A new report has revealed that 80% of banks’ digital features for customers are almost the same and they face a key challenge in focusing their transformation budgets on the 20% that is different.
Digital experience consultancy Mobiquity’s latest Digital Banking Features Radar has analysed the “musts”, “delighters“ and “differentiators“ of digital banking features to understand emerging trends that support a frictionless customer experience.
The key features identified in this report can include emerging differentiating digital features that can enhance customer experience and separate banks from their competition.
These include:
Maybuy Integrating desired purchases marked by the user as a “Maybuy” to start a goal and help to save money to eventually buy the desired item.
Track earned wages: Allowing users to track how much they’ve earned throughout the month or after each shift, complimenting early salary withdrawal features.
Financial health score: Scoring customers based on how they spend, save, use insurance and manage credits to determine proactive tips on savings, cash-flow and budgeting.
Payment type selection: An automated adviser for users on what would be the cheapest and most secure method of payments to a particular receiver – QR, bank transfer, debit card, etc.
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Mobiquity Asia Pacific general manager Gustavo Quiroga (pictured above) said Mobiquity’s Digital Banking Features Radar highlighted two delighters for mortgage brokers in particular – digital mortgages and credit bundling.
“Digital mortgages allow brokers to take the multi-step process of securing a mortgage for clients into an app — whether it’s loan calculators, online document submission, or an opportunity to schedule online meetings with advisors,” Quiroga said.
“Anything that makes it easier to get the loan should be embraced. In the same tone, but perhaps for the more forward-thinking brokers with the increasing shift towards positive reporting, helping customers to improve their rating through credit bundling must be a win-win feature.”
Quiroga said the lending sector was advancing quickly and brokers do not need to re-invent or invest heavily to be at pace with market expectations.
“There is a big push in the industry towards embedded finance and banking as a service,” he said.
“Combined, these offerings will increasingly provide brokers with all the tech they need through simple and low-cost integrations for the out of the box functionality.”
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Quiroga said the narrowing margin for differentiation in digital banking services called for more creative thinking with a customer-first mindset.
“Our Radar is a resource for chief data officers and banking product managers to take an aspirational view of what ‘great’ user experience looks like by challenging their organisations to accelerate innovation and deliver new experiences,” he said.
“Many of last year’s ‘delighter’ add-on features have become this years’ ‘must have’ minimum expectations, so the pressure is on for banks to differentiate and elevate their customer experience in an engaging way.”
Quiroga said to orchestrate unique experiences, brands must enlist modular tech stacks that could be customised to suit customer needs.
“By simply going to market with an ‘out-of-the-box’ product offerings from platform vendors is not good enough. This will also allow banks to set themselves up for continuous product innovation that services utility and delivers the ‘differentiators’ that align to customer values, lifestyle and financial health needs,” he said.
Quiroga said with the digital fundamentals under their belt, banks can then look to explore brand differentiation with each digital engagement moment tailored to their customer wants and needs from seamless logins to instant loan applications.
