emerging authentication technologies.
- There is a strong preference to complete authentication before agent engagement, either before the call is answered or during use of the interactive voice response system.
- To implement multifactor authentication, respondents will add and improve, not rip and replace. Despite the respondents’ dissatisfaction with KBA, a significant number (36 percent) plan to supplement KBA with one new technology to create a two-factor solution.
The report is based on the responses of 127 contact center professionals, most of whom work in either customer experience or operations. Sixty percent of these respondents represent industries (financial services, e-commerce and telecommunications) with mature authentication practices, and 90 percent consider authentication either very important or somewhat important to their customers’ experience.
To download the full report, click here.
About TRUSTID
Founded in 2007 in Portland, Oregon, TRUSTID allows customer contact centers to automatically authenticate callers before their calls are answered. Using a patented approach that analyzes calls within the global telephone network, TRUSTID’s pre-answer caller authentication enables companies to significantly reduce customer identity interrogation and thus decrease contact center costs, improve the customer experience and focus more fraud-detection resources on true threats. For more information, visit www.trustid.com.
