Why mobile apps need to deliver entire banking experience

Today mobile banking is a household term, but many banks are still struggling to deliver a successful mobile banking experience. Many mobile apps only offer partial tools for banking, or they don't have all the features that fintechs can provide.

That's not a good trend given customers are more willing than ever to switch banking providers and it means banks need to step up their game when it comes to mobile apps.

"Mobile apps should be able to offer nearly every feature available in an institution's desktop online banking solution," Connor Heaton, VP of intelligent automation and AI for Strategic Resource Management, said in an email interview.

Heaton identifies several features that mobile apps should have including "mobile deposits, spending/budget analytics, searchable transaction history, in-app peer to peer payments and account alert customization."

In an email interview Brandi Kyzar, PMP and SVP at Origin Bank, said Origin's banking services offer a number of services to meet customer needs including constant access to account balances, statements and history, bill payment, fund transfer, Zelle P2P, mobile check deposit, card alerts and bank/ATM finder.

However, it's not enough to just deploy various features on apps — the features should improve the overall user experience.

"Extreme attention to user experience is necessary. An app should be able to support all the same actions as a website, but only the few most common should be prioritized to be accessible in 1-2 taps," Heaton said. "Usage analytics should be closely analyzed to help continuously refine the user experience for a given institution's user base. Examples include offering different UIs to various user segments such as making features like ACH transfers or bill pay one-tap options for business account owners."

Kyzar agreed with the assessment, stating, "Mobile banking apps should aim to eliminate friction points in the customer experience, which is a huge focus for the Origin Bank digital roadmap. Our vision is to combine the power of trusted advisors with innovative technology, to build unwavering loyalty by connecting people to their dreams. At Origin Bank, we recognize that digital banking has a significant impact on our customers and we want to provide them the tools they need to be successful."

While these are good roadmaps to follow, banks also shouldn't rest on their laurels when it comes to mobile banking. If they want to keep their customers, they need to continually innovate.

"The catchphrase here is 'continuous improvement.' Building organizationally grounded processes to continuously evaluate and iterate on the customer experience is essential to providing best-in-class applications," Heaton said. "This extends to the rest of the bank — customer experience should be considered in every technology and process change that touches the customer journey. This typically involves designing change communication and control processes with UX in mind, as well as having roles specifically dedicated to the overall customer experience, including the digital experience."