Quite a few businesses of all sorts have capitalized on the mobile computing trend that has been shifting consumer behavior patterns for quite some time, and will continue to do so in the near future, especially as the adoption of increasingly capable mobile devices reaches its inevitable meteoric proportions.
TCF Bank has supported the trend with a dedicated mobile app, which facilitates a wide variety of functions that would take somewhat more time if dealt with through a standard browser. While at first glance it seems that this is merely a creation of convenience, there are a number of advantagesâ€"â€"though admittedly convenience-basedâ€"â€"that should not be underestimated when strategizing consumer satisfaction in the coming decades.
The advantage of one-click access to one’s account cannot be overstated; anything that will allow users to get into their accounts just slightly faster will immediately receive the bulk of user usage patterns, especially in terms of mobile devices, whose users are inherently paying a premium for speed and convenience to begin with. When something is that simple, clients will flock to it en masse.
Furthermore, since the app is optimized for size and input specifications for the device, the user interface is likely to be far more efficient than visiting the main site, which further facilitates ease of use, but also speed; fewer graphics and data mean the service will be capable of operating much faster. While mobile versions of sites may come close to this functionality, they still have the disadvantage of the client needing to type in the URL, and apps can run slightly faster due to the graphical data being contained on the phone and not needing to be transferred (though that is not likely significant).
On top of this, security issues are likely stronger on certain devices, to the contrary of what many people likely believe. While viruses and other malicious forms of software are prevalent on a variety of platforms, closed systems such as the iPhone OS have a much better system of quality control, which requires the applications to be approved by a human observer before being allowed on the device, drastically reducing the potential of harmful software appearing on the phone. While other systems do not currently have this advantage (Android, for example), the advantage remains in the hands of the mobile devices for the time being.
Quite a few banks, both foreign and domestic, have followed this route, including in many cases banks which have experience quite significant user satisfaction gains among clientele who enjoy such a service rather thoroughly. This is surprising, given the fairly utilitarian nature of such applications, but it just goes to show that well designed software will garner praise and fans regardless of how little fun the task itself might seem.
TCF mobile banking currently has a mere 2 out of 5 stars on the iOS App Store, which is rather disappointing given how simple the process should be. While it is not so likely that anyone will lavish attention on a mobile banking application that they might in other cases, it nevertheless could use some improvement, it seems. Banks should realize that mobile strategies will inevitably become increasingly important in the future.
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