DIY banking takes consumers beyond the branch

The pandemic has quickly pushed the payments world toward the direction of “hands-off.” The rise of contactless payments and digital banking will attest to that. But that doesn’t mean banks can leave consumers to figure out their financial lives on their own. In fact, the “do it yourself” movement in financial services has created a need for enhanced functionality to facilitate payments, as well as the ability to report suspected fraud and receive automated alerts to ensure that “do it yourself” doesn’t become “do it all by yourself.”

In the digital age, for consumers, credit card servicing is becoming a largely “do it yourself” affair. In an interview with PYMNTS, Tina Selwyn, head of customer experience at credit card transaction service provider Elan Financial Services, said that cardholders have become digitally savvy, and are “constantly raising the bar on what they expect to do digitally.”

Self-service has become what Selwyn termed a “strategic area of focus” for Elan and other firms over the past few years, especially amid the pandemic. She expects the embrace of such DIY options to accelerate in the years ahead, across online and brick-and-mortar channels. But along with that embrace has emerged a learning curve, as customers have had to shift away from branch settings and conduct daily life online.

 

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