'Net News Newsletter

Online Capabilities Provide Consumers Peace of Mind
"Peace of mind" is a very important value for credit unions and banks to communicate in marketing their online capabilities to consumers, according to 75 half-hour interviews with consumers. Peace of mind addresses not only the values of people who use online capabilities today, but also non-users who have security fears. Tracing customers' thought process shows that the feature of real-time access provides the benefit of keeping consumers in touch with their money, leading to the psychological consequence of being in control and worry-free which connects with the underlying personal value of peace of mind. Companies that dig deep into the minds of their consumers to understand what motivates behavior at an emotional level will have a greater chance of delivering a persuasive message.
Source: Rockbridge Associates, Fall 2009

Roles of Branch and Online Channel Shifting
Branches used to be focused on generating primary banking relationships, completing complex transactions and making sales through service. The role of the branch has shifted so that today their role is to acquire quality assets, manage credit risk and increase retention of prized consumers. Likewise, the role of the online channel is shifting. The online channel used to be the preferred channel for simple sales and basic transactions. Today the online channel provides a more customized approach to generating sales and retaining prized consumers, while at the same time allow consumers a simple and intuitive way to make transactions at a very low cost to the financial institution. Financial institutions that have the most success using the Internet to serve their consumers really understand their consumers and react quickly to their change in preferences.
Source: Boston Consulting Group, September 2009 (pdf)

Consumers Want it NOW!
NOWISM or "consumers' ingrained lust for instant gratification" is the latest trend identified by trendwatching.com. With physical goods so plentiful they deliver less status, it is the consumption of the experience, or the now, that remains. The Internet has made instant gratification easy for consumers to get. If a webpage is too slow or a process too cumbersome, your consumers can find a substitute with just one click. NOWISM is showing up all over the place; with Google Latitude people can share their current location with their friends; with Livestream people can stream live video anywhere on the web with a widget; with Tweet on the Street people can search tweets in real-time to find what rumors people are tweeting about. Credit unions and banks can embrace NOWISM to meet their consumer's desire for instant gratification. Allowing consumers to open accounts online, immediately begin using online banking after enrolling, receive balance alerts, have bill payments delivered on the same day they are initiated and access months of statement history are all examples of how financial institutions can meet consumers' increasing need for speed.
Source: trendwatching.com, October 2009

2/3 of Consumers Would Like to See All Accounts in One Place
In an effort to simplify their lives, 2/3 of consumers would like to see all accounts in one place, according to Javelin Strategy & Research. “Consumers say ‘life is complicated, I don’t want more relationships, I want fewer. Make it simple for me,’” says Mark Schwanhausser from Javelin Strategy & Research. Citi and Microsoft are reported to have invested $5 million in a website which they will develop over the next few years giving consumers the ability to monitor accounts at multiple financial institutions and brokerages. Financial institutions that do not have as large of a budget as Citi are not necessarily limited in the online services they can offer their consumers. Many outsourced technology providers offer financial institutions the ability to aggregate all of a consumers' accounts on one page. Integrating this technology deeply into online banking and bill pay will lead to the highest consumer usage.
Source: American Banker, September 30, 2009

What is an Integrated System?
Few would argue that banks and credit unions must have integrated technology systems, but the phrase "integrated system" has been used so many times that it is in danger of losing its meaning. Consultants from Cornerstone Advisors lay out three levels of systems integration. At the most basic level each channel displays balances and transactions consistently, images of checks and signature cards are tied into the branch transaction system and the core processing system has two-way communication with the deposit and loan origination systems. A more advanced level of technology system integration involves employees having single sign-on access across all systems, a single view of all the relationships consumers have with the institution, employees not having to input any data item more than once, a single source for contact history with a consumer and consumers being able to easily move from one channel to another. Advanced systems integration entails loan and deposit origination systems passing data to each other automatically, transaction processing systems that make all forms and documents just one click away, consolidated contact and transaction history, guarantees that consumers self-service transactions are viewable by branch employees and employees can go from a branch or loan system to each of the previous systems with just one click.
Source: Cornerstone Advisors, September 25, 2009