Gen Y turns to new technology for banking

Australian financial services institutions have untapped opportunities to secure their share of the Gen Y market by offering them enhanced services on mobile devices and through social media, according to a Telstra white paper titled ICT as a Driver to Improve Service to Generation Y for Financial Services.

With the Gen Y market now making up 21 per cent of the population and approximately one quarter of the financial service sector’s customer base, banks could be growing this lucrative part of the market by adopting technologies such as instant messaging, mobile services and collaboration tools such as video conferencing to meet Gen Y’s desire for choice, convenience and control.

Telstra Enterprise & Government Group Managing Director, Nerida Caesar, said using the right technology to improve customer service in the Gen Y market is critical for Australia’s financial institutions. “Utilising new technologies to better communicate with customers is going to be a key differentiator for the financial services sector,” Ms Caesar said.
Integrated multi-channel contact facilitates interactive and immediate communications such as click-to-chat, click-to-call and click-to-conference offers a customer using online banking with the opportunity to instigate a conversation with customer service staff, usually by following a link, pressing a button in their browser or as an option from a mobile application.

Gen Y lists fast problem resolution and friendly, courteous and knowledgeable staff as indicators of good customer service. By addressing these criteria, financial institutions can directly influence satisfaction. “The age group views technology – particularly mobile phones and the Internet – as an extension of themselves. With social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube now being used on a daily basis by this group, they expect that the flexibility and availability of these applications will also transfer to their banking transactions. If financial institutions are serious about reaching and servicing this rising generation of consumers, they will need to provide them with the right mix of flexible and convenient technologies.” said Hugh Mackay, social researcher, Roy Morgan Research.

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