Banking Industry Leaders Discuss Findings of Intuit Financial Management Survey

In conjunction with the release of Intuit Financial Services' 4th Annual Financial Management Survey, Banking.com hosted a Twitter Town Hall yesterday, bringing together financial industry leaders to discuss loyalty and channel migration as well as some of the challenges and opportunities facing the banking industry. The following is a recap of the very robust one hour dialogue. (the complete transcript can be found using #IFSsurvey on Twitter)

The Town Hall discussion began around the issue of customer loyalty and the finding that many consumers thought their financial provider was not 'in touch' with their needs. Given the events of the past week, where many large banks reversed decisions around the implementation of fees due to highly vocal negative sentiment amplified by social media and credit union trade group support, most participants believed that banks are not leveraging current insight and technology to make better decisions and provide value added service. 

Tobin Lee (@Tobin_Lee), Intuit Financial Services spokesperson stated, "It is time for a banker mindset shift; cultivating deeper relationships, more meaningful engagement and stronger advocacy for growth". Campbell Edlund from EMI (@EMI_mktg4sales) added, "These findings provide a very strong argument for a communications plan around the customer lifecycle". 

Consumers Are Increasingly Using Multiple Devices to Support Banking Needs

Traditional bricks and mortar facilities are being visited less as the use and importance of online and mobile devices continues to increase according to Intuit Financial Services' 4th Annual Financial Management Survey released yesterday. According to the survey, while a large percentage of consumers still manage their finances offline (45%), the percentage of consumers using online services from their financial institution has continued to increase annually; increasing 11% since 2009 to 38% in 2011.

The main reason consumers said that they don't visit their bank branch as often as they used to is because they are visiting their FI's website and use their online banking tools (76%). These online banking tools are so important that one-third (33%) said they would switch their relationship to another institution if there were better online tools offered elsewhere.

Source: Intuit Financial Services' 4th Annual Financial Management Survey

The importance of online tools was reinforced by Brett King, author of the bestseller Bank 2.0 and founder of direct mobile banking start-up Movenbank at this year's BAI Retail Delivery Conference in Chicago. "Banking is quickly changing from a place you go to something you do everyday," stated King. He provided a chart from the American Bankers Association and Nielsen Research that illustrated the channel migration occurring today and projected in the future.

Seven Steps to Reduce Offline and Online Bank Product Purchase Abandonment

According to Forrester Research, the number of consumers using the Web to research, buy and manage their financial products has grown steadily. In 2009, 63% of US online adults who researched a financial product did so online, with the number increasing over the past two years. Virtually all products were researched, from mortgages and student loans to savings and checking accounts. Interestingly, more than a third who researched products did so exclusively online.

The Web provides inherent advantages when researching and applying, including the convenience of being able to research whenever the user wants, the ease of comparing providers, and in some cases the ability to open the product or service in real time. While the use of the Web is correlated to age categories (with Gen Y using the Internet more frequently), all age groups are increasing their use of online and mobile channels to evaluate options before purchasing financial services.

Banks Can Accelerate Revenue Growth by Managing Digital Experience

According to the March issue of the McKinsey Quarterly, digital channels can assist companies in unifying the customer experience and help move customers from interest to loyalty. In the article, "Four Ways to Get More Value From Digital Marketing", David C. Edelman discusses how companies can increase revenues through a better coordination of the digital end-to-end experience (see exhibit).

By focusing on the capture of a larger amount of Internet traffic through improved mass media key word positioning and SEO, increasing customer engagement through easy to navigate sites and targeted messaging, converting more of the digital leads to sales with strong offers and building digital loyalty through online and offline channels, revenues can be optimized.