The average millennial is always connected - we check our phone 43 times a day, which means once every 20 minutes if we assume 8 hours of sleep.  We live in a 'phygital' world, leading a virtual life through our smartphone devices. Five in six millennials interact with companies over social media and many get frustrated if they cannot find the answers in a few minutes after trying the webchat or watching a quick tutorial online. We are very unlikely to call-in and it would be almost impossible to get us to visit a branch. Millennials, who are expected to have $20 trillion in wealth by 2030, are reshaping the banking industry and banks nowadays can barely keep up. Drastic changes need to be made by aspiring neobanks and fintechs if they want to launch a go-to-market proposition that appeals to the growing segment of younger consumers and tap into those trillions of dollars. 

 

Having an easy to use smartphone banking app is the baseline for a bank that wants to appeal to the tech-savvy segment, as 47 percent of them prefer to bank using their mobile than any other channel and Monzo, Starling and others are proof of this. But what does this mean for upcoming neobanks? Well, up to 1 in 3 millennials will abandon an app if the user experience is not up to their standard and if it processes take too long.  Challenger banks need to take technology to the next level – being able to record your query or type your query to get a resolution within seconds should be the new norm. Chatbots are already being used to keep people with insomnia company, make medical diagnoses faster and more accurately  and even book your flights by uploading an Instagram picture of the destination, so why can’t millennials voice record their question, or send a screenshot of any errors to get their answers? As a millennial, I expect my banking app to use the latest AI technology to identify any issues that arise before I am even aware of them and track my Google searches and app scrolls to realise what banking-related enquiries I might have. 

 

Offering a digital multi-channel approach is not enough to differentiate you as a bank. Millennials have shifted banks’ priorities from purely product to an experience-led way of thinking. We demand a hyper-personalised experience and banks can build the data to deliver this. Younger consumers are most likely to share personal information such as purchases, geo-location and allow access to their social media because we expect our banks to use this to provide a deeper, real-time understanding of our motivations and frustrations. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced data analytical tools should in combination anticipate upcoming life events and accompanying needs of individual customers and design experiences that meet that intuition. As a millennial, I expect my banking app to pass information between my apps (given my permission of course) so that when I book a trip to Spain or my mortgage payments are piling up, my banking app alerts me when there’s lower currency exchange fees or comes up with a repayment schedule for me. 

 

Millennials are growing up in a world where the largest retail shop doesn't own any physical branches, the largest transportation service doesn't own any cars and the most prevalent hospitality service does not own hotels. Three in 4 millennials fuel the ‘’experience economy” by choosing to spend money on an experience or event over buying something desirable  - for example, millennial travellers spend up to $11.3 billion overseas per year.  Banking apps should therefore make it easy for us to save for our travels, access the best exchange rates and offer free ATM withdrawals wherever we are.  As a millennial, I want a banking app that enables my lifestyle – whether that is real time view of my spending or splitting the bill with my travel buddies – and I want it done seamlessly and fast.   

 

We are impatient, tech-savvy experience seekers in need of a banking partner who not only keeps up but is always ahead of the game.