Cutting through the marketing noise with banking apps

Gaurav Mittal at Ethoca describes how brands can drive awareness and salience by engaging with consumers through their banking apps

 

In our increasingly hyperconnected world, digital devices have become our best and closest friends, but also our biggest distraction. 

 

We are all receiving unprecedented numbers of emails, texts, adverts, and offers, all of which demand to be checked, answered, or engaged with in some way: these add up to around 6 billion texts and over 300 billion emails sent a day globally.

 

And as this digital noise gets louder it makes it harder to ‘hear’ the meaningful messages we, as consumers, actually find useful. At the same time, we want the businesses we buy from to show that they’re listening to us and answering our needs.

 

And this is the challenge – and opportunity – for brands in finding the channels where their consumers are, be there to meet them with personalised communications, and give their customers a great transactional experience that will make them feel both heard and valued.

 

How and where are we engaged with?

Before businesses can amplify their messages and speak with a clear voice to their customers, they need to understand if they are targeting the right channels. Of course, our smartphones are the obvious way to reach us, given how much we depend on them in our daily lives. 

 

Of the billions of ‘pings’ that are received each day, many are from brands that we’ve previously had some interaction with and developed a level of trust. They include emails announcing offers to encourage us to purchase again, or text messages requesting feedback or reviews as brands try to boost their ‘word of mouth’ recommendations and deepen loyalty. 

 

Those tactics have made their way into our most-used apps too. Originally intended as a way for us to stay connected with friends and family, social commerce has exploded. This is because social media apps have become marketplaces and key selling channels for brands to reach their customers, with quick and easy one-click payments.

 

We’ve all been there, scrolling through our phones and found an offer on Facebook or Instagram, for example, which has caught our attention and prompted us to click through for more information or make an impulse purchase – just last week I purchased a new shirt that was on offer from a retailer, not through a social app but rather through my own banking app (and not for the first time).

 

The rise of commerce vs the challenges of disputes

Recent data shows that eCommerce sales in the US were up by 8.4% year on year in January while, in the UK, eCommerce is projected to grow 7.8% in 2024. This is positive news but also brings with it new challenges for businesses. We all trust these channels to make the billions of transactions happening every year (125.7 billion per year, in 2022, from Mastercard alone).

 

As consumers get more inundated with messaging and security-conscious, they seek greater transparency from their brands. 

 

It’s never been easier to get in touch with a business, through their social media channels for example, to make a complaint or provide feedback. However, if businesses don’t offer consumers the transparency they want on their transactions, and communicate with them in the way they like, they could face disputes. 

 

A payment dispute is where a customer claims a transaction registered to their account is invalid or was not fulfilled per expectation. For example, the person in question might see a dubious charge on their monthly statement. They then call their bank to challenge the payment. If the transaction can be identified and the goods or services purchased were delivered or not defective, the case is closed. 

 

But if the dispute can’t be resolved, it gets escalated to a chargeback (where the consumer requests their money back from their bank). Chargebacks are very costly to businesses and issuers if they are not resolved. They can take a lot of time and money to investigate. 

 

What’s more, the cost is not just financial – businesses that can’t effectively resolve and reduce disputes and chargeback rates can suffer a lot of damage to their reputation – it can lead to poor reviews and damaged trust. When this vital bond is damaged, customers may go elsewhere, potentially impacting brand reputation and profitability. 

 

What could the future hold?

Help is at hand. With the fast advancement of technology, one can anticipate a day soon when it could become as easy to return an item at the click of a button as it is to purchase one now. Or where a disputed transaction could be resolved in seconds through a consumer’s digital banking app upon reviewing their transaction history. Who knows, the item that they want returned could be collected electronically, powered by AI. If that feels a long way off, then it’s important that we explore what is already here. 

 

Take digital receipts, for example. These are already in use by hundreds of thousands of the world’s biggest and most innovative companies to give their customers the information they need about their transactions. They also give the customer the means to manage subscriptions, prevent unnecessary disputes or chargebacks, and can even send information about special or alternative offers (I.e., digital receipts offer the shirt in another colour at a discounted price).

 

That’s just one way in which digital receipts can create positive brand recall for consumers, which in turn will increase the chances of them buying from that brand again. The advent of richer transaction information, including digital receipts, and tailoring messages to each customer’s individual preferences, answers a deep need in consumers to feel listened to, and valued. 

 

Put simply, personalised experiences strengthen customers’ loyalty to brands, increase their purchasing power, and deepen their trust in the companies they’ve engaged with. Trust – the magical ingredient for organizations that helps them get ahead.

 

And that’s why we’re trusted by businesses, issuers, and today’s consumers, because we deliver speed, security and responsiveness across digital merchant and bank channels. 

 

The strength of our technology, network, and our unique connectivity across the global financial ecosystem empowers merchants and issuers to offer their customers a next-generation experience, and provides businesses with a unique opportunity to reach their customers exactly where they already are: online. 

 

Expanding the possibilities

As all progress to a future that is increasingly more digital and mobile, we have an opportunity to engage customers in richer ways – because we have the technology and the data-driven insights to give customers the clear, compelling, and customised messages that speak to them directly. 

 

We can create deeper and more dynamic interactions between businesses and their customers in channels that are not being utilised to their potential. From speaking to brands myself, I’ve found that many think digital banking apps can be a promising avenue for delivering offers, and as a valuable channel for loyalty programme registration. 

 

The possibilities fuelled by collaboration between banks, payments players, social media platforms and other brands are endless and more importantly, very exciting. By enriching the customer experience and strengthening trust, we will unlock a multitude of even more innovative online commerce opportunities.

 

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Gaurav Mittal is Executive Vice President at Ethoca, a Mastercard company. He is focused on executing and evolving Ethoca’s global strategy to help businesses further reduce fraud and disputes and create better digital customer experiences. 

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com