New consumer research: digital tools while banking
As consumers adjust to the current health crisis, they are increasingly looking for digital tools to help make their experiences more positive, according to new research commissioned by digital product agency Somo.
A study of more than 1,000 consumers has shown that across four key sectors- housing, automotive, hospitality and finance- the uptake and demand for digital solutions has increased in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, as it can help make the consumer experience more convenient and safe.
Digital solutions to the current health crisis
Digital tools don’t just provide greater experiences, they are also seen as important solutions for safety and normality during the current pandemic. For consumers looking to check-in to a hotel, 77% of consumers said they would like to be able to enter the room without needing to visit the front desk, and 80% said they’d be more likely to stay at a hotel if they could use digital tools to avoid contact with hotel staff completely. This contactless check-in experience has previously been pioneered by technology-first, modern chains like citizenM, but as we see demand increase there is a huge opportunity for hotels to innovate giving customers what they want.
For the banking and housing sectors, virtual experiences that avoid human contact are becoming increasingly important. 67% of customers looking to buy a house felt that they would be happy to conduct remote property viewings, and over half of banking customers (55%) would like to have remote video meetings with branch managers.
Digital solutions complementing the in-person experience
For the sectors that have traditionally been and still remain largely hands-on, digital adoption has been a more difficult path. However, promisingly the research found that more consumers are open to using digital tools to support the in-person process. For example, 55% would be happy to test drive the car in virtual and 75% of consumers expressed an interest in a greater online process for purchasing or leasing a car. This presents a big opportunity for the automotive sector to give customers an easier online and self-serve experience when it comes to finance and models.
Other key findings:
- 98% of customers said they would use digital tools at some point during the house buying process, with 34% saying they would consider doing the house-buying process completely online.
- 61% of consumers said digital tools had a positive experience on the house buying process.
- When it comes to banking, almost two thirds of respondents believe tools like online branch appointment booking systems (64%) and online check cashing scanners (63%) would help improve this shift to digital experiences.
Rebecca Crook, chief growth officer at Somo said: “As our consumer research has shown the uptake from consumers in using digital products has increased dramatically since Covid-19. It’s particularly interesting to see sectors such as property buying, which in many ways still has many antiquated paper elements, that there is a huge appetite for change to move processes to a purely digital format. The research shows that 98% of people use digital at some point in the house buying journey but it’s not currently end-to-end which is what consumers want to see.”
She continued, ”As consumer confidence starts to return, hotels are re-opening but customers would like to see less staff contact in hotels and more digital tools during their stay. 80% of consumers surveyed said that they would be more likely to choose and stay at a hotel if there are digital tools such as menus, self-serve check-in and the like rather than having to interact with a hotel staff member. Whilst hotels will no doubt be investing in technology to help give assurances to customers part of the holiday/hotel visit is about the experience so it will be interesting to see how brands grapple with still providing that personal service.”
Finally, she noted, “The consumer research from across sectors we interact with frequently; cars, hotels, banking and housing demonstrates a real shift in consumers now expecting digital solutions as the norm. This puts huge pressure on brands who haven’t adopted digital transformation and those who have poor digital experiences as the consumers we interviewed will simply switch off and use another brand.”
