It is now accepted as being a reality for banking: mobile will be a part of the future of how banking will be delivered to consumers. As was the case with ATM's, it is highly likely that consumer's behaviour related to their interaction with banks will change, as mobile banking usage picks up. Something else that we can have fun with speculating...Based on prelimanry research and other evidence, it does seem as if the growth of mobile banking leads to a reduction in visits by customers to branches and a reduction of calls to contact centres. This is of course good news as this will directly lead to a reduction in cost. Some observations also seem to suggest that consumers do more transactions now. It is as if the ease with which mobile banking allows consumers to do transactions, stimulate them to do more. But what are some of the other changes that we could also expect?
- Consumers will be more aware of their money (or the lack of it). I believe that consumers will become more educated about spending and saving money. People will budget better and become more savvy to manage and use their money.
- More sophisticated mechanisms to stimulate impulse buying will become prevalent. This will change spending patterns and the effectiveness of alternative sales and marketing approaches.
- As mobile banking systems become more mainstream, more advanced applications will be developed (making use of cellular characteristics like location based services for instance). This will lead to opportunities where new social and entertainment behaviour patterns will be triggered.
- Mobile banking will change the competitor profile regarding banks and also non-banks starting to offer financial services. This will mean that customers will start buying their banking products somewhere else (than traditional banks) and even expect it to be bundled with other products.