According to Accenture’s Global Consumer Pulse Research, non-traditional banking competitors are gaining ground with banking consumers. The report reveals that 43% of consumers across industries globally say they would consider products and services from companies that are not generally considered part of traditional banking industry definitions.
Here are three reasons why your business could benefit from switching to a non-traditional banking providers.
1. They are more agile and implement the latest security technologies quicker
Security will always be a top priority where money is involved and the assumption often is that traditional banks are far more secure than their smaller, non-traditional rivals.
This isn’t necessarily true., Non-traditional service providers use the same technology that is available to their traditional rivals. And are in fact, far more agile, able to develop more secure systems and implement the latest security offerings easier and quicker than traditional banks.
For instance, where some local banks are still using older 128 bit encryption keys to secure the connection for their online banking site, several smaller providers have already moved on to far stronger 256 bit encryption keys – which have been available for more than a year now.
2. They offer more efficient customer service
The benefit of working with a smaller and alternative banking provider is that you work directly with humans rather than automated response systems or large-scale impersonal call centres.
These providers offer very specialised services and are better equipped to troubleshoot when there is a query around a particular transaction.
Not to mention quicker at resolving queries because they aren’t crippled by never ending red tape.
3. They are more cost effective
Unlike traditional banks that have massive operating costs – branches nationwide, sprawling call centres, armies of staff and ongoing legal fees, etc – smaller, non-traditional providers simply don’t have the same overheads. And because they often specialise in one niche area of banking (facilitating EFTs, for example), they can provide essential services at far lower fees.
To use the reference of EFTs again – with newer EFT solutions businesses can cut down the transactional cost of paying their employees’ salaries from as much as R18 per transaction to as little as R2.50.
With businesses facing increased pressure to cut costs and improve productivity, I encourage their leaders to start by taking advantage of the benefits of non-traditional banking providers in the coming years.