Beyond Resolutions: Keeping Account Holders Loyal and their Money Savvy for the Long-Term
What are the top 3 new year’s resolutions Americans make every year? According to reports, the most common new year’s resolutions center around health and finances. Forbes Health/One Poll conducted a survey of U.S. adults and found that:
- 48% want to improve their fitness
- 38% want to improve their finances
- 36% want to improve their mental health
While nearly every adult makes at least one resolution in the new year, some estimates suggest less than 10% complete them – due to unforeseen challenges and changes, or because they lack the support and resources necessary to maintain and achieve their goals. When financial institutions recognize financial wellness as a common and recurring priority, they have a prime opportunity to strengthen relationships with account holders by providing them with the tools and services they need to keep their resolutions, as well as maintain their loyalty for the foreseeable future.
The Importance of Financial Planning Tools in Digital Banking
Interestingly, the top 3 new year’s resolutions are intrinsically linked. A multitude of studies report that when individuals struggle with their finances, or experience an elevated level of financial stress, their mental and physical health can decline. In fact, a Bankrate and Psych Central survey revealed that 42% of adults say money is negatively impacting their mental health.
In today's banking environment, personal financial management (PFM) and wellness tools go beyond the flashy or “cool” digital banking features, and instead play an important role in money management. These tools enable account holders to make more informed financial decisions, ultimately resulting in more loyalty and trust (and revenue!) for their bank or credit union.
When PFM tools, or BFM (business financial management) tools for small to medium businesses, are accessible through commonly used devices like mobile phones, laptops, or tablets, they give account holders the ability to become more financially literate in a personalized way. A Forrester survey of financial institution decision-makers found that 51% say their institution has seen a measurable improvement in their customer experience after implementing these types of digital money management tools.
You Have the Tools, But are They Leveraging the Data?
Financial wellness is a unique journey – many resolve to want to improve their finances throughout the new year, but what does that look like person-to-person? For a bank or credit union looking to provide more financial support to their account holders, they must have a deep understanding of them.
Providing a robust digital banking platform is the first step. Modern platforms leverage the latest technological innovations to keep users engaged, such as gamification, spending/saving tracking, and financial education resources, with 24/7 access. The next step for financial institutions is to capture user data – feature adoptions, user journeys, behaviors – and transform it into actionable business intelligence.
Leveraging reporting and analytics within a digital banking platform gives employees fast access to key information, and the ability to gain a holistic view of the enterprise and account holder data. These financial stories, such as major life milestones like a graduation, marriage, purchase of a new home, or retirement, provide information that can be combined with other data through predictive analytics to suggest new products or services, or offer advice that can help account holders plan and manage their finances. These data-backed insights allow for additional levels of personalization within remote and digital banking – marketing campaigns stand to have a higher chance of success when the right products are introduced to the right account holders at the right time.
Financial wellness does not have to be a new year’s resolution, but instead part of an ongoing initiative to support customers and members. By providing financial planning tools to account holders and monitoring data that fosters intelligence, financial institutions can confidently guide and ensure an account holder’s financial future is stable and prosperous.
Download our solution eBook and learn more about NXT, Alogent's online, mobile and digital banking platform, which combines consumer and business functionality in one API-driven solution with hundreds of pre-built integrations. AWARE, Alogent's data analytics, visualizations & reporting software, works seamlessly with NXT, to provide you with the business intelligence your financial institution needs to support your account holders.
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