Building Consumer Trust Online: Balancing Security, Convenience, and the Human Touch

Maintaining Consumer Trust in the Digital Age

For service and retail organizations, consumer trust is the most valuable asset—and the hardest to regain once lost. Customers need confidence not only in the quality of products or services but also in how their personal data is protected. Mishandling sensitive information like contact details or credit-card numbers quickly erodes trust and drives customers away.

Online, customer identity and access management (CIAM) systems are the frontline tools for maintaining this trust. CIAM manages registration, login, and account management, including personal data protection. It challenges users with CAPTCHAs, sends one-time passcodes, and provides customer-service agents access to account profiles. But balancing security with convenience is tricky—too many hurdles during sign-up or login push customers to competitors, while poor password habits increase risks of account breaches.

Key Issues Relating to Customer Trust

A recent survey by CIAM provider Auth0 highlights three main trust challenges: poor password hygiene, excessive security friction during registration and login, and widespread distrust of AI-driven customer service. Here’s what support teams need to know and how to address these issues.

Passwords Aren't Getting Any Better

Despite years of warnings, weak and reused passwords remain common. The survey found 68% of users sometimes reuse passwords. Younger users are the worst offenders—25% of Gen Z admitted to using one password for all accounts, compared to just 7% of Baby Boomers. Even among Baby Boomers, only 42% claim to use unique passwords consistently.

More than half of respondents slightly alter a set of base passwords rather than creating truly unique ones. While 73% find passwords convenient, they mistakenly believe passwords are more secure than hardware security keys, which ranked lowest in convenience. Fingerprints and facial recognition were rated as more secure than passwords.

Weak password practices fuel most account-takeover attacks, including brute-force, credential stuffing, and password spraying. In 2024, about 17% of login attempts on the Auth0 platform were fraudulent, with retail and financial sectors hit hardest.

Since users won’t improve their password habits, organizations should reduce reliance on passwords by adopting:

• Passkeys using smartphone biometrics and secure elements
• Social logins (single sign-on for consumer apps)
• Biometrics like facial and fingerprint recognition
• Adaptive multifactor authentication (MFA) that considers context
• Step-up authentication for sensitive actions (e.g., changing account info)

Passkeys and social logins are especially popular with younger users, with over half of Gen Z rating them as convenient. These methods offer a promising path to stronger security without burdening customers.

Reducing the Friction

Security measures like MFA and CAPTCHAs add friction, frustrating legitimate users. Nearly half (46%) of registration attempts were fraudulent in 2024, so some friction is necessary. However, 40% of users admitted abandoning purchases due to signup or login hassles—young users most often.

Interestingly, users found long forms more annoying (62%) than sharing sensitive data (52%). They want fast, seamless experiences but also control over their data and strong security.

One effective approach is progressive profiling: collecting personal info gradually over multiple visits rather than upfront. This reduces initial friction and improves user experience. Clear communication about why data is needed, how it’s used, and security measures in place also builds trust.

No One Likes Talking to a Robot

The survey revealed a strong preference for human customer service over AI agents. Every demographic group preferred humans, with Baby Boomers showing a 41.5:1 ratio against AI. Even tech enthusiasts favored humans by a smaller margin.

86% of respondents expressed a preference—70% for humans and only 16% for AI. The main concerns were that AI doesn’t understand humans (64%), can be frustrating (38%), is untrustworthy (29%), or just confusing (22%). Those who preferred AI cited speed (55%), avoiding human interaction (53%), and seeing AI as the future (51%).

Trust in AI was highest for tasks like language translation and data collection but still below 40%. For customer support roles, trust was even lower, with 23% unwilling to use AI agents at all. Privacy and security concerns around AI were significant, with 60% worried about its impact on digital identities.

Building trust in AI will require:

• Human oversight of AI decisions
• Transparency about how AI reaches conclusions
• Ethical guidelines ensuring fairness, privacy, and security
• Accountability for AI mistakes or harm caused

Notably, Gen Z puts ethical guidelines above human oversight, offering a foothold for AI adoption in the future. Transparency and clear communication about AI safeguards are essential to increasing acceptance.

For organizations deploying AI in customer support, strong identity safeguards are critical. AI systems must authenticate users properly, use secured access tokens, allow asynchronous user confirmations, and operate under least privilege principles.

Final Thoughts for Customer Support Professionals

Maintaining customer trust depends on balancing security and convenience. Encourage your organization to reduce password reliance, streamline registration with progressive profiling, and communicate clearly about data use and protections.

When integrating AI into support, prioritize transparency, ethical behavior, and human oversight to ease customer concerns. Above all, being upfront about why data is needed and how it’s protected helps keep trust intact.

As these trends evolve, staying informed and advocating for customer-friendly security will make you a key player in maintaining the trust that your customers expect and deserve.