March 01, 2018

It's no secret that we live in a highly-automated world of computers where many things, including most of our banking, can be done with just a few clicks on a computer screen. Digital banking is a growing phenomenon and is offered by virtually all financial institutions in some capacity in our ever-increasing technological era.

However, one thing that not all digital banking experiences have in common are a user-friendly experience for all users regardless of their abilities or disabilities that may stop them from using these new, technologically-advanced programs to do their small business or personal banking. It's vital to make personal your customers digital banking experiences user-friendly for everyone.

The following are 7 of the best tips to help banks make that digital banking experience a premium one for every customer who uses it:

Consider The Fact That Almost Half of Customers Use Online Banking Today: About 40% of Americans (4 in 10)¹ say the do a great majority of their banking through online or mobile banking services. About 26% of those people almost exclusively use mobile devices to track and manage their banking. As this many people are using digital banking it means that apps are seeing more user traffic than ever. It's vital for a bank to make sure that their websites and their mobile apps can withstand the levels of traffic while also being available to their customers virtually 24/7 with the click of a mouse or tap of a screen.

• Target Online Banking For Millennial Users: Studies show that about 70% of millennial customers are using predominately or solely online banking for their transactions². This was the first generation that grew up around the technology we have today. They expect a fast, seamless online banking experience as we have entered the decade of "instantaneous" actions and transactions thanks to the internet. Future generations will use mobile banking even more than the millennial which means that mobile banking with the younger generations is a trend that is here to stay.

• Ensure Your Mobile Apps Are Up-To-Date: About 26% of all online banking is currently done from mobile devices such as iPhones or iPads. Banking and other financial institutions must be certain that their apps for mobile devices are up-to-date and are offering a seamless banking experience as possible for all users. This includes fixing any glitches in the app and ensuring things run smoothly for a quality customer experience.

• Provide Customer Verification: Whether you require a special password or code for someone to access their account or ask them to recognize a picture or symbol and provide a response, ensure that your bank is taking extensive measures to protect people's money, accounts, and personal information. In a world of high-tech hacking you can never be too safe with customer's personal information or their hard-earned money.

• Provide Courtesy Calls: If the bank or financial institution suspects fraud, a hacker, or other issues with a customer's account, many will call customers to alert them of suspicious the specific activity. Whether this is a phone notification, call, email, text message, etc. it can help save customers from being the victim of fraud, or it can help them confirm that they did indeed mean to initiate that transaction. Remember, protecting people's personal information and assets is a key to great customer service.

• Consider Lowering/Nixing Fees For Online Banking: While many banks have lowered or stopped using fees³ to make an extra buck off of customers who are using online banking services, there are still some charging steep fees to their customers to do things like transfer money from account to account, to send money to someone, or to receive money from someone. Some of these fees have, in the past, run high as $15 to $30 per transaction. The few banks that still charge these kinds of fees are also beginning to reconsider lowering or nixing these fees to compete with other financial institutions that have already done so.

• Provide Voice-Over Services: For people who have vision difficulties that make it hard or impossible to read small screens (especially using mobile devices) having the option of having the content on the page read to them can make a massive difference in the accessibility of mobile banking. Providing customers with that option makes your services more accessible to them. Also include voice-over services for any security codes that must be entered to access one's banking information can help people access their accounts easily and readily.

While there are a plethora of ways that banks can improve their customer's digital, online experiences, these are a few of the ones that have been gaining popularity recently, and are continuing to become more popular. Assuring your customers that their information is safe and that their experience will always be high quality will help assure them that you are an institution that cares about each and every customer.

For more information on providing a quality digital banking experience to your customers, please feel free to contact us.

Sources:

1. https://bankingjournal.aba.com/2017/09/aba-survey-two-thirds-of-americans-use-digital-banking-channels-most-often/
2. https://bankinnovation.net/2016/03/millennials-mobile-banking-usage-is-now-close-to-70/
3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2016/05/03/6-critical-improvements-to-bankings-customer-experience/#695e3ca37828