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3 important benefits you must offer to make account opening so positive it leads to meaningful memberships.
Sponsored by Fiserv
When you look around your office or living room, you see phones and other electronic devices. Consumers like us now live our lives online. We all know that this shift in how we engage with people and information is transforming the way every industry functions—and that financial services is no different.
Make no mistake: People are not just comfortable using digital technology for everyday activities—increasingly, they want to start there. They are ready to open accounts with their financial institutions in the same way. The challenge for those institutions, then, is to make the experience of opening accounts a positive one that will turn those consumers into long-time members.
To meet the challenge, you need to offer three important benefits during and after account opening: trust, convenience and engagement.
Trust comes from assurances that you are keeping all of applicants’ information safe and secure. Those who have been victims of fraud or identity theft especially want confirmation that their financial partner is using a strong security program on its site and masking personal data. It is important that you verify their identity in real time and avoid asking invasive questions. When you must request sensitive information, explain why it is necessary, making sure it is something you do not already know.
Convenience is essential in our fast-paced world; consumers want to apply for an account from anywhere, at any time, and by any device or method they choose. They appreciate it when you simplify instructions, avoid repetition, use automatic formatting and offer cues to make corrections if they go astray. For example, employ logically ordered steps that are obvious and intuitive and that help applicants know where they are in the process. If someone needs to interrupt an application and continue it later in another channel—mobile, online or branch—the transition needs to be seamless.
Engagement puts applicants in the driver’s seat, allowing them interact with you and the process as necessary and to access tools throughout to help them. When they have questions, they are more likely to stay with the application if the answers are readily available. The process must be fast and provide a way for applicants to streamline their work by doing things like capturing images rather than spending time typing information they can photograph from their smart phones. A smooth engaging experience is the right first impression and encourages applicants to expand the relationship.
By offering a satisfying financial services experience from the very start, your institution will naturally grow and deepen its relationships.
Jeff Sonderman is senior product manager of CUES Supplier member Fiserv, Brookfield, Wis. For more information on how you can provide the positive first experience consumers expect and deepen current member relationships, visit Fiserv.com.
If you liked this post, you may be interested in attending:
- CUES School of Strategic Marketing in July in Seattle
- Payments University in August in Denver
- CUES School of Member Experience™ in September in Denver
