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(From CU Today) – Financial institutions landed right in the “middle of the pack” and credit unions essentially finished in a tie with banks in a comparison of how five providers of goods and services have responded to changing conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new online survey of over 2,000 US adults conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of ID Insight.
Among the findings: “The post-pandemic customer may have an entirely new set of banking expectations.”
According to the survey’s findings, two-thirds (67%) of Americans say they are satisfied with the response of their “primary financial institution” to changing conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey showed, placing them behind “primary grocery store” (80%) and “primary medical provider” (70%), and ahead of “favorite restaurant” (58%) and “regular place of worship” (46%).
“It is possible overall satisfaction with financial institutions could have been higher had it not been for the online-only banking segment,” the company said in releasing the survey findings. I noted just 61% of consumers who primarily use online-only banks are satisfied with their institution’s response to changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant difference compared to customers who primarily use community banks (74%), credit unions (73%), or mega banks (73%).
Challenging Expectation
“We expected that online-only customers would be the most satisfied because they weren’t being asked to fundamentally change the way they were interacting with their bank,” said Jack Sundstrom, Chief Product and Marketing Officer, ID Insight. “Something about the experience is falling short of expectations.”
In addition to being the least satisfied, online-only primary banking consumers are more likely than those with other types of primary financial institutions to say they would switch to a different primary financial institution as a result of how their current institution responded to changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, ID Insights reported.
Willingness to Switch
While 18% of Americans overall said they are likely to switch to a different financial institution from their current primary financial institution, 38% of those who primarily use online-only banks say the same. This is more than double the proportion of those who primarily use community banks (18%), credit unions (14%), and mega banks (16%).
“The post-pandemic customer may have an entirely new set of banking expectations,” Sundstrom said. “Until those can be fully understood, the best course of action is to look for opportunities to reduce customer friction, especially in digital processes. For example, people should be able to apply for and make changes to accounts without getting tripped up by clunky identity verification and fraud solutions that can’t reliably tell a criminal from a good customer.”
This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of ID Insight from June 18-22, 2020 among 2,048 U.S. adults ages 18 and older.