NetFinance Webinar Provided Great Insight into Changing Demographics of Banking Customers
By Richard Simons, CEO, Creative Virtual USA
On December 10th, I participated in the NetFinance webinar “Understanding The New Consumer Journey To Design Your Touch Points & Create A Consistent Experience Across All Channels.” This was a new and exciting opportunity to work with Javelin Research & Strategy and discuss some of the new research coming out on mobile banking and the changing trends in customer demographics. Bradley Leimer, VP Online/Mobile Strategy, Mechanics Bank also participated in this fascinating panel, giving his expert insights into what he has seen firsthand in the industry.
Mark Schwanhausser, Director of Omnichannel Financial Services at Javelin went into depth discussing the profiles of various consumers and how they interact with banks. For example, I was surprised to learn how sizable the group of consumers is who are still nervous about banking on mobile devices. It used to be consumers had to wait for their monthly bank statements to arrive in the mail to check on their accounts and monitor any potential cases of fraud. Those days are gone though, with mobile banking allowing transactions to be performed and processed on a smartphone, allowing the consumer to always have the ability to monitor account status. Javelin’s research is encouraging consumers to redefine their personal security in the mobile banking environment by focusing on prevention of fraud, not just detection and resolution. This is an important shift that puts a great emphasis on the anytime banking and monitoring of mobile.
Schwanhausser also discussed the importance of catering to the Moneyhawk™ demographic. Moneyhawks are defined by their use of three critical banking services, which include using online banking, bank bill paying and mobile banking in the past 30 days at their primary financial institutions. Approximately 19% of consumers fall into this segment, which we discussed in the webinar as being a critical group that will shape banking in America in the coming years. Moneyhawks are profitable consumers that prefer cost-effective digital channels. Intelligent virtual agents are a perfect match for meeting the demands of this group because of their ability to communicate consistent messaging across channels and decrease the amount of channel switching, allowing users to stay in their preferred self-service environment. As 2013 draws to a close, I am excited to see how mobile banking in 2014 evolves.
I wanted to give a big Thank You to both Mark and Brad for participating in this webinar. In case you missed it, click here to access the full NetFinance webinar.
