Why your website needs a login?

Reading time approx. 5 minutes 14.04.2021 / 17:00

Whether a website needs a login or not is a question that can be answered quickly – Yes! In this blog, we will take a closer look at the question of why a website needs a login.

The significance of websites for businesses

The fundamental idea of a website remained the same: a company wants to present its services on the web as well as get noticed by users. However, the structure of a website changed over time, as technological developments created more opportunities to reach users. In addition, as competition for the user’s attention increased, dynamic, interactive elements became a key feature to generate leads and interact with customers. Companies broke away from static pages and creativity was needed to spark the user’s curiosity. In the simplest case, websites feature news and blogs sections equipped with comment functions, social sharing buttons, and more. It is also popular to provide whitepapers, reports, or stories on the website, thus offering the interested party further added value and in return receiving his contact details. Overall, the informed user, who has evolved with digitalization, is very interested in information, so that online events such as webinars also have their appeal. To sum up, the website is the entry point into the digital world of the company and a part of the digital services.

Why does the website need a login or an Identity & Access Management?

To put it in a nutshell, studies show that personalized call-to-actions perform 202% better (Hubspot, 2020). A great, often untapped potential to engage visitors. The relevance of personalization came about because of Big Tech. Users nowadays experience an information overload and the big players managed to alleviate this almost overload by providing a result tailored to the user. Furthermore, behind every interaction with a company, a user promises to encounter exactly that company, be it the comment function, the download of the white paper, or the participation in the event. Separate registrations and data pots for the different functions cause resentment. In addition to the fact that companies have to merge the data in the background at great expense in order to obtain a uniform view of the user, his activities, and interactions, it becomes very complex to offer a continuous customer journey. In the end, users, stressed by the repeated demand for the same data over and over again, react dejectedly in times where customer experience is capitalized. If you offer the user login on the website, they can access your complete offer smoothly with no barrier of authentication – commenting, downloading whitepapers, or registering for events. The special added value comes with functions such as “Stay logged in” or Single Sign-On, as soon as further digital services are available, e.g., a webinar tool. User convenience creates enthusiasm, leads to more interactions and gives you the opportunity to get to know your users better. The website is the entry point into the digital world of your company so that further services such as webshops, configurators, or digital consulting services can now be perceived by the user. Create a continuous customer journey by identifying users and convert users from prospects to customers. This also makes it possible to retain customers in the long term, to inspire them with new content, and offer them offers that match their activities. Through a clear, cross-channel identification of the user, the user’s journey can be designed and his activities, whether a webinar visit or a purchase in the webshop, can be viewed uniformly. Against this background, the user benefits from an inspiring user experience and from the control of his or her data, which he or she can manage, expand, or, if desired, delete in his or her personal profile in compliance with the German Data Protection Act (GDPR).

The customer journey from prospect to customer is industry-dependent

The journey from the first point of impact of a prospect to the customer varies depending on the company. For example, the retailer offers users a digital shopping list as an entry point, which users can use without personal data, only with their email. As soon as a purchase is made, the user receives his customer card, with which he can use discounts, vouchers or loyalty points, for which he can then enter further data such as name and address. On the contrary, the customer journey for a medical technology company looks quite different, often due to legal framework conditions. A dental technician manufacturer offers users a simple entry point to its website, but for booking events, further information such as name and address is required. Conversion to the customer, on the other hand, is more demanding. The reason for this is that legally relevant information such as a certificate of competence is required for the purchase of medical products. The customer journey changes depending on the company and the context, this is not only true for the necessary data or the verification of users, but also, for example, for the requirement of strong authentication for a bank transaction or access to patients’ medical data. Thinking a step forward, the focus is no longer on the user alone, but on an entire user group.

• A medical technician is a group of diverse users, often in different roles.
• The visit to the amusement park takes place as a family or group of friends.

The unique customer experience includes recognizing the user unambiguously and across all channels, but the next added values are created in the context of the user’s group:

• The manager of the medical technology company can manage his own user group or
• The buyer manages the tickets to the amusement park and simply invites his friends to this event.

The reasons for a modern Cloud Identity & Access Management for website login

A modern Cloud Identity & Access Management is the right choice for the implementation of a website login for several reasons.

1. It enables a fast and cost-efficient realisation of a website login.
2. It provides many functions out-of-the-box that ensure a great customer experience, such as single sign-on, “stay logged in” or social logins.
3. It provides functions for a good customer journey, including progressive profiling for the collection of context-specific data, such as the address when a prospective customer logs in to the web shop.
4. It provides functions to secure applications, functions and data, such as multi-factor authentication or API security with OAuth2.
5. It provides a user profile through which users can maintain their own data.
6. It offers modern group management for the administration of different user groups for B2B and B2C use cases.