Finance Monthly October 2019 Edition

50 www.finance-monthly.com FINANCIAL INNOVATION & FINTECH - BANKING APPS Different strokes for different folks It’s a well-known fact that the behavioural patterns of banking apps users differ greatly from one to the other. Considerations like age, background, tech-savviness and financial literacy all factor into the equation, especially when change is afoot. In one camp, for example, are users who become so set in their ways that when something new comes along, it has little effect. In their 2018 mobile banking scorecard, Javelin summed it up well in saying that many users have “well-worn paths within their banks’ mobile apps”, typically navigating in exactly the same way, to exactly the same item, with each new visit. When things change for these users, they tend to stubbornly stick to their familiar paths, either too comfortable and content with what they’ve come to know and use, or too scared to try something different. In another camp are more adventurous users who are undoubtedly interested in new features and functionality but never get around to using them. Research by Fiserv (via The Financial Brand) uncovered various reasons for this anomaly, including that nearly half (46%) of users are confused by the array of products on offer these days, while one third (33%) say they don’t know how to use them. Eight out of ten users also worry about data security and privacy. There are, of course, also the small group of who wait impatiently for their banks to offer the latest new capability that they know is already What’s worse than thrusting your brand into the limelight with the extravagant launch of a new product or service, only for it to receive a zero-star rating from customers and fall completely flat? All that time, planning, and money wasted (not to mention the reputational damage!) – nothing could compare, right? Au contraire. Picture integrating a brand-new feature into your banking app that youknow isdestined for greatness. Something that’s sowell- designed, convenient, and customer-centric that you naively assume its adoption will be suitably organic – instantaneous, even. Except, that’s not the case. Because a few weeks in, and adoption has been so slow that it’s hardly worth mentioning. Skip ahead a few months, and still no-one’s using it. Could you have done something differently, you find yourself asking? We’re glad you asked. WHEN YOUR APP’S NEW FEATURE IS AWESOME (BUT NOBODY KNOWS) Frans Labuschagne, Country Manager UK&I of Entersekt