While credit unions continue to adapt to the mobile-first era, a new study from Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Invoca, found that consumers rely heavily on offline interactions when making important financial decisions.
The call-intelligence company’s State of the Consumer Banking Experience surveyed more than 1,200 U.S. adults who have taken out a loan greater than $15,000 in the last three years to understand how consumer interactions with a financial institutions influences their banking decisions.
The U.S. financial services industry will spend $8.37 billion on digital advertising in 2016, a 14.5% gain from 2015 according to the eMarketer report.
Nevertheless, when evaluating a loan, Invoca survey respondents ranked in-person meetings and phone calls as their preferred modes of communication with financial institutions; more than a quarter made at least four phone calls to financial institutions before selecting one for their loan. Moreover, the bigger the loan the more likely potential customers are to call: 93% of people who took out loans of $100,000 or more made at least one call to the financial institution they ultimately chose for their loan.
Financial marketers are struggling with a host of challenges that affect the customer experience like internal silos, lack of unified data, poor attribution, and incomplete martech stacks, Kyle Christensen, SVP marketing at Invoca, said. “This study brings to light what’s at stake for financial institutions that fail to keep up with the demands of today’s mobile consumer. While it can seem like a massive undertaking, those that begin to unify the customer experience across channels will have a considerable advantage in 2017 and beyond.”
Financial institutions therefore need to think beyond digital, as phone calls and branch visits build trust, confidence, and long-lasting relationships, which are critical for consumers choosing an institution from which to purchase high-value financial products and safeguard their finances.
Other survey findings revealed:
- Omnichannel is the new normal. Consumers use multiple screens and channels to interact with financial institutions, including in-person visits, calls, apps, chatbots, social media, and more. They are not thinking about these as separate conversations. Seventy-five percent of consumers said it is important or extremely important to switch between channels such as SMS, phone calls, email and online chat easily when interacting with their financial institution.
- The phone call experience can make or break a decision. More than half of respondents said they were more likely to take out a loan from an institution they spoke with on the phone during the loan process; this increased to nearly three-fourths of consumers who took out a loan of $100,000 or more. Eighty percent of loan shoppers said a call answered by a representative who immediately knew their account history and relationship had a positive influence on their decision. When evaluating a loan, after a negative call experience, 56% would likely choose another financial institution. Following a positive call experience, 57% would likely choose that institution for their loan.
- As banking becomes increasingly digital, human interaction will still play a large role. For instance, while more than 80% percent use their bank’s app for checking balances or transferring money, consumers prefer to use offline interactions for more complex or sensitive issues. For example, almost half of financial institution customers said they would be uncomfortable discussing fraudulent banking charges with chatbots. More than 80% said they are comfortable talking over the phone about loan options, compared to only 43% who would be comfortable talking to a bot about loan options.
