More Mobile Offerings Can Give Banks a Leg Up

With mobile payment systems on the rise, some of which not even requiring a credit or debit card but rather handling balances completely internally, people who might have been bank customers at one point are likely starting to wonder why banks are even necessary anymore. That's bad news for banks, and a new study from Clarabridge (News - Alert) offers some insight on how to prevent that particular fate from coming to pass.

The Clarabridge study—which focused on the responses of over 2,400 bank customers between the ages of 18 and 59—revealed that, indeed, there's quite a bit of movement away from banks to mobile banking options or money transfer apps like PayPal (News - Alert) currently in progress. However, there's a saving grace here, as a large cluster of users would rather use a bank's own apps for transfers. A bank's apps were preferred over PayPal in 26 percent of cases, and over Venmo in 43 percent.

Millennials actually are no different, as 42 percent of those responding noted the bank's app was the first choice for money transfer as compared to 24 percent favoring third parties. These numbers could be improved still further with one key feature added: the ability to transfer money between different banks.

Other welcome features include more Android (News - Alert) apps and functions; 31 percent of respondents noted that bank apps don't readily recognize a check for deposit.  Millennials, meanwhile, are hoping for more social media help, as they would rather not go through a call center if offered the choice.

Some banks are working in this direction already; Capital One (News - Alert), for example, is actively working to incorporate customer feedback into its operations and has already seen benefit in its touch-point net promoter score (NPS) as well as its overall operations.

Comment from Susan Ganeshan, Clarabridge's chief marketing officer, underscored the findings. “This survey helps us understand what consumers want from banks and provides a comprehensive snapshot of customer expectations for digital banking. The data suggests a roadmap for improvement that will lead to a better customer experience.”

Knowing what the customers want is the first step to remaining relevant as an organization. Actually providing that which customers want is, of course, the second step. Accomplishing these two steps with any kind of success is likely to deliver at least some success to the overall operation, as demonstrated by Capital One's efforts on this front. This is good news for banks, as it means the mobile payment revolution isn't rendering the bank obsolete, at least not yet.

There's an opportunity here for banks, and it all starts with a better customer experience. By offering the things that customers want to see, the overall experience improves. Customers get what they want, and businesses get to keep those customers. Banks are no exception, and by actively incorporating what the customer wants most, the end result should be welcome for banks and customers alike.

Edited by Alicia Young