Meeting Needs Of Digital Consumers No Longer An Option

What should traditional banks and credit unions consider in order to offer a level of service that will meet younger generation expectations? Can banking organizations remain relevant in the future, or will they be replaced by fintech or ‘big tech’ alternatives?

There has never been such a considerable generational gap. This gap is due to a significant technology boom that formed a modern generation of tech natives. The digital world has created new behavioral patterns and interaction principles influencing the values of the younger generation.

It is not surprising that businesses, organized in the pre-digital era by people from the previous generations, encounter adaptation problems in today’s world. Of course, they still have an army of loyal customers from previous generations, but evidently, their growth prospects are limited if they don’t adequately serve the needs and expectations of the next generations..

Young people are gradually taking more and more resources into their hands — according to the statistics, this age group will control $7 trillion of assets by the year 2020 in the US. Today, they are the largest group among customers buying a house for the first time.

Traditional business survival depends on overcoming generational conflict and on its adaptation of new technologies and the ability to respond to the demands of the digital world and digital consumer. It is vital to see the difference between the demands of the future customer and the previous generations to create an effective business strategy and also to understand it, taking into account UX design.

Let’s see what the younger generation likes in terms of interaction with companies and take a look at their values and what kind of customers they are.

1. Fully Digital Consumption The younger the customer or member, the less he/she really wants to interact with business representatives to solve his problems when using a product or a service. Around 30% of Generation Z stated that they prefer to find information online and cope with the problem themselves.

Their multitasking capability is shocking. They are able to interact simultaneously with dozens of digital channels. Emails are gone, left only for business communication. Still don’t have alerts and notifications in your service app? Well, that’s no good. Don’t hesitate to enable them. Use as many digital channels as possible … be everywhere with your younger consumers.

The digital consumer born in the past 15-20 years lives in a world of innovation they understand, and most of all, appreciate the real-time experience. This means that banks and credit unions must closely monitor trends and use situational marketing to provide hyper-personal experiences. It’s important to switch from traditional advertising to native formats.

According to a PwC study, only 25% of banking products are available online – usually it’s not as easy to find a mobile app, and the app itself is far from being perfect. Become omni-digital, but be careful. Nothing can be as annoying for customers as useless advertising notifications.

Many banks still invest in the channels which are ineffective for reaching and generating response from the new generation. Users wish to make more transactions online — from simple payments and transfers to loans and investments.

The implementation of new tendencies doesn’t always correspond with the regulatory requirements of customer identification (KYC) and to the regulations on money laundering that may be beyond companies, but the ones who manage to do this, will gain access to a large potential audience and provide a good future for their business. So, get ready for a cashless society.

Unlike previous generations, the new generation loves with the eyes, not with the ears. Don’t expect a catchy tagline to be an excuse for outdated site design and apps. Visual details are paramount for the new generation.