Four reasons FIs experience sub-optimal online account opening performance

by Ignite Sales

Online Account Opening (OAO) has been increasingly important to banks as they transitioned to a more digital banking environment. Since Covid-19 has accelerated the move toward digital banking, effective OAO is now critical for a frictionless customer journey. However, there are challenges that prevent banks from achieving the optimal OAO performance, even using the best OAO applications available. Let’s look at some important background information and then discuss four of the main challenges for reaching the most effective OAO results.

The percentage of financial institutions offering online (website) account opening reached a new all-time high in 2020 at 82% with mobile at 38%, according to the Digital Banking Report. That represents a significant jump from 76% online and 34% mobile in 2019 (and up from 66% online and 18% mobile in 2017).

Yet, many institutions who have purchased (expensive) OAO systems are finding challenges to successful online application completions. Customer expectations about how they interact with their bank or credit union, as well as their understanding of the process and what information is being required, leads to high drop off rates, and erosion of trust.

 

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