Mobile banking solutions are more critical than ever. Mobile banking adoption is widespread amongst multiple demographics. According to Forbes, 88% of Gen Zers and Millennials (ages 21 to 40) access their bank accounts via mobile devices. The adoption rate is slightly less, but still significant amongst Gen Xers (ages 41 to 55) at 78% and then drops to 57% of baby boomers and 41% of smartphone-owning Seniors.
Your mobile presence is often how your users perceive your bank or credit union’s brand. According to an Accenture survey of nearly 4,000 retail bank customers in the U.S. and Canada, consumers are more likely than ever to bank without branches and consider a non-traditional provider. Seventy-one percent of U.S. consumers consider their banking relationship as merely transactional. So there is value in providing mobile banking solutions to your users. Therefore, it stands to reason to select a mobile banking solutions provider that will align with your strategic goals, such as native cloud and zero downtime. Here are three core questions to ask when choosing a mobile banking solutions provider.
1.How Does the Mobile Banking Solution Affect Your Users’ Experiences?
The global transition to digital technologies during the pandemic magnified the importance of user experience. A bad online or mobile experience can significantly damage your brand as well as potential sales. Research has found that 57% of users won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile app. And if a website isn’t mobile-friendly, 50% of users will stop visiting it even if they like your business.
According to the Financial Brand, it takes about 50 milliseconds for your end-users to form an opinion about your website, and even faster when engaging with your mobile app. They want and actively seek features like cloud-native and zero downtime. The roll-out of 5G in 2021 will trigger a need for more capable digital banking solutions during the years ahead. According to Gartner, the average cost of IT downtime ranges from $5,600 per minute to greater than $300,000 per hour on average. The need for zero-downtime has never been greater.
Consider working with a mobile banking solution provider that focuses on personalized user interactions with insights based on their unique needs, behaviors and inputs. This prioritization of your users’ experience will lead to greater engagement and loyalty.
2. How Does the Solution Address Data Security and Management?
With your users’ needs quickly digitally evolving, your bank or credit union must offer a suite of mobile banking options to stay competitive. According to Business Insider’s U.S. digital banking report, 89% of respondents use mobile banking to some extent, while 70% of them depend on it as the primary means of accessing their accounts. However, it comes with several risks.
Data security is a complex, multi-pronged issue that includes software security measures, internal business processes and user behavior. If even one of these elements fails, it could be a significant problem. According to the McAfee Mobile Threat Report, malware creation can be very lucrative for criminals, with revenues in the billion-dollar range and banking Trojans on the rise.
As users become more and more reliant on mobile payments, cybercriminals will increasingly seek to exploit and defraud users with scam SMS phishing or smishing messages containing malicious payment URLs. A Worldpay Global Payments Report for 2020 estimated that 41% of payments today are made via mobile devices, valued at $1.48 Trillion in 2019 and projected to reach $12.06 Trillion by 2027.
Even minor mobile banking security issues like leaked but encrypted, and therefore inaccessible, data can blemish the trust between your users and your financial organization. It’s more important than ever to choose a mobile banking vendor with a high-security mindset.
3. How will the Provider Support You After the Sale?
Aftercare support is as important as the initial new mobile banking solution platform spend. Once your mobile solutions are installed, your provider should offer services that accommodate your needs. This might include:
- Expedited error-resolution services
- Digital self-service resources
- Digital Platform reporting
- User behavior insights
- Helpful videos/demos
- A dedicated team of customer service providers
- Educational opportunities
- Webinars
The overarching goal here is that your mobile solutions vendor should be proactive. They should present evolving technological advancements that measurably improve your financial institution’s operations. What you don’t want is for your provider to be reactive, only taking action after urgently prompted.
Ultimately, selecting an effective, strategic mobile banking solutions provider can be a complicated endeavor. With mobile banking likely to exceed branch banking over the next decade, your bank or credit union has a strong opportunity to serve your community better. By working with a proven mobile solutions provider that focuses on your users’ experiences and is clearly aligned with your strategic goals, you can do precisely that.
Marty Aquino has been a passionate writer on venture capital, technology, forecasting, risk mitigation, wealth and entrepreneurial topics since 2009. He is the founder of Carbonwolf Energy, a venture-capital firm specializing in world-changing and status-quo-defying technologies and people.
Sources
Forbes – The 12 Most Important Mobile Banking Features (And Why No Bank Can Have Them All)
Finastra – whitepaper-leveraging-business-intelligence-analytics-surpass-competition.pdf
Sweor – 27 Eye-Opening Website Statistics
The Financial Brand – Top 7 Customer Experience Trends in Banking for 2021
Gartner –The Cost of Downtime
Business Insider – Digital Banking in 2021: Disruptive Bank Technology Trends
McAfee – McAfee Mobile Threat Report Q1, 2018
Allied Market Research – Mobile Payment Market Size, Share | Industry Growth & Forecast – 2027
DataArt – What to Expect from Payment Trends in 2021 and Beyond
