In consumer environments, customer experience is everything. Organisations that can deliver seamless, secure, and personalised journeys are more likely to retain users, increase revenue, and build long-term loyalty. And yet, many businesses still treat identity solely as a cybersecurity or compliance function missing its full potential as a driver of customer engagement.
Modern identity solutions, particularly those that support external (customer) users, are no longer just about securing access. They are becoming critical infrastructure for building trust, reducing friction, and unlocking meaningful connections across complex ecosystems.
The Problem: Friction in the Digital Customer Journey
Imagine a traveller planning a trip. Their journey spans multiple touchpoints:
- Booking platforms
- Airlines
- Ground transport providers
- Hotels
- Local retail and attractions
Each interaction requires some form of authentication, data exchange, or identity verification, often in isolation, with repeated logins, duplicated form-fills, and scattered user profiles.
For the end user, this creates unnecessary friction. For the business, it’s a missed opportunity to build direct relationships, capture insights, and drive engagement.
This isn’t limited to travel. Retailers, banks, and service providers across industries face the same challenge: fragmented identity experiences that erode trust, limit insight, and reduce conversion.
Taking a Holistic View of Identity in Customer Experience
To address this, forward-thinking organisations are stepping back and asking:
- Do we fully understand our user’s complete journey?
Are identity touchpoints helping or hindering the experience? - Is our broader ecosystem (partners, platforms, vendors) willing and able to engage?
Do we have interoperability and trust in place to make seamless identity sharing possible? - Where are the main friction points in data exchange?
Are users constantly re-entering the same information? Are vendors missing context? - What is the business outcome we’re trying to drive?
Increased retention? Higher conversion rates? More personalised services?
By identifying and addressing these questions through the lens of identity, organisations can transform fragmented touchpoints into cohesive, personalised journeys.
Use Case: Travel Industry
In the travel sector, identity interoperability could create a much smoother experience for customers.
- A traveller books a flight using a verified digital ID.
- That ID is seamlessly used to check in at the airport, access a hotel room, and rent a car.
- At each step, vendors recognise the traveller and offer relevant, personalised services without needing the user to log in, re-register, or re-verify.
The result?
- Less frustration and fewer abandoned transactions
- Greater trust in each vendor along the journey
- Direct relationships between users and service providers, without relying solely on aggregators
This approach enables ecosystem collaboration that benefits everyone, while preserving the customer’s control over their data.
Other Industry Applications
This model extends well beyond travel:
- Retail
Connect customer profiles across loyalty programmes, in-store visits, and e-commerce platforms. Offer unified experiences that drive repeat purchases and brand advocacy.
- Financial Services
Enable secure, reusable digital IDs across services like lending, insurance, or investment platforms. Reduce onboarding friction while maintaining compliance.
- Healthcare
Allow patients to manage appointments, prescriptions, and records across providers using a single, trusted identity, improving access and care continuity.
Why Microsoft Identity Technologies – with the Right Expertise – are Key
At Condatis, we recommend taking advantage of the full breadth of Microsoft identity capabilities including Entra External ID, Verified ID, and other Microsoft Entra and Azure Active Directory features, to deliver seamless, secure, and scalable identity experiences for customers and partners.
These technologies work best when used together to:
- Manage millions of external and internal users securely and at scale
- Enable consistent branding and customised user journeys across multiple touchpoints
- Support federated access and interoperability across partners, platforms, and ecosystems
- Maintain privacy, consent, and data control for the end user
- Leverage verified attributes to reduce onboarding friction and improve trust
However, technology alone isn’t enough. The analysis, data strategy, stakeholder alignment, solution design, and implementation need to be carefully orchestrated to deliver maximum business value.
That’s where identity specialists like Condatis make the difference. With over a decade of Microsoft-only identity expertise, we work alongside in-house teams to:
- Map and optimise end-to-end customer journeys
- Ensure technologies are configured and integrated for the right business outcomes
- Manage complex business and technical stakeholder engagement
- Design for both present needs and future-readiness
- Accelerate delivery while reducing risk
By combining Microsoft’s leading identity technologies with Condatis’ proven methodology and sector-specific experience, organisations can reduce friction, boost engagement, and future-ready their identity ecosystem – all while doing more with less.
Identity as a Business Growth Enabler
When identity is approached as more than a security layer, it becomes a strategic tool to unlock the value of organisations, their data and interactions.
By investing in technologies like portable identities, federated authentication, External ID and more, organisations can unify fragmented journeys, delight customers, and build trust at every touchpoint.
The question isn’t whether you need identity solutions. The question is whether your current approach is helping, or holding you back.