What is Identification?

A call centre security process does two separate jobs, one after the other. Identification answers the question which customer is this caller claiming to be? and ends with one record found in the organisation's systems. Authentication then answers is the caller really that customer?

Why the difference matters

• The risk is in authentication. Anyone can claim to be someone else. The claim only does harm once it is believed, so identification can be quick and convenient as long as authentication is sound.
• What identifies well may not authenticate. A date of birth narrows a search to one customer very effectively, but it is now far too easy to find to prove anything. Many processes ask the same questions to do both jobs at once, which saves a few seconds and weakens security.
• Identification can often be automated. A reference number keyed into the IVR, or the number the customer is calling from matched to their record, finds the customer before an agent answers. A number shared by several customers, such as a household landline, points to a group rather than one person, so the process needs one more question to pick the right record.

Identification is also different from identity verification, sometimes called proofing, which checks that someone who is not yet a customer is a real person and who they say they are, against an outside source such as a passport or a credit reference agency.

The words a call centre uses for these steps shape how agents and customers think about them: see Call centre security language. Chapter 1 of Unlock Your Call Centre sets out both steps and how they fit together.