Simplifying banking with a modern system of agreement

According to the consumer group Which, British banks have closed over 3,000 branches in just four years.

And it’s easy to see why.

Consumer experience is driving digital transformation across the finance sector, changing and simplifying banking. How consumers engage with financial services is evolving in line with the mobile revolution and by a transformation in other industries. Online banking, whether via desktop, mobile or an app, is allowing us to do our banking on the move and in real-time. However, this movement still tends to apply more to transactions, rather than end-to-end agreements.

Bankers are looking to understand how to better align their customer interface with what today’s consumers are demanding.

So far, they have been slow to adapt their user experience to be in line with other sectors, such as travel and retail. This has left them vulnerable to competition from new “Fintech” start-ups with mobile-only offerings.

So how can banks catch up and bring their mobile experiences in line with modern customer expectations?

Making “Moments of Truth” truly Mobile

The challenge for banks is that important “moments of truth” in the banking customer journey are heavily regulated and therefore difficult to make user-friendly. This includes opening new accounts, applying for credit cards, loans and mortgages, etc. They also often require physical or “wet” signatures.

Banks are under pressure to transform this stage of the journey into quick, mobile-friendly interactions so they can better compete both with their new Fintech disruptors as well as each other. But how can they achieve a better user experience and simplify banking in a way that is also fully compliant?

Banks, like other industries, have systems in place for managing customers (CRM), employees (HCM) and finances (ERP) but they tend to have a patchwork and piecemeal approach to their agreements.

But agreements are critical to the success of a bank in a compliance-heavy, legally-exposed and security-vulnerable industry.

Creating a modern system of agreement

DocuSign-Agreement-Cloud

Here are four steps to creating a modern system of agreement in banking:

  1. Take a mobile-first approach - With consumer mobile banking growing 50 percent in the past year, it is critical to get this right.
  2. Reduce human error to speed up turn-around times - 40 percent of new bank account applications are never finished. Cutting out human error by automating the agreement process can hugely contribute to your growth.
  3. Integrate existing customer knowledge into every agreement - It can take 2 days to gather all the information required to prepare a customer loan. Every day that passes is a day you could lose that customer to a competitor. By pre-populating data, you increase customer retention and competitiveness.
  4. Make customer consent and understanding a key part of the solution - The clearer you can present the details and implications of each agreement, the quicker your customers will agree to the contract. Use your mobile experience to help make this a simple, transparent process.

According to research by Deloitte in 2018, 39 percent of consumers are likely to move to a bank where they can e-sign and complete their application from beginning to end in a mobile app.

The opportunities could be enormous for banks who embrace a modern System of Agreement and build user-friendly, mobile-first processes that meet consumer expectations.

Looking for more information on where to start?

Download our, ‘The future of banking? Make it easy’ whitepaper to outline the first principles behind establishing a modern System of Agreement. Find out how to make those moments of truth more user-friendly and accessible for consumers.

DocuSign simplifying banking whitepaper

Author
Mangesh Bhandarkar
GVP, Product Management
Published