6 ways messaging supercharges mid-market financial services

Fast, easy, personalized, and engaging experiences are the name of the game in financial services. It’s not just competitors you’re up against but also experience leaders in other industries. How is your institution stacking up? 

Mobile messaging is a direct line into the hand or pocket of your customer, client, or member. The average person spends four hours and 39 minutes a day on their smartphone.¹ One in three customers have switched banks to get a better mobile experience – and – 53% say they’re frustrated when they can’t reply to a mobile message.² At the same time, 83% of respondents in the Digital Banking Report say their employees are hampered by disjointed technology and applications in meeting customer expectations.³ 

A messaging platform can help mid-size banks and insurance companies meet these communications challenges, offering a quick ROI and the flexibility to grow into new use cases. Here are six ways financial services organizations are tapping into the power of conversational experiences with mission-critical messaging:

1. Alerts

Trust is paramount to creating deeper relationships in banking, insurance and wealth management. Messaging can be used by institutions to send customers, clients, and members real-time notifications about strange account activity to uncover potential fraud faster. It can also be set up to alert customers about low bank balances, trade confirmations, ATM usage, or to remind them about upcoming payment deadlines.

2. Multi-factor authentication

Security and privacy are key to building trust. Financial services organizations can use a messaging platform to help them implement multi-factor authentication to ensure account security. Timely SMS messages can help customers add another level of security to accessing their account for peace of mind. Using messaging for mission-critical alerts and multi-factor authentication is a quick way for institutions to boost efficiency and time-to-value while modernizing everyday operations.  

3. Onboarding

Claims submission, processing notifications, loan application approvals, and new account set-up are just a handful of onboarding workflows that could be dramatically improved with a messaging platform. Your customers want personalized communications on their device of choice. Meet them where they already are and give them the power to reply by turning routine notifications into two-way conversations.  

 4. Marketing offers and loyalty programs

How can financial services organizations build deeper relationships at a time when in-person interactions are disappearing? By using the vast customer information at their disposal to create new digital experiences. Your customers, clients and members are ready to let you see more of their financial lives so they can make smarter decisions. There’s an appetite for new channels and experiences if they increase the ease of interactions while keeping data secure. Offer customers preferred rates for account consolidation and invite them to join your loyalty program for additional perks or discounts via a coordinated email and SMS campaign. 

5. Proactive payment reminders

Instead of fixing problems, smart financial services organizations anticipate them. A messaging platform helps automate routine account communications like payment reminders or other customer service interactions to make it easy for clients to do business with you.  

6. Personalized account recommendations and communications

Nearly 9 in 10 adults say they’d like to receive personalized financial advice but fewer than 3 in 10 receive this today.⁴ What if you could serve up a personalized financial assessment to a new client? Send a buying guide or offer a video tutorial based on a previous purchase or activity? Think of the possibilities based on what you already know about your customers: you could offer a guide on boosting a credit score, an assessment to help set up university or college savings plans, a video on coordinating family insurance plans, and more! The sky is really the limit when it comes to content personalization.  

Your customers are counting on you to help them meet their financial goals. Delight them and start conversations with a messaging platform that’s easy to deploy and scale with your business. OpenText™ Core Messaging helps savvy financial services organizations improve experiences with messaging for email, SMS, WhatsApp, push notifications, and more. Download the Core Messaging product overview to learn more.

1. [1] Statista: Mobile device daily usage time in the United States, 2019-2024.
2. [2] Sinch State of Customer Experience Report, 2022.
3. [3] Digital Banking Report, 2022.
4. [4] Sinch State of Customer Experience Report, 2022.