Never underestimate the sting of a paper cut. It’s a tiny adversary with the power to inflict a high level of unexpected pain.
In the CX world, a paper cut is a subtle inconvenience, a minor friction point that can transform a simple task into a time-consuming headache for customers.
Picture this: the plastic seal on your burrito bowl refuses to yield when you pull the tab. You resort to scissors and end up cleaning melted cheese off the blades and your fingers. Meanwhile, your dinner is cooling rapidly. While seemingly trivial, this unnecessary hassle makes you reconsider ever buying this brand again.
Amazon defines paper cuts as “tiny customer experience deficiencies.” Waiting for a multifactor authentication (MFA) message that never arrives, the mysterious disappearance of items in your virtual shopping cart, or the unexpected demand to verify your email just to watch a show on Peacock—these are the small misses that accumulate over time.
Recognizing the potential harm of paper cuts, Amazon organized teams solely committed to eliminating small friction points. For example, Amazon introduced one-click shopping—a digital express lane to banish paper cuts from the checkout process and elevate the customer journey to a quick, pain-free experience.
However, many businesses de-prioritize fixing these minor inconveniences. The sprawling journey they have mapped out on a whiteboard doesn’t account for this granularity of detail. Yet, it’s a costly oversight. Like the proverbial death by a thousand cuts, the cumulative toll of these seemingly minuscule problems erodes customer experience and loyalty, slowly but surely.
Let’s look at some paper cuts that are common in customer account security interactions. Customers might experience these interactions multiple times a day, or only once in a while. What they have in common, however, is they’re small instances that accumulate to major damage to brand equity.
Paper Cut 1: Forgetting Passwords
We’ve all been there. Trying to remember which variation of the same password we use; whether it was the one with the capital letters or special symbols or the one we thought we’d never have to use again. According to a NordPass survey, the average user manages about 100 passwords—far too many to remember. What’s more is the pain of resetting passwords. A global survey found that 51% of respondents admit to resetting a forgotten password at least once a month, with 15% doing so weekly.
Login or password friction poses a significant problem for businesses seeking to enable digital channels for self-service. A survey of U.S. consumers discovered that 47% of respondents abandon purchases—and 61% give up on accessing an online service—because they can’t remember their passwords. This disruption occurs 4.7 times per day, on average. If customers cannot pay their bill online, payment is delayed and they may even consider canceling.
Paper Cut 2: Missing Fraud-Related Notifications
Even well-intended actions can create a paper cut experience. Take fraud prevention, for instance.
Fraud instances are rising overall, including an increasing rate of account takeover fraud reported by merchants, according to a global survey by VISA. So not only do banks and merchants benefit from robust fraud prevention systems, but customers also appreciate the protection banks can offer by detecting off-pattern purchases and their freezing accounts to prevent fraudulent purchases.
Banks are using increasingly precise detection methods (particularly with machine learning and AI) to discern illegitimate transactions. But when they aren’t using an adequate system to notify customers, it creates a paper cut. They can flag a transaction and freeze an account, but if banks aren’t alerting customers quickly enough, or in a digital channel they use regularly, customers could experience declined payments at inconvenient (even embarrassing) times.
Paper Cut 3: Delayed Authentication Notifications
Multifactor authentication (MFA) is the new standard of account security. Nine out of ten consumers have an account that requires MFA, and 66% of consumers say they trust a company more if it requires them to use MFA. Customers appreciate the extra layer of defense for their accounts—until it becomes a barrier for them.
How often have you requested an MFA code to be sent to your email, but it takes so long to arrive that the code times out? Or worse, the code never arrives because it was sent to the wrong channel or device. Consumers in that situation often abandon what they were trying to do in the first place, like make an important account update. If it’s to log into their account to make a purchase, that means lost revenue. So you can see the importance of having a robust system for authentication notifications—one that sends the messages instantaneously and to the channels where customers are sure to receive them.
Create Painless Account Security Interactions
Preventing paper cuts in common account security experiences is essential for keeping customers responsive in critical moments and keeping them using your services, all while you keep them protected. You can see small how inconveniences in these interactions have big implications for your overall CX. But just like how the “minor” pain points add up to churn customers, the flip-side is also true: Quick wins accumulate to major growth in customer loyalty and revenue.
What does it take to turn paper cut events into easy interactions that strengthen your customers’ trust in your brand? Personalized, secure MFA and real-time fraud alerts with resolution options to specific customers through any channel.
Fraud alert resolution: Immediately notify customers of potentially unusual actions on their accounts. These alerts empower customers to instantly confirm or deny that a transaction was legitimate. By providing these instant notifications, the system gives customers the ability to stop suspicious activity in its tracks. Or, in the case of a legitimate transaction, let your customers quickly move on with their day.
Identity verification: Send instant MFA notifications, like push alerts or SMS codes, directly to your customer’s device. This allows them to quickly confirm or deny login attempts or enter a one-time passcode, adding a real-time layer of security beyond just a password.
