How can Mobile solutions help In-store Banking?
Mobile experts have been trying to find answers to these kind of questions to help them grow their business. Though this may be applicable to other retail businesses, in this blog, we are keeping our focus on Financial Services entities alone. Going ‘Mobile-Friendly’ is the trend in this space too, and it is challenging the traditional business model, as expected.
The traditional business model (‘In-store’) refers to a brick and mortar concept on which many Financial Services companies have chosen to build their fortune. However, with the recent changes in the world of technology, brick and mortar is increasingly giving way to newer means and customers are rarely visiting the branches for all their financial needs. With the increased mobile-savvy customer, new Mobile applications are paving speedy inroads into the brick and mortar businesses of the Financial empire. Many organizations are at crossroads and they are trying the reinvention route to make themselves relevant in today’s world in the hopes of reducing the exposure to the stores and concentrating on the growth of their online business.
Hence, in this tough environment, the growth of the ‘Mobile Model’ has become like a direct competitor to the in-store business model, but, surprisingly, there are ways going mobile can help instead of being a hindrance.
1. Operational efficiency
Many In-stores that sell financial products like Loans, securities etc., have this challenge of scaling up during the peak hours as their infrastructure is usually very limited. Queues are not an uncommon sight at these times. We have noticed that use of Mobile apps can bring in operational efficiency in this regard.
2. Service time reduced
Customers need to fill in a lot of details in multiple forms. During peak hours customer dissatisfaction can be eliminated by allowing them to fill the details of their name, address and copy of their id proof details using their cell phones. This helps reduce the time to service and helps in faster transactions.
E.g., this concept is similar to the online-check-in that is done in airports. Another popular example is Starbucks, customers who are waiting in line can pre-order their coffee and then collect.
3. Drive in-store sales
Another unique challenge increasing the footfall into the store. Thankfully, Mobility can help here too:
Location based messaging
Many Stores uses a Geo-tagged banner ad and location-based SMS. Marketers can use SMS based messaging system to broadcast their campaign to reach the targeted customers.
Location based search
Customers are increasingly using location-based mobile search to identify nearby stores. This becomes paramount to advertise in-store locations, details and offers on the digital media.
ROI for the Mobile In-store customers
Calculating the ROI for the Mobile In-store customers is challenging. However, companies started cracking this puzzle when they started reliably predicting the investment needed in Mobile to drive the in-store customers to predict the ROI.
For e.g., in one of the Google-Adidas case studies, Adidas was able to track statistically the customers who visited their website/online ad through their cell phones and hence track the revenue generation.
Mobile database
Collecting the Mobile numbers of potential customers and encouraging push notifications to Apps helps in knowing the customers and build profiles as an incentive.
Analytics
Collecting Mobile-specific data from in-store customers like Mobile usage, etc., which will help formulate future mobile strategies.
Going SoLoMo
Having an optimal strategy to integrate Social, Location in Mobile (SoLoMo) to target the customers helps reduce the silos between offline and online marketing.
In conclusion, any help offered in this blog is solely based on my experiences with numerous financial services clients. Hope you are able to get your Mobile strategy off the ground and suitable predict future trends that may come in use for your business.
