How Can a Verify API Benefit Your Customer Communication?
Ignoring the effects of fraudulent behavior is risky, and dealing with the aftereffects can be expensive and time-consuming. That said, implementing real, functional measures to combat fraud and secure customer communications — from scratch, at scale, with the required efficacy — isn't always feasible, financially or otherwise.
So, what's a business to do when it seeks to mitigate the impact of fraud and achieve greater account security for its employee and customer communication? That's where a verify API comes in. Part of a larger suite of communications APIs, this robust tool enables developers to integrate verification and fraud-fighting capabilities, such as two-factor authentication (2FA) and identity verification, directly into their applications or systems.
Take a look at how extra security can help protect your business against fraud, build trust with your customers, and increase conversions across multiple channels.
What is a verify API, and how can it secure customer communications?
Verify APIs grow your company's ability to protect itself as well as your customers and employees from various types of fraud and other illicit behavior. They can also give end users a real sense of security as they interface with your apps and systems, which can build greater trust in your business.
These days, a password is only a first line of defense, and consumers need extra layers of verification in place to protect them. In this case, it's the API-based architecture that does the heavy lifting. Providing true viable verification capabilities across a global or domestic communications stack requires a lot of moving parts on the backend — for example, sender ID management, password generation, intelligent failover, and active fraud monitoring are just four highly complex parts that must work in lockstep for the entire system to function as a whole.
The API virtualizes the deep telecom and security knowledge required, allowing companies to integrate highly advanced functionalities into current and planned apps and systems in a fraction of the time it would cost to develop from the ground up.
Does a verify API only provide two-factor authentication?
Two-factor authentication is a big part of the average verify API offering, but it's far from the only thing it can do. Bringing 2FA capability onboard and being able to attach it to your current phone number — or all-new numbers, on any kind of phone line, anywhere in the world, without the need for additional hardware or apps — is a substantial benefit in and of itself.
Added verification via a tailored API isn't only a benefit on the user's side — for the company deploying the API, advanced spam and botnet detection/prevention capabilities mean scammers and fraudsters have less room to build bulk "zombie" accounts and engage in illicit activities, like toll fraud, either of which can become costly fast if not addressed with the right cadence, especially for companies with a global presence.
Following that, global compliance with SMS and messaging rules is a big part of a competent verify API. Figuring out the complexities of sender IDs and their global compliance is another hurdle that only grows with the number of countries in which the business operates. With a verify API, all the heavy lifting is already done, granting companies that deploy the software faster time-to-market with less chance of costly compliance snags that can set projects and entire infrastructures back.
By keeping customers safe and building an ongoing sense of trust without overburdening them with extra steps, your business doesn't just make sure more of the conversions it undergoes are legitimate — it also ensures more security- and privacy-conscious customers are likely to convert. And since the most viable solutions only bill on successful conversions, you get a solution that scales exactly as your company does, with no need to overpay for services that aren't used.
Does a verify API only work via SMS?
Vonage utilizes a technology called Adaptive Routing to ensure messages get to where they're supposed to go and make extremely low latency the standard. That means your SMS-based users get their verification message even during times of peak congestion, ensuring you won't lose conversions or customer trust due to frustrating technical snags.
A verify API can also be configured to utilize text-to-speech voice during customer communication, with the OTP coming via a phone call, to any type of phone line. This extends the verification capability to differently abled users and gives a stronger sense of security to users who may not wish to have their OTP stored in phone memory.
This service can also be configured to work via any email address, and it can even verify via WhatsApp using a standard OTP delivered via a WhatsApp message. Silent Authentication, an automatic, no-input option gaining a lot of traction in enterprise communications stacks, is another great option for companies seeking to add new layers of verification without complicating the user experience.
Talk to an expert today
Verifying users promptly at scale will only become more important as your user base grows and associated fraud attempts rise. Vonage provides a quick, easy way to implement next-generation verification capabilities into current and upcoming apps in a fraction of the time they would take to develop from the ground up — a system can be tested in minutes and rolled out globally in a matter of hours, if needed.
Learn more about Vonage Verify API and how you can add a full, secure verification system to your customer communication in no time. Vonage Verify API is part of Vonage Protection Suite, a comprehensive set of end-to-end tools to simplify fraud prevention.
