We all know how much technology has grown in the past decade or so, and how it continues to grow exponentially. Particularly in the past few years, technology has played a larger role in our day-to-day life as businesses find more uses for internet and mobile applications. These technologies provide many opportunities for businesses that are quick to adapt, but also can be quite burdensome as the number of channels in which they connect to their audience continue to grow.
One great example of these changes is with the financial industry. Convenience has always played a big role in the service provided by banks and credit unions. From telephone banking, to internet banking, to mobile banking, banks and credit unions have expanded the way their members and customers manage their bank accounts and other financial services (and also created additional factors that constitute as ‘convenience’ aside from hours and locations). New and remarkable technologies (see: mobile check scanning) are being added everyday to make banking more convenient.
While these innovative channels are becoming more utilized for banking, it raises many questions for financial institutions:
- What do our customers/members want?
- Where do we allocate our resources?
- How will these new technologies affect our current customers? And so on.
These questions that are raised are important and should be asked through market research in order to determine future strategic directions for the financial institution. The answers to these questions will help financial institutions adapt to these trends appropriately. Jumping too quickly may cause other unforeseen issues – and research needs to be done to mitigate or correct these issues. One example of an unforeseen issue might be that certain audiences take offense at the marketing and push of these new channels – and assume that the financial institution doesn’t want to deal with them face to face anymore (and would rather have them handle their banking without the help of an in-person representative.) Another example along these lines is the increasing importance of every single customer service experience. Customer and member in-person interactions grow fewer and fewer at individual branch locations due to the adoption of internet and mobile banking channels.
Utilizing market research services is a great way for financial institutions (or any other business adapting to trends) to have a candid conversation with their customers. Insights provided by research will help financial institutions tackle issues preemptively. Learning just one new strategy from the market research on how to market a new product differently can make all the difference and pay for the research itself. How is that for ROI?
If you are interested in learning more about how your business can adapt to new trends, contact our Business Development Director, Sandy Baker at 315-635-9802, or email her at SandyB@RMSresults.com.
