A survey commissioned by Sinch has shown that consumers want more personalised mobile banking experiences that make it easy for them to get 1:1 support anywhere. The survey, which included almost 3,000 consumers and covered 15 countries, shows that 93% of the people call out for personalised financial assessments from their bank, but fewer than 30% receive them.

Moreover, 53% of the respondents are frustrated when they cannot reply to a mobile message and one in three under 40 have even switched banks to get a better mobile experience. This desire for personalised banking and being able to communicate easily is more pronounced in younger customers, as over 80% of Gen Z surveyed want to solve even more complex tasks using digital channels including completing a loan application or sharing personal information to get tailored financial product recommendations. In addition, 98% say they want their questions answered quickly, but just 58% experience this.

While most banks offer support via email or in-app communication channels, they have yet to capitalise on the opportunity to connect 1:1 with customers and build stronger relationships through text messaging. Technology may secure consumer trust The research shows a positive technology experience is highly correlated with securing consumer trust. Banks that do not deliver on good experiences are significantly less likely to have customers that say they trust their banks.

Trust is also gained by knowing when human interaction with a customer is needed. Even with widespread usage of automated chat options, in moments of frustration customers still want to hear a human voice; 95% of those surveyed want an option to switch from automated messaging to a human conversation from inside the messaging stream. Banks that partner with a reliable Communications-Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) vendor may gain an advantage for securing both customer engagement and trust through a range of real time communications and verification solutions, like multi-factor authentication and two step verification, using channels customers prefer and are familiar with.