August is Wellness Month: Are you Supporting your Customers and Members on their Financial Wellness Journey?
August is wellness month, traditionally associated with self-care, healthy eating, and daily routines. With a spotlight this year on navigating our way out of the pandemic, we believe financial wellness is an important part of the mix, given the changes many have, and still are, navigating. We aren’t alone in that idea, as Gallup reported 63% of US consumers “want banks to improve their financial well-being, not just sell them products.”
Although every institution and customer/member story is different, recent surveys indicate consumers want to be more in control of their finances and are ultimately turning to their primary bank or credit union for self-service capabilities that help them achieve financial wellness and plan for the future. In fact, Gallup reported 84% of account holders were fully engaged with their institution when they believed their bank or credit union had their financial well-being in mind and offered planning and wellness tools.
This is likely no surprise to regional banks and credit unions who know how crucial their customers and members are to their community, and why it’s so important to offer hyper-focused account holder services and flexible offerings. We’ve compiled a list of digital tools – certainly not all inclusive, but some of our favorites – to navigate the new landscape, and to help your customers and members achieve financial success in the months to come, all while building trust and solidifying institutional loyalty.
Integrate Personal Financial Management (PFM) Capabilities into Digital Banking Platforms
Today’s digital banking users engage with their institutions through a variety of mobile devices and digital solutions, often looking for ways to help manage their finances, as well as plan for tomorrow. By leveraging personal financial management (PFM) tools that are seamlessly integrated within your digital platform, account holders benefit from a single go-to location for immediate access to insights and advice like spending/savings trends, data visualizations, transaction categorizations, and educational resources. Easy-to-use, responsive features ensure account holders receive the same level of engagement and customer/member services that they expect in-branch but from mobile and other remote channels - enabling banking on their terms.
Make it Fun with Gamification
It takes time to learn new savings and spending habits, but when you earn rewards and add an element of competition, it suddenly becomes less of a bother and more like a game that account holders want to play. Nudge tools and gamification capabilities within your digital banking solution help influence behavior, causing customers and members to change their money-savings and investment habits for the better, boost deposits, and even learn seemingly complex banking topics. With simple, engaging capabilities, watch as your institution increases loyalty, keeps users in-solution, and assists account holders with their wellness education.
Increase Trust with Personalization
Personalization is now expected within digital channels, as customers and members want to feel like their institution knows and understands their unique needs even from afar. When deployed effectively, campaigns should feel like a personal message in support of one’s wellness goals, based on an account holder’s unique financial story. By leveraging insights like user behavior data, feature adoptions and journeys within the platform, and spending habits, to name a few, institutions are positioned to effectively suggest new products or services, or even provide savings and investment advice. Powered by predictive analytics and machine learning, these campaigns are digital extensions of in-branch employees that further support customers and members on their financial journey.
Provide Capabilities that Support Niche Market Segments
Financial wellness isn’t just for individuals. Small and microbusiness owners are also turning to their primary financial institutions for convenient services and digital tools that allow them to access funds, operate in the field, and monitor their transactions and finances easily – core capabilities for the survival and overall wellness of their businesses. It may come as a surprise though, many institutions have a gap in services and miss the mark with this niche market. Products here are often too basic or too complex for their needs, leaving them left to find third-party solutions that will stand by them as they scale. By keeping microbusinesses within your payments network, you’ll remain their trusted institution for expanded relationships, providing business owners with more control over their revenue and faster access to cash flow with digital add-on tools. Make it simple for these business owners to focus on their clients, grow their businesses, and maintain an overall positive financial health, while you gain access to big data for enhanced and more personalized services.
Financial wellness is a unique story for everyone, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. By leveraging data and trends from account holders’ behaviors, product adoptions, and user journeys, your institution will gain the insights needed to be that personal advisor and wellness coach today and well into the future.
Contact us today to schedule a discovery call and to learn more about supporting your customers’ and members’ financial stories.
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