Push Notifications and Mobile Banking Apps: A Love Story
Wouldn’t it be nice if your mobile banking app could eliminate, not create, work for you?
I love remote deposit capture. I didn’t realize how much I disliked going to the bank or even just to an ATM to deposit checks until I had an alternative. And now I can’t imagine ever doing it again.
But I have a gripe.
My bank is now posting a notice after I make my remote deposit that I should hold on to the paper check for ten days before disposing of it to be sure the funds have been settled.
Do I really need to start a tickler file to track when I can safely dispose of checks I have already deposited?
Doesn’t it make more sense for my bank to notify me when a particular check has cleared so I could get rid of it? And guess what – they’ve got the perfect way to send me such a message, right in the palm of my hand. It’s the same mobile banking application I just used to make the remote deposit.
I would gladly authorize my bank to send me a “push notification” about things like this, and about dangerously low balances on my checking account, or even the opportunity to earn more interest by moving funds from checking to a CD.
Such “marketing” messages are hard to deliver today in other channels. The rules and regulations governing proactive outreach via recorded messages, SMS text or even call center agents working on a dialer have gotten so restrictive that some institutions have given up on helping their customers in any way that might be construed as marketing.
But the push notification channel falls outside of these restrictions. It requires the customer to install your mobile application on their smartphone, and best practice is you ask them to opt in to push notifications, but beyond that you would be able to deliver both customer service and marketing messages through this channel.
And I am not alone in expecting my bank to us push notifications. In a survey of over 600 mobile banking users Varolii conducted in December 2012, we found 54% felt the same way.
