By James B. DeBello
Millennials are tech-savvy individuals who have high expectations of their financial institutions. As credit unions look to better serve and connect with the often tough to reach Millennial demographic, a new study finds that Millennials want to leverage the camera when it comes to engaging with their financial institution.
A survey of more than 1,000 Millennials conducted by Mitek and research firm Zogby Analytics found that the camera is key for credit unions looking to engage with this demographic. The survey results clearly show that Millennials want to digitize all commerce through their mobile camera.
For any credit union looking to gain market share and loyalty from Millennials, they must embrace how this group communicates. For example, 68% of Millennials surveyed would rather use the camera for mobile capture instead of ever manually typing information on their mobile device. This tells us that simply offering an app to retrieve account balances are not enough anymore.
This becomes even more important as our survey points out that banking is the top industry where Millennials wished there were more mobile capture functionality (40%). Sixty-eight percent of Millennials said that mobile deposit was where they first tried mobile capture, so it only makes sense that banking would be the industry that they want more opportunities to leverage the camera on their smartphone.
The good news is that credit unions have a unique opportunity to incorporate this mobile capture technology into more of their app capabilities before big banks. Large banks are typically slower to integrate new technology because of their scale, and this leaves room for credit unions. Credit unions observing this trend have an opportunity to capture new members by giving Millennials exactly what they want - the ability to use mobile capture for more transactions. Forty-two percent of respondents said they have made a decision on where to spend their money, or switched companies based on what the business allowed its users to accomplish with a mobile device so clearly this is an important issue for Millennials.
Plenty of Opportunities
There are plenty of opportunities for credit unions to offer mobile capture to this important demographic. When asked what Millennials would like to do with their money on a mobile device in the future: 19% said pass funds between friends by taking a picture of their debit cards; 21% said they’d like to establish a budget by taking a picture of their paycheck, bills, and bank statement to allocate where funds should be distributed; 39% said they would like to verify their identity with a digital ID instead of showing a driver's license during in-person transactions.
Also, integrating a “selfie” for mobile ID authentication when signing into their account or authorizing a purchase is another easy way to introduce mobile capture capabilities. With more than a quarter of the respondents taking more than five selfies a day and 83% predicting that mobile capture will be part of all mobile transactions in the next five years, it’s obvious credit unions need to leverage this behavior with innovative new offerings.
As the largest demographic in the United States, Millennials’ mobile preferences can have a huge economic impact. Credit unions should make it a priority to reach this important demographic as the world of financial services expands with new digital competition. Ninety six percent of Millennials consider their camera crucial to their smartphone and credit unions should look to the mobile capture technology as a way to maintain relationships with this important demographic.
James B. DeBello is Chief Executive Officer and President of Mitek.