Digital Services Are the Key to Banking Success
By Kevin Flanagan, Marketing Director, Micronotes
When is the last time you logged on to online or mobile banking? If the answer is more than a few days ago, then you’re not in on the trend.
Our partner Fiserv recently surveyed digital banking users in the UK (from both banks and “building societies,” or what we Yanks call credit unions) to measure their feelings about the convenience and ease-of-use of digital banking experiences. The gist of the findings is financial institutions that fail to deliver a user-friendly digital banking experience are at risk of losing customers.
If you work in banking and this comes as a surprise to you, you have my deepest sympathy. Thinking about the recent—and rapid—analog-to-digital transformations taking place all around us, whenever a digital alternative appears, it almost always proves incredibly popular. Imagine if email suddenly vanished and we had to resort to mailing letters to communicate. Then think how many fewer emails you’ve sent since the advent of texting.
The survey results are published in the research report Rising to Meet Customer Expectations.
As a company that provides a patented solution that enables bankers to engage with their digital banking users, Micronotes know how much consumers prefer digital banking to branch visits. Various studies show that the average person makes about three visits to a branch each year, vs. more than 170 digital banking logins. That’s what we marketers call a trend.
But not every banking institution is doing enough when it comes to offering digital banking services. And that’s not good for their long-term viability.
Here are a few of the key takeaways from the report about best practices institutions can employ to attract and—most importantly—retain customers/members:
- Offer flexibility and control over where and when customers can access their accounts.
- Provide a consistent experience across every channel.
- Support customers to organize their financial goals and establish saving habits.
- Leverage digital channels to cross-sell or upsell financial products and services.
That last bullet is no surprise to us here at Micronotes. Our clients are achieving tremendous results engaging with customers they rarely see.
If your institution isn’t successfully engaging with—and selling to—digital users, time may be running short to catch up with this fast-moving trend.
