Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Factors that drive consumer adoption for start-up banks

One can often find the essence of many articles by just scanning them briefly, but sometimes an article appears that requires a more careful reading. I recently came across such an article, describing the reasons why people switch banks. (Read here).

This article is based on the evaluation of almost 5 000 customers, primarily trying to understand the reasons for shopping for a new banking product. The findings of the survey (while not surprising) is important to consider. Applying these findings to the distribution and deployment of mobile banking offerings requires deeper consideration.

I have not applied my mind enough to be able to make all the conclusions, but here are some of the important lessons (I think) for start-up banks:
  • It is impossible to get customers to switch without outspending your competitors on advertising. If you don't have capital to grow your bank, don't try it.
  • The placement of branches (or in agents in the case of mobile banking) and the density that you can achieve is critical to how successful you ultimately become.
  • The competitiveness or not of your fees and tariffs are (well quite frankly), not important.

2 comments:

Frans Stander said...

Another factor to consider, is convenience.
Convenience outranks "fee competitiveness". It is nature that the average person is not too concerned to pay that little extra for convenience.

mobile banking said...

Yeah, but consumer adoption to the system is one thing in a higher hierarchy than convenience. If the consumer doesn't know the system at all why shouldn't he/she bother using it.