Mobile alerts to become routine

Expect handheld and wrist-borne devices to grow pushier.

Javelin Strategy and Research says rapid adoption of tablets and smartphones, plus the spread of the much-promoted Apple Watch, will increasingly propel momentum for push notifications to be central in consumers’ lives.

This is coming sooner than many expect. As a result, 52% of online consumers will receive digital financial alerts in the form of emails, texts, or push notifications by 2019, says Javelin Strategy and Research. This compares with 40% today.

One of the many obstacles standing in the path of success for alerts, Javelin says, is the challenge to compete with the clutter from the growing number of other nonbank apps. Notifications are essential in a mobile lifestyle, with 43% of consumers receiving a notification in past 90 days.

But financial institutions must redesign the apps to solve many frustrating design features, including effectively hiding alerts and making them difficult to turn on, adjust on the fly, and apply effectively in daily life.

“Financial alerts can and will win a role in your smartphone and smartwatch, but banks can stand out amid the flood of notifications only if the content is relevant, digestible, and actionable in a matter of seconds. We’re still in the early days on that count,” says Mark Schwanhausser, director of Omnichannel Financial Services at Javelin.

Schwanhausser advocates two-way alerts: “Done right, alerts can become daily ‘conversations’ with customers that build trust, strengthen the status of the primary financial institution, and can trigger customer service and sales opportunities with bankers.”