How Online Account Access Can Lose Customers

CIOs must help their organizations find an easier way for customers to access their online accounts, according to a recent survey from Janrain. Many consumers are fed up with filling in yet another registration form, while needing to memorize an endless number of usernames and passwords. A way around this, of course, is "social log-ins," which allow users to connect through accounts such as Facebook. However, many survey respondents avoid social log-ins because they don't want companies to acquire information about their social account activities. They also have security concerns about this technique. (When it comes to creating an account at all, it doesn't help that organizations still overload their customers with irrelevant marketing messages after users take the steps to do so.) "Social log-ins are table stakes for online businesses since most web users will no longer sign up to a new site without them," said Jamie Beckland, vice president of product for Janrain. "But privacy concerns are understandably high given some recent high-profile data breaches. Businesses need to do a better job in the way they use account data to market to users, as well as make sure they're clearly explaining how the account info they access is used and shared." The findings include insights about how customers feel about emerging account-access technologies such as fingerprint scanning and voice recognition, and we've included those here. A total of 575 U.S. residents took part in the research.