Leading Small Business Banks Expand Digital Customer Support and Mobile Banking for Business Customers
Wilmington, Del. July 19, 2023 – Keynova Group, the principal competitive intelligence source for digital financial services firms, today announced the results of the 2023 Small Business Banker Scorecard. Bank of America once again secures first place for Overall Score in the annual benchmark that evaluates the digital user experience for small business customers of 10 national and regional banks.
The Scorecard revealed that mobile banking for small businesses is evolving beyond the basic consumer experience with some banks offering business cash flow dashboards and cash projections. The key findings also indicate that leading banks are working to improve the digital account opening process for new small business customers, a challenging process due to business considerations, risk and associated regulatory compliance.
“Small businesses are widely diverse and require robust digital banking to best suit their unique cash flow, payments and banking needs, and to help reduce time spent on financial operations,” said Susan Foulds, managing director, Keynova Group. “Leading banks catering to small businesses offer a streamlined digital account opening journey and tailored banking capabilities including cash flow analysis, comprehensive money movement options and readily available customer support.”
Increased Access to Customer Support Features
Small businesses cannot afford ineffective customer support such as long phone queues or unsuccessful live chat or chatbot exchanges when they need quick assistance that may not be available via standard retail digital channels. As such, banks are improving their small business online and mobile support options: all of the Scorecard banks offer card lock to halt transactions, and 80% enable customers to order replacement cards through the mobile app. Yet debit card controls such as setting daily or transaction limits—important for businesses with multiple cardholders to track usage and funds—are only offered by 40% of banks. Other key mobile support options for small business customers are less available. Only BMO and PNC provide live chat for business customers, an option that is frequently restricted to consumer accounts, and just Huntington and PNC offer callback via online and mobile banking, allowing users to request a call from a customer representative at a particular time or as soon as possible.
Mobile Banking Services Extend to Small Businesses
While small business mobile banking apps have been mostly limited to consumer banking features, some banks have recently added small business capabilities such as cash management information, more payment options and authorized user access. Forty percent of the evaluated banks now provide some version of a cash flow view for mobile app business users, and Bank of America and PNC are the only banks to release versions of their online business cash flow analysis dashboard for mobile users. Small business banking typically involves higher transaction volumes requiring effective search or filter tools, and 80% of the benchmarked banks support such tools in mobile apps. Seventy percent offer search by dollar range and 40% offer a transaction keyword search. Time-critical money movement helps to ensure small businesses can access external accounts to fund their businesses. However, only 60% of the banks’ mobile apps offer account-to-account external transfers (ACH or Real Time Payments) and just 40% offer domestic wire.
Digital Account Opening Experience Improves
Today, only a few banks support a fully end-to-end digital small business account opening experience, however, 80% of the banks reviewed enable new small business customers to submit an online application with all information required to open an account. To aid applicants, nearly two thirds of the Scorecard banks list required application information upfront in the introduction and half give an overview of the account opening process prior to requesting personally identifiable information. A critical element often overlooked in the overview is stating options for funding new customer accounts such as transfers from external bank accounts or debit cards and “on us” intra-bank transfers for existing customers adding accounts. Forty percent of the reviewed banks enable new small business customers to fund accounts with external transfers or debit cards issued by other financial institutions, and 70% allow existing customers opening accounts to fund new accounts with intra-bank transfers.
About the Small Business Banker Scorecard
Syndicated for more than two decades, Keynova Group’s annual, fact-based Small Business Banker Scorecard objectively evaluates the digital banking services offered by leading U.S. banks that provide small business-focused capabilities to identify best practices, evolving trends and insights. These banks include: Bank of America, BMO, Chase, Citi, Citizens, Huntington, PNC, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. For more information please visit: https://www.keynovagroup.com/scorecards/#banking
About Keynova Group
Keynova Group is the nation’s foremost competitive intelligence firm providing trusted benchmarking insights and analysis of consumer and small business digital financial services, including banking, credit card, home lending and insurance. Since 1999, Keynova Group’s Scorecards have served as the go-to source for leading financial services firms to obtain reliable competitive intelligence and actionable insights. The firm’s proven methodology and highly detailed results help its clients maximize the value of their digital channels to deliver a premier experience to customers and prospects.
For more information:
Meggan Manson
Young & Associates, for Keynova Group
301-371-6995
megganm@yapr.com