In a related knowledge article, we talked about how several studies have found the three major components influencing adoption of new technology to be: perceived risk, perceived value and perceived ease of use.

Not surprisingly, a dominant factor is the risk perceived by the consumer to use the new technology. The greater the perceived risk, the greater the perceived ease of use and value must be for the consumer to use the technology. Since online banking is clearly considered to be high risk by many members and customers, one could quickly conclude that the best strategy would be to bundle other features with online banking that would increase the consumer's perceived value of online banking sufficiently to warrant the perceived risk.

The problem is that consumers have been sold on online banking services for over 5 years now and the major issues inhibiting online banking usage as defined in a recent survey by the Tower Group relate to things that must be overcome by getting the consumer gradually comfortable with the online banking environment. Even continuing concerns with security can only be overcome by getting the consumer to use the online channel and gain trust and confidence through usage. All the marketing and education in the world will have difficulty overcoming pre-conceived notions that have been established over several years. To overcome such deep seeded beliefs, financial institutions must allow their consumers to migrate to online banking at a pace that is comfortable to them.

Some financial institutions have come to realize these dynamics involved in consumer adoption of online banking and have opted to provide their members with several low-risk, high-value online offerings to get acquainted with doing business online -- without requiring them to sign up for online banking. As an example, Brian Warfel, Senior Vice President of Power Financial Credit Union states: 

"We have enjoyed tremendous success in accelerating adoption of our eStatements offering once we stopped requiring members to first have an online banking account. eStatements provides our members with yet another method to get comfortable with our online channel before jumping into what is perceived as "the deep end of the pool" with online banking." 

Sometimes the shortest distance between two points isn't a straight line!

FuzeDigital allows you to quickly offer several low-risk, high value offerings that create a gradual and comfortable transition for your consumers into your online channel by providing the necessary components of a digital support channel.