FINANCIAL SERVICES USING GLOBAL SMS FOR CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES  

Mobile messaging is being used by more than four out of five financial services organisations globally with the greatest benefit seen to be enhancing the customer experience and improving employee relations according to a new study

The research study of large FS organisations was undertaken by IDC and commissioned by OpenMarket. More than four in five (88 per cent) of these businesses believe SMS has a considerable or major impact on customer service and 73% consider it to be very effective for employee-focused emergency alerts.

In this highly regulated industry where breaches can occur, financial services organisations are on high alert and are seeking the safest channels for communication. Mobile messaging is secure and scalable, and with critical capabilities such as two-factor authentication for fraud detection, the technology is being rapidly adopted industry-wide.

According to the research, the top customer-facing use cases for SMS include timely offers and notifications regarding high-risk, high-dollar transactions, as 30% of these businesses utilize secure SMS messaging to gain deeper customer insights and to meet industry compliance requirements, respectively. Internally, financial services organisations use mobile messaging as a key component for employee communication and contingency planning to improve internal security and facilitate secure employee notifications.

Business leaders are also driving new investments in mobile messaging and are closely involved in solution, specification, selection, and deployment to ensure technologies are meeting the standards the industry.

“These findings revealed that the financial services industry has one of the greatest demands for mobile messaging capabilities and that these businesses are taking a long-term, purpose-led approach to their mobile messaging investment,” said Marc DeCastro, Research Director, Consumer Banking, IDC Insights.

The IDC study highlights other key ways financial services companies are using mobile messaging today.

• More than 50% of organisations use mobile messaging to differentiate or improve the customer experience
• 35% utilise the technology to attract and retain new customers
• More than 25% use it to improve the business’ risk mitigation
• More than 20% of these businesses use it to ensure business continuity and to enhance multichannel delivery capacity
• Surprisingly only 15% use mobile messaging to improve their organisation’s security

“These findings show that financial services organisations are incorporating secure, effective mobile messaging into many aspects of their customer service and employee communications, as well as their internal business operations,” said Jay Emmet, General Manager of OpenMarket. “A well-designed, company-wide mobile messaging strategy that meets the industry’s high-compliance and regulated standards will allow businesses to enhance the customer experience, gain additional customer insights, improve employee relations, and drive operational efficiencies.”