Wouldn’t it be nice if your mobile banking app could eliminate, not create, work for you?
I love remote deposit capture. I didn’t realize how much I disliked going to the bank or even just to an ATM to deposit checks until I had an alternative. And now I can’t imagine ever doing it again.
But I have a gripe.
My bank is now posting a notice after I make my remote deposit that I should hold on to the paper check for ten days before disposing of it to be sure the funds have been settled.
Do I really need to start a tickler file to track when I can safely dispose of checks I have already deposited?
Doesn’t it make more sense for my bank to notify me when a particular check has cleared so I could get rid of it? And guess what – they’ve got the perfect way to send me such a message, right in the palm of my hand. It’s the same mobile banking application I just used to make the remote deposit.
I would gladly authorize my bank to send me a “push notification” about things like this, and about dangerously low balances on my checking account, or even the opportunity to earn more interest by moving funds from checking to a CD.
Such “marketing” messages are hard to deliver today in other channels. The rules and regulations governing proactive outreach via recorded messages, SMS text or even call center agents working on a dialer have gotten so restrictive that some institutions have given up on helping their customers in any way that might be construed as marketing.
But the push notification channel falls outside of these restrictions. It requires the customer to install your mobile application on their smartphone, and best practice is you ask them to opt in to push notifications, but beyond that you would be able to deliver both customer service and marketing messages through this channel.
And I am not alone in expecting my bank to us push notifications. In a survey of over 600 mobile banking users Varolii conducted in December 2012, we found 54% felt the same way.
Well, since my coffee hasn’t kicked in, and my contrarian side is feeling frisky – figured I’d throw my two cents in.
My thought is that in general consumers really don’t want to hear that much from their FI. Sure – we all fantasize customers are craving a relationship with their bank, but let’s be honest. Most would never use the word Relationship to describe their desired state with a bank.
What you’re describing is another delivery method for alerts – and I would disagree respectfully that delivering alerts to customers via email or SMS has become onerous from a compliance standpoint. I think the bigger issue is that while conceptually alerts via email, SMS and apps are great – customer usage across the board is low. Given how long they’ve been in place in one form of another in the online world, they’ve hardly set the world on fire.
Just observing my own slice of the world and individuals use of Push notices on apps, or alerts in general – and it looks like most Average Joe/Jane consumers find it hard to get the right balance when they enable them. Then they are frustrated with too many low-impact alerts (e.g. daily balance alerts) – and to simplify start shutting them all down or ignoring them.
As a quick survey this a.m. – I stopped the first 6 people in the office and asked them to show me what Push notices they had enabled on their phones. In general, 90%+ had disabled Push notices on almost every app. When I asked why? “They’re annoying” or “I just ignore them” was the common meme. The one common app which seemed to have Push notices turned on always related to messaging (text, email, etc)
So, I think this isn’t about Push. It’s about consumers desire for actionable information delivered in a timely manner in the way they prefer. For some consumers willing to take the time to tweak their alerting preferences (Push, SMS, email, etc) it can be valuable. But for most, maybe we as FI’s need to find a way to educate them that of the things we CAN tell alert them to, which are the FEW they really would want us to push to them. And then maybe they’ll keep them on because the once in a blue moon they get an alert, it’ll be important.
Thanks for your comment Ted. I think you have hit on a key point regarding getting the frequency of notifications right. Daily balance alerts would annoy me too, and I would either turn them off or ignore them, including the one that would let me know I was about to start bouncing checks.
I also appreciate insights from your “man on the street” interviews; I’d be interested in knowing if they’ve disabled push for their mobile banking apps. When we did our survey of mobile banking users in December, over 60% agreed with the statement “IT IS MY BANK’S RESPONSIBILITY TO IMMEDIATELY ALERT ME WHEN I HAVE
A LOW BALANCE OR INSUFFICIENT FUNDS TO PAY A BILL.” That does not necessarily mean they want to be told through a push notification…they just want to be told.
So it seems we will need to keep working to get the frequency, purpose, and timing and channel right on alerts. For me, it just makes sense to do that all through the app I am now using for 90% of my banking.
That’s what I am talking about!
Article in yesterdays Bank Technology News on RDC & fraud says “Companies are working on improving mobile deposit ease of use, including alerting people when they should throw out checks.”
http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/178_133/the-lesser-known-risks-of-mobile-check-deposit-1060543-1.html?zkPrintable=1&nopagination=1