Exceeding Customer Expectations When Financial Institutions Go Mobile.

 In the Financial Services Industry, with usage of mobile apps on the rise, branch-banking is steadily decreasing and customers dont seem to be too concerned. 

Heraclitus was right when he said, “Change is the only constant.” As economies evolve, shifts happen in the practices of how certain industries operate. New technologies are constantly changing the way processes happen and companies either adapt or fall behind. At a time when bank branches are slowly reducing in number, people don't seem to care. In fact, an expansive survey suggested that when it comes to the banking experience, institutions are far better off concentrating on creating great mobile experiences than on upgrading their physical locations.

While the younger generation(Read: iGeneration) is a little earlier in adopting the mobile technology, the older generation (read: Gen X and Gen Y) is right behind them in terms of driving it as well. A user determines whether to adopt a mobile app or not depending on the following features:

·        Free Download and Upgrades or Offers

·        User Friendliness- UI and UX

·        Depth of information regarding accounts

·        Ease of Transactions

·        Service offerings

·        Cross Channel Guidance

·        Security

·        Utilities

·        Money Management Tools

·        Designed for futuristic touchpoints like IOT etc

According to Forrester, a few other features to keep in mind are: extraordinary design discipline; radical simplification; communication via anytime, anywhere chat and video calls; faster development of new features and personalization so that only relevant information is displayed to the user. Good apps allow customers to easily access offline touchpoints whether that is in the form of contact phone numbers, assistance via social media pages, or geolocation tools to locate branches and ATMs

Community-level banking, particularly from large institutions, will become more cost efficient and less dependent on branch banking. Where there once stood smiling tellers at windows, in the not so far future, under at least one scenario, equally pleasant avatars will be programmed to do their customers' bidding. Although organizations are doing away with branches, demand for services they provide to communities across the country must remain constant. It will be the delivery of those services that will change the most. While some bemoan the declining human touch, branch banking is turning into a numbers game. At a time when banks are coping with higher costs and pressure to condense services, reducing the number of branches makes sense as a way to keep customers while lowering overhead. To win and retain mind-share and wallet share, digital banking teams need to focus on using mobile banking not only to meet customers’ banking needs but also to create new sources of value.

A wish list of services on the financial mobile app would be:

?             Transfer Money

?             Check Financial Health

?             Apply for Loans

?             Calculate installments

?             Monitor Credit card transactions

?             Refer friends and family

?             Push notifications

?             Retrieve saved applications

?             Photo Banking

To keep up with the ever changing technology and customer demands, mobile apps must evolve to become a platform for customer engagement. Whether it's about developing customer-centric products or providing seamless access to account information, this is how the future of mobile developing in the financial services could look like.