Is your financial institution experiencing a lower-than-average rate of new customers? How about those online applications — are they being consistently abandoned by new customers? If so, you’re not alone. Studies have shown that recent abandon rates for online banking applications have averaged out to about 97% among financial institutions.

Logically, this figure might be surprising for many banking institutions. After all, digital self-service has proven itself to be a preferred method for most customers. But not all self-service is created equal, and especially when it comes to a subject as important as new accounts or loans, as customers often feel they do not have enough resources to complete an application by themselves. The Financial Brand author, Jim Marous, refer to this as friction.

Fortunately, the solution to reducing friction during account opening can be achieved as banking organizations move to a more digital-first strategy. Some of the ways in which companies have successfully done this include:

1. Push out message notifications when the customer starts an application.

2. Make the experience 100% digital.

3. Retarget abandoned applications to avoid them moving to a competitor. 

4. Eliminate the need for the customer to visit a branch to deliver documents.

5. Support a multi-channel digital experience. 

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