New Study: Static Web Content Bad For Account Holder Engagement

There’s a reason that bank apps and websites ask, “was this information helpful?”

Often as not the answer is “no.” That simply won’t fly in the digital-first decade.

PYMNTS Retail Banking Services’ Paradigm Shift, a SundaySky collaboration, examines the problem of financial content from the account holder’s perspective, surveying a census-balanced panel of over 2,200 consumers to gauge how people are accessing and engaging with information from banks and financial institutions (FIs) about new products and services.

Researchers found that FIs offering “innovative options such as interactive and contextually relevant video content stand to improve engagement and customer experience, especially among younger generations like bridge millennials and millennials.”

Findings from PYMNTS Retail Banking Services’ Paradigm Shift speak volumes about the shifts happening in customer preference, and how FIs can capitalize on new information formats.

Irrelevant, Ill-Suited Info

With consumer expectations around digital experience trending toward a 5G future and all it implies, opaque-seeming and just plain unhelpful bank content will be less and less tolerated.

Retail Banking Services’ Paradigm Shift supports that contention, finding that “Fifty-five percent of consumers find information on FIs’ websites to be irrelevant and not suited to their needs while 23 percent say that financial information on websites is too hard to find. These problems are more commonly cited by Gen Z consumers, 68 percent of whom report that they come across too much irrelevant and unspecific information on their FIs’ websites.”

In case you’re wondering, user interface didn’t escape unscathed.

“An interface that makes it too complicated or difficult to access information is one of the other significant factors that make accessing financial information challenging. These results suggest that consumers find it difficult to access the information they are looking for because relevant information is often buried,” per the study.

Digital Deliverance For Financial Content

Discovering that 36 percent of all respondents cite branch visits as their preferred method for learning about new financial products, PYMNTS further found that 45 percent of baby boomers and 28 percent of millennials cite branches as their preferred source of financial information.

Branch banking isn’t what it used to be, however, which is why, as the study states, “51 percent say they have reduced their visits to physical branches due to the ongoing pandemic. A significant share are turning to their second-best alternatives, namely online chats and phone calls, to have their individual questions answered by an employee. Forty-nine percent of consumers say they are engaging with their FIs through online chats more often than they did before the pandemic began. Another 45 percent are making phone calls to their FIs more often when seeking information.”

While 40 percent of consumers overall report using mobile apps, and one-third report using social media to access their financial information (more so among baby boomers and millennials), Retail Banking Services’ Paradigm Shift found, “Forty-two percent of respondents report using mobile apps as their main tool for financial education and 36 percent report using social media. Mobile apps are particularly popular among Gen Z consumers, with nearly half using them to learn about financial products.”