Losing your mobile worse than losing your wallet

It takes just a few minutes for people to realize they have forgotten their mobile phone after leaving home; but it takes in general much longer for people to notice that their wallet is missing.

Six billion people own a mobile phone, while the number owning or using a wallet is certain to be lower – even people with hardly any money have (access to) a mobile phone.

Mobile phones have changed the way people live and interact and gradually mobile has been changing the way we do business as well, with companies aligning core business processes, from retail to service delivery, via mobile.

As more people have access to smart phones and infrastructure continues to rapidly improve, mobile is now relevant to brands targeting consumers across every industry.

Businesses have to develop strategies that will direct them towards growth – whether through engaging consumers more effectively and converting that engagement into sales, or evolving new business models that introduce new behaviours – such as mobile banking.

TNS’ annual Mobile Life study – which explores mobile usage amongst 48,000 people in 58 countries – shows that one fifth of people around the world now use mobile banking.

As usual with mobile trends, Asia is leading the way; the top 3 countries in the world using mobile banking are Korea (48% of all mobile phone users), Singapore (47%) and Hong Kong (46%). In Hong Kong another 29% say they are interested in using mobile banking which means that three quarters of all Hong Kong people will use this service in the near future.

Mobile can address a number of core consumer needs – convenience, relevance, experience, transparency and independence. Brands can leverage this and link their campaigns with one or more of these needs. Convenience is the first and most important one in Hong Kong; consumers used to spend time to save money, now they spend money to save time. The mobile holds the potential to make consumers’ lives easier in a huge number of ways. Saving consumers time, effort, and delighting them with simple solutions is key for brands to maintain their position.

Convenience is also the key driver of mobile banking in Hong Kong (see graph below), helping people avoid queues for example, particularly during the lunch break when everyone seems to try and do their banking duties.

Mobile provides a perfect way to offer convenience though its innate immediacy and availability; fewer Hong Kong consumers expect to contact their bank via fixed telephone in future, declining from 47% to 35%; or physically visit a bank branch, down from 53% to 36%.

Even on-line contact via PC declines from 67% to 58%. And all these changes are caused by the increase of mobile phone banking which goes up from 20% to 41%.

Clearly, banks need to adjust accordingly. The good news for them is that they may need less (expensive) branches, but it can also mean that the relationship becomes more transactional, which is especially worrying for the banks with the most customers and branches in Hong Kong (read HSBC and Hang Seng Bank).

In addition to offering a mobile platform, banks need to understand how to provide value through mobile without being too intrusive or breaching privacy laws. Addressing the core consumer needs of experience, relevance, transparency, independence and convenience will help companies maintain their presence on peoples’ phones, and build a relationship with it customers.

And just as people have a relationship with their mobile phone, this must be nourished. Where banks get it right, they will see significant rewards in terms of engagement and loyalty. If not, customers will switch to other banks. If you lose their heart, you will lose their wallet.