When was the last time you set foot in an actual bank branch? Traditional brick-and-mortar banking is becoming a thing of the past, with 40 percent of Americans not setting foot in a bank in the last six months. While all generations are increasingly adopting online banking, millennials are taking the lead in mobile banking adoption (47 percent, versus 23 percent of Baby Boomers), according to the Banking Across Generations Study by Javelin Strategy & Research. Millennials are more apt to adopt mobile banking, but they’re also more likely to walk away—80 percent of respondents in Jumio’s Global Survey of Millennials have applied or attempted to apply for a bank account via mobile, but 93.5 percent have abandoned a transaction in mobile.
Financial institutions have a big opportunity to win millennial customers through the mobile account opening, or onboarding, process, but need to know that they aren’t willing to sit through a cumbersome process.
Identity verification is a crucial step in the onboarding process and often the step where many would-be customers bail out because of the time and effort it takes. Identity verification is also important because this is the step that helps banks determine which of their online customers are legitimate and which ones are probably fraudsters. By increasing the number of fraud checks, you increase your assurance that the person is who they say they are, but you also often increase the abandonment rate because of the extra friction.
The good news is that 75 percent of millennials are now comfortable using biometric authentication, according to IBM. This demonstrates an understanding that traditional identity verification methods (such as knowledge-based authentication and two-factor authentication) may be going the way of the traditional bank branch. Millennials are comfortable with the mobile-based identity verification technology needed to protect an account (and their personal data).
So how do financial institutions find a balance between fighting fraud and making sure new customers have a seamless experience when opening an account? By working with the right online identity verification solution to make the onboarding process as painless as possible.
Here are five tactics to help you onboard more customers, whether they’re millennials or from any other generation.
1. Speed it up
The top reason millennials abandon mobile banking is because the process took too long, according to the Banking Across Generations Study. To keep millennials engaged through the onboarding process, it’s important to rapidly verify users within the mobile experience in a matter of minutes.
2. Offer a better user experience
Think through the user experience and be mindful of the number of screens in use (and if there are ways to reduce that number). Utilize on-device data extraction to pre-populate forms during the ID verification process, reducing the amount of information a new customer has to manually input. Create a custom journey by modifying the look and feel of the screens so that the colors, text and buttons mirror your brand. Accommodate all users by including accessibility features like voice over and larger text sizes.
3. Provide clear instructions
Just as you should think about the number of screens, you should also think about the language on each screen so that each step is easily explained to the user. Provide clear instructions, in plain English. It’s also important to clearly explain why you’re asking for a picture of their ID document and their selfie, and what you intend to do with that information.
4. Provide instant feedback
Let a new user know in real time why an ID or selfie image was rejected and provide feedback on image quality so the user can course correct during the same session instead of walking away.
5. Deliver omnichannel support
For companies looking to cast the widest possible net, it just makes sense to ensure that your identity verification solution offers the broadest number of channels to your users. For example, many ID verification solutions only support smartphone image capture and exclude other channels such as desktop webcams. By doing this, vendors are excluding large market segments who are more comfortable on their desktop and laptop computers.
No matter the generation or the industry, there’s a lot to learn about improving the user experience for successful account onboarding. Stop by Booth 2135 at Money20/20 USA to discuss your company’s onboarding process and how Jumio can help reduce abandonment rates and increase conversions.
