5 Features Millennials Want in a Financial Institution
Although Gen Zers are quickly becoming an important demographic to many businesses, millennials, also known as Gen Y, remain crucial to the success of financial institutions. Unfortunately, their affections have run hot and cold over the years. Go back to 2015, and you’ll find multiple articles about how millennials are set to destroy the banking industry.
Fortunately, this doomsday prediction did not come to pass. Today, adults aged 22 to 37 are saving for retirement, paying off student loans, working to avoid credit card debt, and (for the most part) trying to be smart with their money. And they very much need banks.
But how, exactly, can you secure these coveted customers? Asking the right customer satisfaction survey questions of your current customers is a great place to start. If you’re looking for additional insight, make sure that your financial institution offers exactly what millennials are looking for. Here are some key features that can set your banking services apart from the competition—and bring Gen Y to your doorstep.
Mobile Capabilities
We’re going to go ahead and call mobile capability the most important feature for this demographic. A whopping 92% of millennials own smartphones, and 47% use mobile banking—so your services had better be accessible from those iPhones and Androids.
Take a look at your current offerings, and determine how you can ramp up your mobile services. Maybe that involves making the leap from a mobile-friendly website to a fully developed smartphone app. If you already have an app, you can take things even further by upgrading it with features like mobile check deposit and security alert notifications. Whatever the case, make sure that your current and potential customers have the option (and are aware they have the option!) to access your banking services from a smartphone.
Speedy Problem Resolution
Ease of use plays a crucial role in attracting and keeping customers, especially millennials, who are used to clean design and intuitive interfaces. Knowledgeable employees and helpful technologies both contribute to this key stat. But don’t mistake “ease of use” for “everything always going smoothly.” Errors happen, but they can wind up increasing customer loyalty when handled correctly.
If a customer runs into a problem, that issue needs to be taken care of quickly and efficiently, with as little effort on the customer’s part as possible. Along these lines, make sure your online help center or live chat features are up to par, because millennials are looking for answers to their questions—and fast. If you can get them the information they need, when they need it, you’ll score big in their eyes. Bonus points if your customers can get their problems resolved without ever needing to spend time on hold!
Relevance
Millennials are holding off on large purchases and life decisions, typically getting married, buying a house, and having children later than their Gen X predecessors. For financial institutions, this means that Millennial customers won’t appreciate being bombarded with offers of home equity loans or mortgage refinancing, whether over the phone or by email. Take your cue from your customers, and direct your tellers, customer service reps, and marketing team to focus on more relevant topics, such as budgeting help and financial guidance. That could involve anything from an email blast packed with powerful advice for retirement planning to an in-app notification that identifies a new account opportunity. Showing your Millennial banking customers that you have their best interests at heart now will encourage them to come to you for their loans and investing needs later on.
Ultimately, your customer service practices should be dedicated to building trust between you and the people using your products and services. Every millennial is different, but they all want to feel that they can trust your financial institution to handle vital financial events and needs with care. Be sure to listen to this segment of your customer base and address their needs as they arise.
Simplicity
We’re living in an era in which you can unlock your phone with a fingerprint—or your face! Millennials don’t want to jump through hoops to get the banking services they need, which means that simplicity should be a priority in everything from website design to the problem resolution process. The bottom line? If the user experience is too complicated, millennials won’t hesitate to take their business elsewhere.
This is where targeted customer service survey questions can go a long way in isolating the pain points of these processes. Ideally, your current customers will be able to tell you where they get stuck or feel frustrated when trying to interact with your financial institution. Maybe all they need is some more in-depth information on the products they’re currently using or could be getting more out of. You can work to resolve those issues, demystifying the banking process and making your services more attractive to current and future customers.
Security Measures
Popular apps like Venmo, Facebook, and Mint have encouraged a significant number of users to link their bank accounts and provide a huge amount of other personal data. As advances are made in biometric and other technologies, and more businesses take their services online, your target demographic is going to want assurances that all of that personal financial data is safe with your institution. If you don’t already offer features like multi-factor authentication and automatic logout with your online and mobile banking services, consider working these and additional security measures into future updates.
Get Inside the Millennial Mind With Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Here at Avannis, we provide valuable insights into your customer service process, but that’s not all we do! We’re also dedicated to keeping financial institutions up to date with industry benchmarks and timely posts on the most relevant topics facing the banking industry. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with news and other exciting developments!