Neobanks: Optimizing the Customer Journey

A unified, consistent user experience

Unlike traditional brick-and-mortar or omnichannel banks, Neobanks have no physical branches. Still, to stand out in today’s competitive market, where products and services are similar, and customers aren’t compelled to change brands ⁠— neobanks need a consistent, personalized experience to attract customers and keep them.

And as banking increasingly happens on people’s smartphones, for Neobanks’ an irrelevant and disconnected mobile experience can break their success.

As you can see, Neobanks have been surging in popularity over the last six years, with Revolut being the clear leader. It’s no wonder that these banks are gaining traction with mobile app users who want the convenience of digital banking and the perks that complement their lifestyles and interests.

The Neobank customer journey

Looking at the Neobank customer journey, a customer is someone who downloads the app and links their citizen ID (or some other identifier) to the Neobank app.

1. Acquisition – Attracting visitors to your website and downloading Neobank app

Maximizing downloads involves using multiple marketing channels to reach customers and convince them that your app is worth it. That is the most important part of any digital strategy.

2. Activation – Getting visitors to finalize their registration through constant communication

One-fifth of users don’t follow through with registration. That’s tough, considering you spend time, money, and effort on customer acquisition to have them not convert.

3. Revenue – Getting people to start using Neobank app

Match a partnership to user preferences and run personalized customer journeys. Targeting the user’s location is another great way to run effective personalization.

4. Retention – Collecting feedback and ongoing improvement

Creating a dialogue. Show you value your user opinions to build a better product and relationship and to increase conversion rates.

Time to value

Speed is a critical factor because you’re constantly launching new partnerships, new credit cards, or loyalty programs. 
Keep your go-to-market time gaps at the absolute minimum. Let’s look at how you can:

• Increase mobile app downloads
• Close the registration and download gap
• Retain app users
• Create a feedback loop

Attracting visitors to your website and downloading Neobank app

Gamification is a perfect way to break the ice and get the attention of first-time visitors. Use Spin to Win, Scratch to Reveal, and other gamified lead collection forms to get people to share their emails and download your mobile app.

For instance, you can offer incentives like 10% off through one of your partnerships or a $20 credit if a user downloads your app. Or, you can use redirection banners on your mobile website to increase downloads. Post download, serve users personalized content and recommendations.

Getting visitors to finalize their registration through constant communication

One of the big problems Neobanks face is keeping the registration and first-action abandoner ratio to a minimum. So optimizing the registration, login page, even with minor enhancements, can have a massive impact on their bottom line.

Maintaining a low number of registrations and first-action abandoners is a major challenge for Neobanks. So optimizing registration and login pages (even with minor improvements), can have a big impact on Neobank bottom line.

The strategies below help you to tackle registration drop-offs;

• Personalized assistance for acquiring power users
• Recover from registration abandonment with a mobile app push journey
• Overcome account activation abandonment with a cross-channel journey
• Run continuous A/B tests on registration page

Personalized assistance for acquiring power users

Offer assistance on the road to registration. Implement mobile in-app popups at the critical customer journey stages.

For example, if a user is at the password setup step, launch a message about how to create a strong password for solid security. Use strategic messaging to provide additional value as users move along the customer journey, add appreciation messages in every step.

Recover from registration abandonment with a mobile app push journey

Convert registration abandoners with a mobile app push journey. For example, if a user leaves Neobank app without finalizing registration, send them a mobile app push after one day, and follow up on the third day.

Overcome account activation abandonment with a cross-channel journey

Your users aren’t just on one channel. Are you?

If a user finalizes registration but doesn’t link their personal ID to Neobank app, run a multichannel journey.

Start with a mobile app push. No response? You already have their email address and phone number, so follow up with an RCS message or email.

Make users feel valued and engaged throughout the entire customer journey. Build brand awareness, boost sales, and increase your market share with a diversified marketing strategy.

Run continuous A/B tests on registration page

Tweak Neobanks’ registration page and get more customers. According to ITR research, 15.6% of app uninstalls are the result of a poor registration experience.

That isn’t great news for you because Neobank users must create an account before being nurtured towards a purchase.

Customers have little tolerance for registration processes because they are bombarded with them daily. Creating an account is a commitment.

Test and optimize different variations of their registration page. Try multiple layouts and focus on the one that converts the best. Tweak key elements like images, titles, and buttons on a live app with no code changes or app store deployments.

Getting people to start using your app

Pay attention to in-app transactions levels. Keeping user retention high boils down to matching partnership offers with different user segments. If the customers keep getting irrelevant offers, they’ll leave you for another.

Here best-performing strategies that help you to keep the retention level high;

• Matching cashback offers to customer preferences
• Customizing mobile apps for different customer types

Match cashback offers to customer preferences

Scenario: A global coffee chain is a Neobank partner.

You know your coffee chain lover segment visits the offline store 2x/per month and spends $15 each time. Run a cross-channel journey with too-good-to-turn-down app push offer:

“Visit your local coffee chain one more time this month and spend a minimum of $15, earn $20 cashback.”

For even better results, followup with SMS.

Customizing mobile apps for different customer types

Personalize Neobank app based on different user levels. For example, design an app with more higher-end design (different aesthetic) for VIP customers. Also, add some incentives to the app to reactivate inactive users.

Create a continuous feedback loop

Asking for direct feedback and getting honest responses from your loyal customers is golden. Customer feedback is the most effective way to optimize Neobank app’s user experience and increase traffic down the funnel.

Once you analyze the results of your feedback campaigns, you’ll have a chance to figure out what your customers really want. Then, you can use surveys to drive further customer feedback and share those insights with your product and sales teams to enhance your customer experience, prospecting, and objection handling.

Understand the registration process

Launch NPS form to the new users after they register and understand if your flow really works.

Find out why users cancel their accounts

Launch open-ended or multiple selection surveys to the users who canceled the account. Ask the reason for the cancellation.

Know your users’ expectations

Launch multiple selection surveys for your active customers after they make a transaction in the app. By doing this, you can understand what type of new features they expect.

We hope you were able to walk away with some actionable insights on how to enhance your Neobank’s marketing strategy. 

For marketers to succeed today, they must become experience-focused brands. With personalization, consistent cross-channel messaging, dynamic journeys, and open dialogues with your customers, getting there is not impossible. 

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or to chart a better customer experience.