Better banking relationships, one customer at a time
By Ted Brown
For an early-stage company like my start-up Digital Onboarding, being part of a program that fosters the relationship between 60+ bank partners is truly the opportunity of a lifetime. We have a great platform and the business development opportunity for Digital Onboarding at the FIS Accelerator Program is something our whole company is really excited about.
Digital Onboarding is focused on helping banks and credit unions build 1:1 relationships with customers and members at scale by personalized, digital communications, machine learning, and analytics.
We’re really focused on the early days of a new account holder. After securing a loan or opening a deposit account, our platform enables banks and credit unions to help customers and members adopt additional products and account-related services like direct deposit, bill pay, and digital banking. We want to help them get the most out of the relationship with their financial institution and are fully utilizing the product they opened.
While financial institutions invest a lot of time, money, and effort to get new customers and members, the relationship doesn’t always become a profitable one where the customer or member is truly banking with the institution. Spending hundreds of dollars to acquire a checking account is often wasted because 25%-40% of new checking accounts are closed within the first year. Digital Onboarding is here to make sure the opener engages right from the start.
The need for our platform is really a marketing or behavioral psychology challenge. Why would someone open a product without fully utilizing it? If they don’t have the education around the full scope of services available, they may not have time to dig deep and discover products available to them. Everyone is busy these days so the second after someone opens an account, doing anything else falls to the bottom of the priority list. Furthermore, customers and members often perceive the process of enrolling in services to be more difficult than it actually is. Financial institutions really need a structured follow-up process to nudge and remind account holders to utilize their products and stay engaged. Fewer than half of all banks and credit unions have a structured process for following up with new customers and members.
Digital Onboarding makes this process easy for any bank or credit union. Our platform is very configurable and provides a simple way for any institution to customize content and process steps. Institutions can view analytics on what’s working and test and optimize to achieve the best results. Our customers truly love the platform, so it’s an exciting time for the company. The platform is new and fresh, and we see good results through KPIs around engagement. We’re optimistic about improving those as we grow.
Being here in Little Rock and part of the FIS Accelerator Program is the next step in our journey to learn and collaborate with a group of passionate entrepreneurs. Becoming an entrepreneur isn’t something I’d set out to accomplish. Rather, it’s something I’ve grown to love. Digital Onboarding really has become my life. I put everything into it, and I make it fun. Everywhere I travel, I have a good time and I build in exercise. For me, this is key to balancing work and the inevitable stress that comes with it to have a sustainable business. And when that sustainable business can help improve banks’ ability to serve their customers and make their lives easier, everybody wins.