Keeping Up with Digital Lending Convenience

Convenience continually ranks as one of the leading factors for why customers choose a service, store or website. No business succeeds by making things inconvenient for their customers. Having everything in one place is what people have come to expect.

Convenience matters

The number one reason millennials prefer mobile apps and online banking to traditional financial services is convenience. Security, value and customization are all reasons why millennials choose non-traditional financial service providers, but at the end of it all, convenience is the greatest differentiator. The ability to access your accounts quickly and easily, anywhere and at any time, on your mobile device is very important for millennials.

Overwhelmingly, millennials want their financial institutions to be mobile friendly. In a survey of which industries millennials want optimized for a mobile experience, banking came in third, just behind movie theaters and restaurants.

What is inconvenient?

• Long sign-up times — Processes that take too long deter millennials; 72 percent of millennials say they will abandon a sign-up process if it takes longer than expected.
• Errors with the sign-up process — Unexpected glitches or stops will turn away millennials; 28 percent of millennials say if they are having issues with one financial institution’s app, they’ll simply seek a competitor with better service. While 32 percent said they went to a brick-and-mortar branch as the solution.
• Passwords — Passwords are a problem; 77 percent of millennials say they frequently or occasionally forget passwords.

What is convenient?

• Digital forms — Applications that can be easily and quickly completed on an iPad or even smartphone.
• Ability to upload and store digital forms — Important documentation for safekeeping.
• Electronic signing — E-signatures are better than printing out a form, signing it with a pen and then scanning it.
• Using a device’s camera — Even easier than filling out digital forms, millennials prefer to use their camera in place of paperwork or laborious sign-in processes.
• Easy multifactor login process — Simple and secure. Keep in mind that while millennials consider convenience as the greatest differentiator in selecting financial services, security is still a top priority in conducting transactions.

It’s not about just having an app available for download, it’s also about making it relevant, reliable and useful. It can pay dividends for smaller credit unions to make the additional investment and upgrade their existing mobile app.