Just read an interesting article by the guys at Compete.com, the analytics firm. It’s worth checking out the whole article to see statistically what I think we’ve known for a while: the online banks are doing a good job with functionality. More and more people are using online banking and those services offered by the banks generally have good uptake for those already doing their banking online.
The above-mentioned blog post chooses to focus, then, on an interesting thesis. If everything is working so smoothly, then what is really needed is to just get more people using these services. Compete recommends introducing social networking/community oriented functionality to get those already using the services to educate and recruit new users to online banking sites.
However, perhaps an additional way in which banks can drive trial of online banking functionality is to more aggressively leverage the high satisfaction levels of existing consumers by letting individuals speak to each other in an online community. It is not unprecedented for banks to create an online community around a particular topic area. Bank of America, for instance, created a compelling online community for small business owners. Letting consumers learn from the experiences of others is likely to drive increased trust in the bank and thus impact trial. It will be interesting to monitor the adoption of specific online banking features over time and what banks specifically do to drive trial. — Compete.com
While we speak a lot about introducing community functionality as a stand-alone service, here’s an interesting perspective of community functionality increasing usage of standard online services via education and lowering the bar to increase trialing.
