By Praveen Rayapaty
Focusing on customer experience has become vital for businesses to stay competitive in the digital age. More and more customers are opting to stay online to save time making it elementary for organisations and companies to invest in technologies that deliver speed and convenience.
However, traditional methods of secure authentication are no longer sufficient in dealing with sophisticated hacking technology. Old methods of password, PIN and security question protection are extremely vulnerable and can cause financial harm and loss of trust. Voice biometrics are much more effective as compared to knowledge-based security methods, as unlike passwords, voice prints with hashed strings of numbers and characters are of absolutely no value to a hacker.
Voice biometrics
Human voices are as unique as a fingerprint and by using sophisticated algorithms to analyse more than 100 voice characteristics, voice biometrics can use a callers voice to not only validate their identity but also protect them against hackers. If an unauthorised person speaks with an interactive voice response (IVR) system, call centre or mobile app, his own unique voice print will be left behind.
This enables organisations to proactively keep them out of the system and even alert law enforcement agencies about their presence. If an imposter tries to use a recorded voice, biometrics are able to accurately distinguish between a recording and a live voice more than 99% of the time.
Implementation of biometrics also means that customers are no longer required to answer security questions or enter lengthy usernames and passwords to prove their identity. Simply by saying a phrase like my voice is my password, a customer is able to easily and securely authentic himself while calling customer services.
As a unique voice print is authenticated during first engagement, repeat callers are able to access their records faster, experiencing a reduction in average time they are on phone with an agent by as much as 40 to 45 seconds. This can lead to a significant drop in customer churn and a material increase in sales conversion.
Behavioural biometrics
Moreover, many organisations use another layer of behaviour biometrics behind the scenes to further secure a persons identity. Behavioural biometrics analyse patterns of behaviour such as how a person types, uses a mouse, holds a phone or even how he pauses once the task is accomplished to determine the validity of that persons identity.
Hackers behave and interact with their devices in different ways to innocent callers, making behavioural biometrics ideal for detecting fraud before it happens.
Additional Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered technologies such the ability to analyse audio to determine the type and model of device used during an interaction, analysing the metadata in a call to identify inconsistencies and determine phone number spoofing, and detecting a callers geographic location via a phone network can be layered together to form a profile. This profile can be used in order to verify legitimate users and flag fraudulent activity such as spoofing attacks using synthetic speech, recording attacks and mimics.
Facial biometrics
When behavioural biometrics is used to support voice biometrics, a customer is not aware that there are technologies in place behind the scenes to further protect their identities and personal information. Similarly, criminals are also unaware that their behaviour patterns are being analysed and collected.
Many organisations also use facial biometrics for authentication in mobile and online applications. By combining a camera snapshot with a few spoken words, customers can quickly and easily access their accounts without having to recall complex passwords.
Multi-modal biometric platforms immediately improve the security of traditional authentication. Preventing hacking, fraud and data breaches can ensure that customers can carry out even high-risk transactions in popular, convenient and self-service channels.