Is it time to rethink the way we approach our anti-fraud defenses?

Cybercrime is not going anywhere. According to the PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey from 2022, 46% of surveyed organizations reported experiencing cybercrime in the last 24 months. Just in the APAC region the number of cyberattacks grew by a staggering 168% year over year, according to Check Point researchers. Cybercrime is no longer a distant reality, but something is happening now and to everyone. Nobody is safe anymore. What are you doing to protect your business?

Is your fraud prevention preventing you from reaching your maximum?

Companies are increasingly working on developing cybersecurity strategies that can help them protect their data, business, and customers, but often that can result in disrupting their relationship with customers. Regardless of how much effort you have invested in maximizing business growth, having anti-fraud defences that are not properly executed can cause more damage than good.

Your customers want quick and efficient service, and anything that impedes that can cause customer friction. While it might be true that friction is inevitable as customer expectations are constantly changing, companies that manage to minimize it will have better customer retention while maximizing their revenue. When it comes to retail, around 68% of potential customers who reach a payment page will never complete the checkout process, creating a large number of missed conversion opportunities.

Overzealous anti-fraud defences often cause this as they prolong the checkout process by implementing additional verification steps or asking the customers to provide too much information. Having a cybersecurity strategy is more important than ever, but not at the expense of your business. Introducing frictionless and positive customer experience will directly increase your sales as over 6 in 10 consumers in the APAC region are willing to pay more to companies that deliver excellent service. Customer expectations are changing and it is the end time to adapt to them.

How can you combine an efficient cybersecurity strategy and customer satisfaction?

Having proper anti-fraud defences in place is no longer an option; it is a must-have if you want to ensure your business keeps growing. The risk of cybercrime and fraudulent activities will only increase as more people gain access to the internet and companies from different sectors fully embrace digital transformation. New threats like application fraud, synthetic identity fraud, or IOT risks will continue to infiltrate our world, and it is the end time to join the fight.

Yes, it is more important than ever to know who our customers are and if they are legitimate actors to reduce the risks of your business being exposed to fraud. But this can be done without causing unnecessary customer friction. Cybercriminals and fraudsters continuously use new technological developments to update their schemes, so why not take a page from their book? New cybersecurity trends are being developed daily, with AI and machine learning taking the lead in transforming the sector. Cybersecurity solutions do not have to cause customer friction, and that should not even be an issue anymore. With all the technological advancements we can implement, not only that effective cybersecurity solutions can minimize user friction, but they can also be used to improve conversion rates and increase customer satisfaction.

While customer verification was an extensive and tiresome process in the past, with risk analysis mainly being conducted manually, that is no longer the case. These recent innovations offer the chance to gather additional information about the users from internal and external sources, reducing the need to request that data from them and having them go through long checkout processes. This also allows businesses to conduct automated risk analysis in real-time, effectively preventing fraud while minimizing the risk of unnecessary user friction. 90% of Chinese, 84% of Indians, and 81% of Singaporeans are willing to buy more from organizations that make interactions easy, and implementing effective cybersecurity strategy can help you achieve this.

Conclusion

We live in a fast-moving world, and technological developments will only continue making it faster, changing customers’ expectations in the process. They want what they want, and they want it now. If you can’t provide the service they want, your competitors will. Don’t let your anti-fraud defences become your downfall. Embrace the change new cybersecurity trends can bring to your business, and ensure you provide the best possible service while protecting your business from growing online dangers.