Why law firms should embrace digital verification and onboarding
Law firms still using manual or in-person identity verification checks are in danger of falling behind.
Manual form filling and data entry is a labour-intensive process, resulting in slow response times, inefficiencies, and delayed transactions, as well as raising the risk of human error. The latter, in particular, can pose security challenges that damage your reputation and invite visits from the auditors.
And in an industry in which reputation is everything, regulatory non-compliance can do long-term damage to your ability to win new clients.
What’s the problem with in-person checks?
Many law firms have kept firmly to an analogue way of doing things. This might have been enough in the past, but in today’s hyper-vigilant world, manual checks and in-person verification are seen as slow, time-consuming, and potentially risky.
While in-person verification offers the personal touch, it’s slow, limited to business hours, and may be difficult for clients located in remote areas or living with mobility issues.
And manual verification runs the risk of human error, missing paperwork, or sloppy data entry. This raises the likelihood of security breaches and compliance gaps, potentially putting your firm in the sights of the regulators.
How does digital verification help?
The solution is simple: digital onboarding. This involves validating your client’s identity using a digital platform, instead of relying on in-person or manual verification.
By automating and digitalising previously manual processes, you can turn laborious data entry into a smooth, seamless workflow that improves the customer experience and makes compliance easy.
At Checkboard, we’ve identified some of the key considerations when selecting a digital onboarding and verification partner. These include, among others:
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Regulatory compliance – your platform should be regularly updated according to the latest regulations, and enable comprehensive compliance reporting
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User experience – it should be simple, intuitive, and user-friendly to minimise friction between platform and user
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Customisation and integration – you should be able to use API integrations and customisation options to build the platform most relevant to your needs
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Accuracy – platforms should use advanced technology that minimises errors and inaccuracies, so your checks and verifications are compliant and reliable
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Customer support – this should be reliable and fast to solve issues while minimising disruption to your business.
Your platform should enable seamless, secure, and efficient client verification that maintains the highest level of compliance without compromising customer experience.
It should gather large amounts of essential client data in a single place, allowing you to build reliable audit trails and conduct rigorous ongoing monitoring across the customer lifecycle.
Just as importantly, any consumer-facing aspect should be streamlined and intuitive to use for clients of all ages. This would not only speed up the rate of onboarding, but also improve your reputation among customers.
Streamlining onboarding
That’s where Checkboard comes in.
Checkboard is your comprehensive onboarding tool. Using cutting-edge technology we streamline verification and onboarding without compromising user experience or compliance.
We turn slow, manual tasks into smooth digital workflows, allowing you to perform KYC checks, and address and identity verification in one simple-to-use platform.
Our solution saves you considerable time, minimises risk, reduces operational costs, and helps maintain regulatory compliance.
To learn more, take a look at our complete guide to digital onboarding and verification.
A version of this article was originally published on Legal Futures.
