Photo by Jonas Leupe on Unsplash
BBM Enterprise SDK is now BlackBerry Spark Communications Platform. Learn more, and download it for free at BlackBerry.com/Spark.
The days of waiting in line at a local bank branch for basic transactions is a distant memory for many today. Mobile banking is the new norm, and virtually every financial institution now offers some form of mobile application. Banks that understand how to innovate and meet rising consumer expectations with these apps have everything to gain.
Per J.D. Power Research, for instance, banks that provide an excellent mobile banking experience see an immediate and significant increase in customer satisfaction. Banks with mobile platforms that are both user-friendly and functional enjoy a competitive advantage with customer acquisition and retention. And according to Forbes, Mobile banking customers are also more likely to hold more accounts than branch-only customers, with a 72% overall increase in revenue.
Consequently, institutions that fail to deliver a compelling, innovative, and intuitive mobile banking experience will be left behind by those that do. At best, this means they will miss out on a considerable chunk of revenue. At worst, it could mean losing clients to the competition.
To avoid such losses, you must first understand where your app may fall short – and how to fix those shortcomings.
1. Your App is Boring
Banking apps that simply allow you to check your balance or notify you about withdrawals are table stakes. People demand more from their mobile apps. They expect services that go above and beyond the norm.
Your app needs to provide 24/7 support that’s both easy to use and easily-accessible. It needs to offer a personal, in-app experience tailored to their needs and communication preferences. Without these two features, they will increasingly stray from your app, perhaps even switching to a competitor that offers them more.
2. Your App Isn’t Reliable
The only thing more frustrating than a connection that doesn’t work is one that just barely works. Unfortunately, many mobile banking apps fall into the latter category. Connection issues are frequent, especially in low-network areas such as city centers, basements, and remote locales, to say nothing of the problems caused by network outages. This limits your bank’s global reach.
If your customers find themselves consistently unable to use your app, this frustration will carry over into how they interact with your institution – eventually, they may even seek out a competitor.
3. Your Clients Have Trust Issues
Usability aside, the biggest thing keeping people away from mobile banking is security. People are paranoid that mobile banking apps – and banks in general – cannot protect their financial data, with 73% of respondents to a 2016 Federal Reserve Report indicating that they do not believe mobile apps are secure. Looking at the numbers, it’s difficult to blame them.
A recent global survey of senior banking security executives found that a bank suffers an average of 85 serious attempted breaches each year, 36% of which are successful. Worse still, 59% of respondents indicated that it took them several months to detect a breach. And when such a breach does occur, it almost always receives widespread media coverage.
That coverage can kill a bank’s reputation. Even if a bank is not directly responsible for a breach, customers may still blame them and terminate their relationship. That’s why, more than anything else, your mobile banking app needs to be secure – and your customers need to know that it is.
Reap the Benefits of Better Banking with the BlackBerry Spark Communications Platform
Built on BlackBerry’s strength in secure mobile messaging, the BlackBerry Spark Communications Platform – our leading CPaaS (communications platform as a service) solution – allows your developers to easily integrate secure, enterprise-grade communications functionality into your banking app. Reliable, scalable, and intuitive, it offers rich capabilities, such as secure messaging, voice, and video chat, group chat, notifications, and file sharing.
For banks and financial institutions, Spark can help them take their mobile applications far beyond basic banking in many ways.
- Unmatched security and privacy. Spark provides unmatched security, with end-to-end government grade encryption on messages both in-transit and at-rest—helping your customer trust mobile banking again.
- Better resiliency and greater customer reach. Thanks to BlackBerry’s global communications infrastructure – the only one of its kind – apps built through Spark offer reliability and guaranteed delivery, even when in areas with low-performing networks, ensuring your clients have access wherever and whenever they need it.
- In-app real-time communications. Our Spark offers far more than basic chat – it allows you to deliver innovative, customized experiences such as one-tap call support, video consultations, and personalized AI chatbots.
- New consolation services. With capabilities such as predictive analysis and file sharing, your bank can introduce its clients to a wealth of new services, enhancing their experience and potentially opening new revenue streams.
- Insights into customer needs. Thanks to built-in analytics, Spark allows your development team to monitor things such as time spent on each mobile banking feature, enabling better digital investment decisions.
Mobile banking will only become more aggressive and congested as we move forward. For your bank to thrive in this market, you need to innovate. You need to create secure, personalized, intuitive mobile experiences for your clients.
Through Spark, you can do exactly that – all while keeping your bank BlackBerry Secure.
To learn more about how your bank can offer better mobile banking, check out our white paper.