Checking the time does not mean I am good at managing time, and checking more often will not result in better time management. The author brings up a great point at the outset to the article, recognizing that financial institutions have essentially brought analog thinking to the digital environment. Counting the digital visits as “engagement instances” may be viewed as fool’s gold.
It seems to me that some of the big banks like to brag about how many mobile banking customers they have, and the number of mobile transactions (or interactions) those customers have through mobile devices on a monthly basis. At some point, however, checking your account balance on your smartphone for the 78th time this week stops being “value-added” engagement, doesn’t it?
Mercator Advisory Group believes financial institutions unpacking the intent of customer visits, whether expressed or intuited, are approaching the analysis of how mobile and remote access is in effectively achieving customer objectives. In the issue of bill pay, used as an example in in the article, appears as an anemic service offering via digital channels, the author’s suggestion to further investigate how the service might be more attractive is well taken.
… The share of bills paid by direct debit dropped from 11% to 7%. The drop, in terms of the total number of bills paid by this method, was roughly 50%. Why the drastic change? Many consumers don’t want to “set it and forget it” when they can easily pay their bills on a biller site upon getting an email, eBill, or reminder.
Gaining better understanding beyond with simple digital capabilities folks want from their financial institution will be vital to be an effective facilitator and perhaps function as an advisor. Alignment with personal financial management (PFM) tools will provide one way for FIs to shift from frequency of engagements to the value of engagements. Valuable engagements will move towards the achievement of converting customer intents into objectives, objectives into achievements, and achievements produce positive experience instances that are related to other consumers.
Overview by Joseph Walent, Associate Director, Customer Interactions Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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