BOSTON—Consumers say that when it comes to either missing their wallet or mobile phone for a day, most would miss using their phone.
Some 54% of U.S. consumers who Bain & Company surveyed recently chose the phone, and in China and South Korea, that share rose to more than 75%.
It’s just one marker of how mobile has evolved from being a separate banking channel to becoming the hub of personal finance, stated Forbes.
As banks and credit unions rush to provide more mobile services, that race carries high stakes.
“Mobile offers banks a path to sustained profitability, because of its sharply lower cost structure than the branch—where most bank costs are tied up—or the contact center,” Forbes reported. “For a typical national U.S. bank, each branch visit for a routine interaction, such as depositing a check, has an average variable cost of about $2. Each call answered by a contact center agent costs about $4.50. The variable cost of a mobile interaction via app or browser, by contrast, is just a couple of pennies.”
Mobile not only saves FIs money, it provides a strong consumer experience.
Bain’s survey of 114,700 consumers in 17 countries, including 24,600 in the U.S., found that a routine interaction on a mobile app is 32% more likely to delight customers than a routine interaction in the branch. Moreover, frequent mobile users said they are 40% less likely to switch banks than customers who rarely use banks’ mobile apps, Forbes reported.