How Banks Can Deliver Convenience as a Product

In today’s world, convenience is king. Services like media-streaming company Netflix and online retailer Amazon have reached the top positions in their respective industries by serving customers at their best convenience. Both companies act as models for other companies to follow, and financial service firms should take note. Financial institutions must adapt to the consumer preferences of Millennials and Gen Zers and provide their services as conveniently as possible. Legacy infrastructures must be overhauled, lest losing hard-earned business relationships to digital-first fintech startups. A major revamp won’t happen overnight, but here are a few ways financial services can sell convenience as a top value proposition.

Ditch the Paper

Delivering a convenient experience to customers starts with reducing paper processes. In an environmentally conscious and almost exclusively digital era, paper is a major hindrance to progress on both fronts. Completing processes solely through paper applications gives customers no choice but to trudge out to a local branch. Completing a lengthy paper application is also prone to illegible handwriting and input mistakes that could have customers coming back for correction. Instances like these are incredibly off-putting for potential clients who expect to quickly onboard or apply for a loan product. It’s also a surefire way to have them looking elsewhere.

By contrast, digitizing all paper forms and disclosures enables a self-service, omni-channel model where would-be clients can search for and fill out applications on their computer, tablet, or mobile phone without ever leaving their homes. Leveraging digital applications provides ultimate flexibility for customers seeking to enroll in your services when it’s most convenient for them.

Make Agreements Easy!

Of course, no application is complete without a customer’s consent, that is with handwritten signatures. As with paper, signatures require physical presence, demanding that customers come over to provide consent. Take the lending process for example, which has borrowers signing stacks of disclosures, authorizations, acknowledgements, and addendums. Signing all these documents can have customers making multiple trips to the branch, which is exasperating when they must take time off work or do it over the weekend. And when multiple borrowers need to provide wet signatures, that’s twice the coordination and twice the frustration.

Completing agreements doesn’t have to be this frustrating. Electronic signature technology removes any need for customers to leave their homes, much less reach for an actual pen. Instead, customers can sign and date documents at their own convenience and with their preferred device. Making a streamlined technology like eSignatures available to your customers allows agreements to be completed without a hassle, making the experience pain-free for both customers and banks. For an emerging generation of customers who expect near-instant delivery of goods and services, eSignatures can lock down banking agreements in a matter of a few hours, not days.

Be Flexible

This is not to say that bank branches are of no use anymore. Banks should strive to maintain a presence on every channel available. Yes, bank branches are indeed on the decline, but they still play an important role and should be an available option when customers prefer to have a face-to-face conversation with a financial representative to guide them through a product or service. In fact, both physical and digital channels should complement one another, where a customer can start a banking process online and potentially finish it at a local branch, or vice versa.

Make Customer Service Your Best Product

Opening a new bank account or getting approved for a loan shouldn’t have to require so much effort. A quick and easy experience is every bit as important for customers who’ve grown accustomed to having product and services revolve around their time. Each extra step a customer must take increases the probability of abandonment and seeking other options. With many competing options, purging outdated paper processes in favor of digital ones is critical to delighting your customers and ensuring that your institution stays on top of mind. You’ll need a trusted partner to get you started. Foxit PDF Editor, a user-friendly PDF solution converts your existing paper forms and applications into rules-based, fully interactive electronic forms. Foxit PDF Editor also provides users with a way to apply digital signatures to documents.  Foxit offers an eSign solution that facilitates agreements completely electronically with Foxit eSign. For DocuSign users, the service is already tightly integrated, allowing contract lifecycles to be facilitated end-to-end on one single platform.

Foxit is dedicated to enabling banks to deliver excellent client satisfaction with a comprehensive set of solutions. Learn more about Foxit solutions in banking and other financial services here.