Friday, April 28, 2006
Consumers Using Online Banking More
byBanking online is growing monthly. Security concerns and Web usability issues on earlier banking sites slowed the initial rate of adoption for Web-based financial services. However, now a new comScore study shows online banking customers have grown 27 percent in the last year alone. That adds up to 40 million online banking customers.
In addition, the study notes online bill-payment customers grew 36 percent over the same period. The comScore study credits the convenience of online banking, increased incentives, and diminished security concerns as the key factors in the rapid growth of these online services.
The study also stressed a bank’s Web site satisfaction rating was a key element in maintaining good customer relationships. A story at Bank Systems and Technology outlines three important factors for creating a successful online banking site:
1) Customer satisfaction with the online experience
2) Best practices such as ease of use and security measures
3) Site reliability—always being able to log in, no down time, etc.
The story stressed the importance of focusing on user experience over simply concentrating on the number of services offered online. If people have a good online experience they will keep come back.
The financial services industry is obviously taking note of the trend to online services. According to MediaPost (free registration may be required), financial service marketers served 141 billion online display ads to people using the Web in February. In fact, financial services advertising on the Web accounted for 28 percent of all advertising impressions in that month.
