Even some years ago, it was easy to assess a bank’s budget, when you walked into it on the basis of its look and feel. The bigger ones would sport spaces with luxurious décor and the branches of a locally owned bank would be furnished with simplicity but compensated the lack of luxury with an amazing customer support addressed you by your first name.
Things are no longer the same as the line has somehow got blurred now. All banks today, irrespective of their sizes not only know your names but are also aware of your preferences, courtesy automation. Although smaller banks may lack an adequate budget to launch the most recent technology, their customer experience on mobile phones have more or less the same feel as that of a larger bank.
Here are some of those handy tips to help your bank meet its customer service goals using a great app:
- Concentrate on the app’s functionality
While this one may appear to be a no-brainer, it is an important consideration for a bank while choosing an app. Avoid being in rush to deploy an app only for the sake of announcing that you also have one. An app’s functionality should be adequately robust to exude a positive and great customer experience. Ideally, a bank needs to concentrate on the following:
- Capabilities for money transfer: The minimum requirement for choosing an app should be its capability of making payments or transferring money between multiple accounts. In order to make this process as simple as possible, there are some apps, which have allowed users to transfer money to their contacts using only their phone numbers.
- Speed is an important criterion: Although you may not have any control over the speed on the users’ network, your app should be able to find the necessary info at a single glance without going through the hassle of hunting through the nested menus or swiping. You need to ensure that the app you choose offers ease of navigation and a clean interface.
- Mobile deposit: While the use of check may no longer be permitted in some countries, it is still a crucial payment technique for several people. Hence the ability of an app to deposit a check in your bank via a mobile device is quite vital.
- The app should have the ability to personalize
Even when a customer’s name is called out by branch personnel, he/she feels special. The app you choose for your bank needs to have the same kind of ability. When your app has features to add a personal touch, your users will fell a greater connection with your brand and will also make your life more comfortable.
- It is vital to have peace of mind
Customers who feel well looked after and safe in a branch would love to visit the bank repeatedly. In the same manner, when they feel comfortable with an app, they will be logging into it again and again as they have a similar sense of security. Here are some of those features that can make your customers feel comfortable with an app:
- Notifications and alerts- The app should have the ability to raise an alert if a customer’s account balance goes below a fixed amount. Such a feature can be quite useful for the bank customers to manage their finances. However, alerts can work in both ways. It helps when an app has the ability to notify the bank that the customer has lost or misplaced his/her card. It is another important feature, which makes customers feel special.
- Security is simplified: For all mobile banking apps, authenticating a user is a crucial security step. However, the process does not need to be a tedious one. An increasing number of mobile phones today are offering biometric tools and support for solutions such as the Touch ID from Apple is a must these days.
Although several banks have accomplished a thorough task of considering the above points, they may not have made much progress as far as integrating the app with their other operations modules is concerned.
- Context is helpful: A mobile banking app is effective it if can provide contextually relevant information to the customers. For instance, a bank can take leverage of the GPS feature by making use of beacons to find out as soon as a customer enters in one of their branches.
- Ability to connect with other channels: It is not possible for an app to work in isolation. Your customers’ lives can become easier when the app can connect to other channels like phone banking or social media from within that app. Your customers can enjoy an Omni-channel and more connected banking experience when they are able to contact a customer service representative from the app, withdraw cash from an ATM, or see an approximate wait time through the app.
Today, it is impossible for any bank to think of a customer service strategy without using a mobile app. While a bank’s customer service representative might have the best customer service skills, but it is also essential to have a feature-rich app so that customers are able to complete a large number of functions in an autonomous mode and need to have minimum interactions with the customer service representatives.
