Insights CSI Final - Flipbook - Page 2
K EY
EY M
E TR
T R IICS
CS
ME
MOBILE BANKING
INSIGHTS
Which delivery channel is more
critical to your bank’s growth
strategy?
Source: Bank Director’s 2024
Technology Survey
58%
33%
Making Mobile Banking Intuitive
The mobile banking app is important to any successful digital strategy,
and these products must be easy to understand and feel natural to use.
An example of this could be elevating bill payment options to the home
screen so customers don’t have to hunt for that feature.
9%
Digital and the branch are
equally important
Digital
Branch
K E Y TA K E A W AY S
• Popular mobile apps have shifted
consumers’ expectations of how apps
should work, look and feel, and these
expectations extend to the banking sector.
• Bankers increasingly see major retailers
as a competitive threat; Amazon.com and
Walmart are not only exploring the digital
payments space, but they also hold sway
over a substantial market share.
• Intuitive design is an important concept in
app development; it means that an app is
easy to understand and navigate, and feels
natural to use.
• One example of intuitive design in banking
is the elevation of bill pay options to the
home screen, so users spend fewer clicks
trying to find what they’ve logged in to do.
• Some key indicators of whether users find
the app intuitive may be fewer customer
support calls, a strong app store rating or
low customer attrition.
Popular shopping, social media and delivery apps are influencing consumers’ expectations in ways that matter to community banks and credit unions.
Creating an effective user experience in a mobile banking app means that on
some level, financial institutions have to compete on a playing field shaped by
brands like Uber and TikTok.
“Whether we like it or not, the likes of Amazon and other popular apps drive a
lot of expectations for consumers,” says Mark Donovan, chief operating officer at
Illinois National Bancorp in Springfield, Illinois.
For its subsidiary, the $2.4 billion INB, and other similarly situated banks,
that means that intuitive design has to factor into any conversation about the
bank’s self-service mobile application. Intuitive design essentially means that an
app feels natural to use, is easy to understand and navigate, and doesn’t require
the user to overcome a steep learning curve. Fundamentally, it matches the users’
expectations and behaviors based on past experiences with similar systems.
Beyond shaping consumer expectations, increasingly bankers view some large
retailers — ones with deep pockets that can invest in their digital channels — as
competitors, especially in the payments space. Bank Director’s 2024 Technology
Survey found that 12% of bank leaders considered retailers, such as Amazon.
com and Walmart, as a competitive threat. That’s up from 5% in 2023.
In addition to that, a majority of consumers (55%) said they used their banks’
mobile app on a phone or tablet the most frequently to manage their accounts,
which was significantly higher than any other channel, including branches or even
online on a laptop, according to a national survey from the American Bankers
Association.
Given these realities, it’s safe to assume that the effectiveness of an institution’s mobile app is at least a factor for some consumers when they decide where
