Why It’s Important to Verify Your Customers?
Izabela is a leading contributor to the Bouncer’s blog. She is inspired to help companies all around the world to get emails into their recipients’ inboxes
Email might seem old-fashioned today in a world of social media and other more sophisticated marketing strategies, but it’s still a crucial part of how we communicate with one another and how business is conducted.
In many offices, email is still the primary form of communication, and it is often an essential component of any good digital marketing campaign. However, it’s important to bear in mind that your email subscriber list is only as good as the addresses that are on it.
If you’re collecting email addresses that are not relevant to marketing or do not have much marketing potential, or worse, are buying email lists to try and build your list faster but in a way that is not organic or sustainable, then you are unlikely to get the results that you want for your business.
Smart email marketers know that it is important to collect valid email addresses to reach consumers who are more likely to engage and push their business forwards. Email verification is a process that will help you do this.
What is a Customer Verification API?
Email verification is the process of verifying that email addresses on your mailing list are valid and able to receive messages. One of the most popular ways of doing this is to use a double opt-in process, which involves sending an email confirmation list to your new subscribers.
This can help you check that they have typed in the correct email address and that the email address was actually typed in by them, helping you verify that they actually want to sign up to your mailing list and receive marketing messages from you.
However, there are some disadvantages to using a double opt-in method. Without email verification services, users may not notice spelling mistakes in their email addresses when typing, which would lead to companies getting invalid email addresses on their list.
If customers do not receive the confirmation link in their inbox, they would need to go through the entire signup process again. For this reason, many businesses use email verification APIs on their website.
This is a program that allows web administrators or developers to integrate email validation into the existing system, acting as an intermediary between different software. An email verification API connects the signup page, for example, with an email verification service.
How Does this Customer Verification Tool Work?
An email verification API works by pulling data from email verification services. When users sign up on a website that uses an email verification API, the program contacts the verification service, which performs checks using advanced algorithms.
Email verification services might obtain data from mail server databases, free email provider databases, disposable email domain databases and more. The most common application for email verification APIs is to integrate them into signup pages.
In this instance, when you enter an incorrect email address into the signup form, the page should inform you that there is something wrong and you may need to try again.
Why Is Using a Customer Account Verification API Important for Email Marketing?
There are many reasons why email address verification is important for both email marketing and when bringing on new customers who are setting up an account with your brand. Some of the main reasons why it is important include:
Provide a Good Customer Experience
Email verification APIs provide a better customer experience since the customer is not waiting for a code that never arrives if they enter the wrong email address. Instead, they are immediately alerted to a potential issue with the address, which gives them the chance to double-check it and make changes if necessary. This can help avoid frustration and the risk that customers might lose interest.
Reduces Freemium Abuse
Email verification will help you ensure that customers sign up for a free account using a valid and working email address. Checking email addresses might discourage people from abusing how freemium services work by signing up using an email address that is invalid or a throwaway.
Improve Email Sender Reputation
High bounce rates can impact the email sending reputation of a company. A higher bounce rate becomes more likely when there are non-existent email addresses on the mailing list, since the emails will never be delivered. In this situation, there is also a higher risk of being listed as spammers and getting blocked.
Increase Chance of Conversion
When your mailing list contains email addresses that are invalid or do not exist, your email marketing campaign may not be very effective or may even fail completely since these addresses will not be able to receive messages. One of the main benefits of using email verification APIs is that you can ensure that users will receive your marketing emails and ultimately increase their chance of converting.
Data Verify for Customer Service, Fraud Prevention and Other Reasons
Customer verification APIs and other email verification tools may also have other uses outside of email marketing. Many businesses already have to reasonably verify customers before they comply with certain requests such as providing a copy of their data that is held by the business.
The most obvious reason to ensure customer identity verification is to prevent fraud, but it is not the only issue. A poor user experience or issues with onboarding, for example, can be frustrating for both the customers and the employees.
And as an increasing number of transactions are being made online, customer verification is becoming more and more important to ensure that growing customer demands and legal requirements are met.
Reasons to Use a Customer Verification Tool
Aside from making sure that you have valid and correct email addresses before starting your email marketing campaign, there are various reasons to consider using email verification or customer identity verification tool. These tools have benefits for both the business and customers alike.
Eliminate Inconvenience
Customer verification may be necessary in instances where sensitive information or large amounts of money are involved. It is not surprising that most companies want to ensure that the customer verification process is as effective and as accurate as possible.
However, this can also lead to a customer experience that can be uncomfortable and tedious, ultimately putting customers off doing business with the company at all. Using a good customer verification tool allows businesses to find methods of verification and authentication that are easy to use, effective and accurate without putting any unnecessary inconvenience on your customers.
Speed Things Up
No matter whether they are signing up for your email marketing list or creating a customer account on your website, the last thing that your customers want is to be waiting around. The longer you have your customers waiting for their information to be verified, the less likely they will want to be your customer.
The good news is that customer verification tools allow you to verify your customers quickly and easily. One example of this is to use Single Sign-On authentication. This allows customers to confirm who they are by logging into accounts using a popular app like Google or Facebook.
Since these apps are widely used and very well known, this can make the process feel more recognizable for customers and allows you to eliminate bots and fraudsters.
Avoid Over-relying on People
When the verification process isn’t automated, this means that people need to do the verification themselves. This might not be a huge issue if you are just starting out and do not have a lot of customers, but if your business suddenly grows, or you start getting more and more customers over time, keeping up can become difficult for your employees.
As a result, this can lead to onboarding bottlenecks that are frustrating for everybody to deal with and can slow the process down even further, leading to more problems. While it is possible to simply hire more employees to catch up, the most viable solution is to use a customer verification solution that will allow you to automate the process.
Avoid Breaking the Law
Many people are unaware that when it is not done correctly, there is a risk that automated ID checking could violate privacy laws and other legislation. Just one lawsuit could be disastrous for your business and put it in serious financial trouble.
In some industries, checking ID is a requirement, and if this applies to your business, then you may want to consider using a system that legally obtains verified videos or photos of your customers’ IDs along with a photo of the customer themselves that you can check it against.
Whatever customer verification system you choose, it is important to ensure that it fits with any legal requirements that apply to your business and your customer base.
Whether you are sending marketing emails, accepting new customer sign-ups or selling products and services, there are many reasons why customer verification is important. Verifying your customers improves the customer experience, boosts conversions, and ensures your business is legally compliant.
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