Your 7 deadly sins online

Despite great technological leaps and rapid adoption in the online channel over the last 20 years, the digital experience at banks and credit unions is shamefully inconsistent with their physical branches.

Ever since online banking became canon for financial institutions in the 1990s, the term “virtual branch” has been used by banking professionals and industry commentators to refer to web-based and mobile services. Despite rapid consumer adoption and great technological leaps over the last 20 years, most digital offerings from banks and credit unions are shamefully inconsistent with the physical branch experience.

Today, a customer’s digital experience is as important—if not more important—than the physical branch experience. So why don’t we have the same standards for our digital experiences as we do in branch? Let’s review seven deadly sins that are all too frequent in the digital space and guiding principles to save your customer’s online banking experience.

1. A website that isn’t mobile friendly is like a door that only opens 2 out of 3 times.

According to IBM, smart phone and tablet traffic on online retail sites accounted for about 35% of total traffic, or one in three site visits. The financial services space has experienced similar growth in both mobile traffic and online deposit account applications. Pew Research Center reports that 19% of people used mobile banking within the past 12 months, which has much more to do with financial institutions not keeping up with consumer demand.3 Consumers are overwhelmingly switching to mobile, and if the best your website can offer is a “pinch and shrink” experience, they’ll form a negative brand impression and consider an institution with a more modern website experience.

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