After exploring all the options on your website, If your customers/clients move to your rivals just because of better customer experience, this is time to build a Customer Identity and Access Management Strategy.
If navigating your competitors’ websites is convenient and they do not ask too much action to create a login, then we have two bad news for you:
- You are losing customers to rivals
- You do not have the right CIAM solution integrated into your digital framework.
Today, businesses compete more on customer experience than on price or product. To stay ahead of competitors, companies need a robust Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) architecture for better user experience. So, what could be the best CIAM solution? How do you pick the right one? What CIAM features should you choose to bring customer loyalty and improve their journey?
Here is a 7-step checklist to help. It includes every essential factor for a good CIAM strategy. Any business can use it to keep things safe, improve customer experience, and support their business over time.
Step 1 – Understand Your Customers’ Expectations
A security strategy is only helpful if it helps people interact with it. The sole purpose of implementing CIAM Strategy is to improve the customer journey and offer them seamless access. Customers quit because your login protocols frustrate them, which is alarming. Digital transformation and implementing CIAM infrastructure are the only solutions to put this alarm off. Before taking any action, you should investigate:
- Why do your customers feel frustrated
- What causes their problems?
- Are they annoyed by slow sign-ups? do they need SSO or MFA?
- Do they feel their data is not safe?
- Are our integrated apps working well?
The answers to the above questions will lead you to the right CIAM provider, which will offer you all the essential features at an affordable cost.
Step 2 – Establish Your Targets
The in-depth analysis of your customers’ needs will help you identify the necessary CIAM features. Awareness of the right tools will lead you to the right CIAM provider, which may be OKTA, Microsoft Azure, or SAP.
Step 3 – Define Your Security Strategy
Cybersecurity is adamant. Every business and its customers need an inflexible security. You should have a clear blueprint of CIAM objectives and required features. The solution should provide robust security features that comply with regulations like HIPAA and GDPR. A clear security strategy will help you build trust, strengthen customer loyalty, and avoid costly breaches.
Step 4 – Pick Relevant CIAM Providers
Customer Identification and Access Management is not a name of a single rule. It comprises different features. Your business may only need some of them right now, but you may need them to scale the company. To have a cost-effective framework, you must know what features are necessary to incorporate them into your security strategy, which products have it, and who has the expertise to do it efficiently.
Step 5 – Connect to Long-Term Business Goals
A CIAM strategy is not something you do every day. It should be scalable and fit your bigger business plans. Your security framework should be created to align your company’s next 5 to 10-year plan. The strategy needs to fit your ambitions. It should grow with new needs and requirements and adapt quickly.
Step 6 – In-house Teams Vs. Outsourced Consultants?
After deciding on goals and needed CIAM features, it is time to determine who will do it: the in-house team or outsourced consultants.
Building your CIAM system might look nice initially, but costs might be too high. Developing and caring for an in-house system requires time, effort, and money. In-house teams are better for large-scale businesses that have accumulated resources.
Working with a trusted CIAM provider is usually more competent for small businesses. This way, you can access advanced identity tools without paying a high price or taking significant risks yourself.
Acquiring outside services will help you think of out-of-the-box CIAM solutions. Their experience will help them come up with cost-effective techniques.
Partnering with a CIAM expert gives you access to expensive tools and lets your team focus on other important work.
Step 7 – It’s Time to Take Action
Once the right CIAM strategy is ready, it’s time to spread it across all apps, websites, and portals that customers use.
Running a customer-facing security system is way more important than picking one. Make sure that after deploying, the CIAM integrations are working as planned. They should make the customer journey seamless, achieving all the desired goals.
Conclusion
Robust CIAM strategies need good focus and careful steps. Following these ten ideas means your business meets today’s needs and stays ready for future growth.
Whether you build it yourself or work with a top CIAM provider, focusing on customer needs, security, and growth counts. A great CIAM plan helps your business stay safe and gives top-level customer happines
