12/07/2022
What if I told you that an absence of mobile financial services could be a deal breaker for many customers and employees? When I was a teenager, I was first introduced to the possibilities of mobile banking services when trying to deposit my babysitting checks. My bank’s brick-and-mortar branch was too far and they had no mobile app for me to deposit on the go. So, I turned to a competitor with a mobile app to instantly deposit my checks from my phone, and have been a loyal customer ever since.
It seems I was not the only one with this thought process; more than 43% of mobile banking users in the United States switched their primary financial institution because of mobile banking-related reasons. Additionally, in a report of 500 surveyed employees in financial services and banking, 69% would likely switch companies for access to better technology. If this potential loss of competitive advantage resonates with you or if the opportunity of providing enhanced solutions for your customers and employees excites you, it may be time to invest — a concept financial institutions preach every day but need to put into practice themselves. This time, with mobile financial services as the currency.
INVEST IN YOUR CUSTOMERS
Defining a mobile presence in the financial services industry does not mean a user is simply accessing your website on a mobile device. A well-designed mobile application offers a customized and optimized experience full of self-service functionality. Since the pandemic, trends towards mobile banking have risen and are now the expectation for banking customers. As a result of this trend, digital-only banks have been able to thrive in the financial services industry. To meet, and keep, the basic needs of your newly digital customers, consider starting with popular features, such as account balance monitoring, fund transfers, and check deposits.
DIVERSIFY YOUR MOBILE FINANCIAL SERVICES OFFERINGS
Another opportunity in mobile financial services is the need to aggregate technology used to complete common financial tasks. For example, a consumer may have a different app for sending and receiving money, for investing, for budgeting, and for depositing money. If financial institutions consolidate these actions and offerings into a super app, the value added to customers grows. Since customers are all about convenience, the fewer apps the better, as long as your mobile financial services app is the one that can do it all. Over a third of global executives believe it’s “highly likely” that the bulk of financial transactions will take place through a single super app within the next decade. A few ways to begin are considering partnerships with other institutions, educational opportunities, and general feature enhancements such as biometric logins or chatbot technology.
INVEST IN YOURSELF
In addition to customer-facing investments, financial institutions can also look to improve their internal efficiencies or employee operations with mobile financial services. After all, employees need readily available technology to best serve all of their digital customers. Gone are the days of the average customer walking into the local bank for teller services or a consultation. Your workforce needs to be advancing with your customer’s habits and employee-focused functionality can accomplish just that through an employee profile. In a recent banking employee survey, 87% of respondents said their overall job satisfaction would improve if the time spent on administrative, non-customer-facing activities was reduced.
Features to begin with may include schedule management, certification tracking, and overall access to company updates or support resources to improve the employee experience. Leadership can also benefit from internal-facing mobile functionality through data tracking. Virtually any feature built into your mobile application can be tracked, meaning that you can decide which indicators matter most to your users and organization. With a studied view of customer or employee habits, leadership can make data-informed decisions on the future of their institutions.
Now with a wealth of knowledge of the current competitive trends in customer expectations, super app possibilities, and internal offerings, you can ensure your institution is ready to invest in mobile financial services.
Whether you have a mature mobile program or a foundational mobile application, Sendero can guide teams through the process of turning ideas into executable mobile strategies.