Community Banks Compete with Big Bank Mobile Strategies
How many mobile applications are required to meet the needs of your customers? Can you buy commercial off-the-shelf apps? Do custom developed apps get better results? How much money should be budgeted for building out a mobile banking strategy?
Of course, the answers to all these questions is – it depends. But, one answer addresses all the questions – mobile applications are growing and banking customers are beginning to utilize mobile apps in ever increasing numbers. That is not news anymore. What is newsworthy is that most community banks are struggling to implement a mobile strategy that makes sense to their customers and fits into the banks budget.
Mobile Banking Appeals More to Younger Customers
Let’s face it, using cell phones to conduct banking business is not necessarily a comfortable way for most people to manage their money. Interestingly, the younger the bank customer, the more comfortable he or she is with mobile banking. However, the older customers (incidentally the ones with the biggest bank accounts) are not so keen on using their phones to do anything but talk, text and email. Most are not rushing to the app stores to buy an application that will improve their banking experience.
Okay, so it is obvious that the world of mobile banking is emerging and will certainly grow year over year as the older customer-base is replaced by the younger customers. This is an important fact, and it requires that the community banks take action now to develop mobile apps, even though the payoff will not happen until some point in the future, perhaps years from now.
Mobile App Development is a Balancing Act
Balance is the operative word for banks. They must find the right balance between the cost of acquiring or developing a mobile app and the potential return on that investment. If this balancing act only applied to one application, then the cost would be of less importance. Unfortunately, that is not the case for mobile banking. There are potentially hundreds of small applications (applets) that run on many different devices and can access different internal bank resources. One of the biggest hurdles to mobile banking app development is that there is no single device standard that all manufacturers follow. If there was a uniform standard for all devices, it would make developing applications easier and more cost effective, but that’s not the case.
The way forward for community banks is clear; they must gradually increase the number and variety of mobile apps available to customers. Yes clear! A mobile strategy must consider the current needs of the bank’s customers, but it must look out 3 to 5 years to address the needs of an emerging customer-base. The strategy must seek to understand and embrace younger customers who are savvy in the ways of mobile-computing.
Executing the Strategy
Developing a mobile strategy is one thing, executing that strategy is something all-together different. This is especially true if the bank does not have the internal resources to build and maintain their own applications. Even so, the world is changing and customers are comparing the services they receive from one bank to the services offered by other banks. With the explosion of online banks (banks that are strictly Internet based) and banks that are brick-and-mortar, but offer a strong online option; the pressure is building for ALL types of financial institutions to provide mobile banking solutions.
KnackTek’s Mobile Banking Development
To ease the pressure and move confidently forward with a mobile strategy, one of the best options is to work with a consulting firm that is flexible enough to fit into your strategy. What does this mean? As mentioned earlier, the way forward is clear, but the individual steps necessary to move forward may not be. This is where a seasoned consulting firm that specializes in mobile banking can be of extreme value. This is also where a firm that understands the unique needs and requirements of smaller community banks can get more work done, meet more business objectives, and stay within the budget.
KnackTek would like to be your mobile application development partner. For more information on how KnackTck can help your financial institution expand your customer-base with mobile banking apps, please contact us at: info@KnackTek.com or call 678-956-1780.
|