identity & security

What Your Customers Really Want From Your Login Box

Taking a closer look at our recent YouGov survey results

Kerry Ok

SVP, Marketing

Oct 6, 2021 • 5 min read

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We think a lot about login boxes.

But you would be surprised by just how much your customers are thinking about them as well.

Now, we would say that, since we are in the business of making login boxes. So that’s why we went out and asked people what they thought: more than 17,000 global technology leaders and consumers across 12 global markets: United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

The survey report, called “Expectation vs. Reality at The Log Inn,” and conducted in partnership with third-party research firm YouGov, revealed that most organizations fail to meet consumer expectations around login experiences.

Everywhere we looked, consumers' expectations didn’t match reality. If you’ve ever had to fill out endless registration forms just to buy a pair of jeans, or create yet another (weak) password for websites owned by the same company (even worse), you know the pain.

And it makes sense, right? Login should be simple, invisible almost. Because it’s a marketer’s worst nightmare when you get frustrated and decide to take your business elsewhere.

At least, that would be the case, if anyone were paying attention to the login box.

Won’t Somebody Think of the Login Boxes?

It’s easy to forget about login boxes. After all, no one visits a website just to play with the CAPTCHA – and they are rarely the first place executives and their marketing teams look to increase revenue and reduce churn. But, if you have a website or application, it’s likely you have a login box, and it’s the first thing that customers see.

So, what did the study show customers want?

A winning lottery ticket?

No.

They want choice.

When they arrive at your login, customers want convenience and control: they want to choose which authentication method to use – whether it’s MFA or SSO or biometrics. They want a brand experience that resembles a concierge desk: a 24/7 service where no demand is too big. To top it off, they don’t want to see any technical glitches, or have to re-sign up on another device: they want seamless omni-channel experiences – not to be left out in the cold.

  • Passwords just don’t do it for people — Consumers rank “Creating a password that has to meet certain requirements” (e.g. number of digits, symbols) among their top frustrations with the sign-up process (47%).
  • One ID to rule them all — Almost half (48%) of consumers are likely to sign up to an app or service if they can use Single Sign-On (SSO) – using a single ID and password for multiple related services. This number is higher for Latin American (61%) consumers compared to their global counterparts (APAC 52%, EMEA 41%, and the US 47%).

But Login Boxes Aren’t Really a Big Deal, Right?

To make things interesting, we asked businesses what they thought consumers thought (getting meta with this study), and they often didn’t realize just how important login experiences really are:

  • Minding the gap with biometrics
    • 44% of consumers are likely to sign up to an app or online service if a company offers biometric authentication — only 25% of companies offer biometrics as an option.
  • Going fully passwordless
    • LATAM (43%), US (42%), and APAC (40%) consumers are more likely than their EMEA counterparts (29%) to sign-up to an app/online service if they were able to use passwordless services. Across the globe, just 20% of companies offer passwordless authentication.

It’s More than Just a Login Box

Not having the technologies above is not just a minor annoyance; it’s an actual turn-off for many consumers when it comes to engaging with your brand. Oftentimes your login box is actually standing in the way of users signing up to your app or making a purchase.

  • It’s not about the journey, it’s about the destination
    • About half of the consumers (48%) are frustrated by having to fill in long login or sign-up forms. This number rises for consumers in APAC (55%) and LATAM (51%) compared to consumers in EMEA (46%) and the US (36%).
  • I’m outta here
    • Our research shows that 83% of consumers have abandoned a purchase or an account setup because the login process was too arduous. This rises to the highest levels in Singapore (89%), Brazil (87%), Australia (86%), France (86%), US (86%), UK (85%), and Mexico (85%).

Okay, You Have My Attention

Good. Very few executives are used to paying much attention to customer identity management (their login box). But as many of us emerge from the past year, more digital than we’ve ever been, creating safe and simple access to online services is essential.

The opportunity to build trust is massive.

This is admittedly just a glimpse into the minds and behaviors of consumers. We are working on a series of blogs that look deeper at what consumers want, and how the login box can help.