Apps the word when we talk about quality financial services today. A feature that no doubt has its roots in the pre-Covid era, it is the lockdown during Covid that truly brought the power of mobile apps to the fore. Be it payments or fixed deposits, insurance policies or investment plans, almost every financial service provider is as keen about your app adoption as selling their products.
Well, this pace of mobile app adoption in financial services was the focal point of discussion at the FE CX Leadership Talk, held recently in Mumbai, in association with Branch, the industry’s leading mobile-linking and measurement platform.
A host of industry luminaries came together at the roundtable deliberating on the various aspects of “The Indispensable Role of Mobile Apps in the Finance Sector”. The list of speakers included:
- Ayushi Verma, Head – Digital Transformation, L&T Finance
- Komal Chheda, Head Of Growth, Strategic Alliances & Partnerships, CASHe
- Ayan Biswas, Executive Vice President Marketing, Yes Bank
- Soundararajan M, Vice President & Head – Digital Products, Product Admin Group and PMO, Bharti Axa general insurance
- Vipul Nirwani, Senior Group Vice President, Head-Digital Products, Motilal Oswal Financial Services
- Kotha Kartheek, Vice President of Digital Transformation, Star Health and Allied Insurance
- Deepak Bhandari, Lead Performance Marketing, Bajaj Finserv
- Elizabeth Venkataraman, Joint President and Head of Marketing & Partnerships, Kotak Mahindra Bank
- Ram Giri Vice President Digital Marketing initiatives Kotak Mahindra Bank
- Nilesh Halde, Head Products, PayNearby
- Rathik Pathak, Head Digital Marketing, SEO and Social Media, HDFC Securities
- Dhinesh Babu Potnuru, Vice President, Product Management, INDMoney
- Urmesh Chandra, Head – Digital Marketing, PolicyBazaar
The primary point that came through was how deep-linking an app was crucial for maximising its usage. While a bulk of financial transactions are taking the app route, it is important to note that apps have also enabled a decidedly higher degree of conversion, in terms of increasing the user base. But that said most of the speakers stressed the need to harness the potential of apps.
Developing a good mobile app is no longer an option. For most service providers, it is a necessity today. The challenge, however, remains in the quality of innovation that one can expect and bring about. In this quest, perhaps being able to target the right kind of customers is one of the challenges.
Engagement = Adoption
That brings us to the next step – how should the app be presented once the right audience is in place? The speakers were unanimous in agreeing that engagement is the next level in the evolution of app adoption across financial services, while acquisition and adoption are the keys. Highlighting the journey of an app’s maturity, the speakers pointed out that frictionless or a seamless process is what finally gives that much-needed nudge towards speedy adoption.
Paul Patterson, Chief Revenue Officer at Branch, highlighted the point with the need for choosing right-size chunks, “the really successful apps include the ones that drive a long-term activity plan for sticky users. If your outcome is servicing the customer better, optimising the service nodes is crucial. This is what will make the customer happier. Knowing what your app is trying to accomplish and keeping the steps as minimum as possible is important.”
Taking the one-time password (OTP) as a use case, the speakers highlighted how the sense of progress in app transactions brought through by the OTP serves the key purpose of giving the customer a sense of movement and gradual evolution in the journey.
They all agreed the next step is to ‘reduce steps’ needed to either access or use the app. This will make the customer get accustomed to the ease of use and lead to more conversion thereby optimising an app’s true potential in every way.
That does not mean that businesses can comfortably shut shop and go the virtual way. A ‘phygital’ approach is the way forward, where the customer always has that assurance that if the app fails there is always a physical touch point for redress. In fact, this also points out the other key aspect of app adoption and evolution – personalising the experience. However, this needs to be contextual and relevant.
The roundtable discussion came to a close with all the stakeholders agreeing that data generated through apps would probably become the enabler of future innovation, but it is important to keep the communication relevant. The ‘wow factor’ in any customer experience is after all the deal clincher, even in app adoption.
