e-Statements: Why are people reluctant to switch to them?

It is very easy for bankers, and we folks working with bankers, to get caught up in technological developments and assume that everyone else will be excited too. In my personal banking career before I formed Early & Company, our bank introduced many new services that I just KNEW everyone would immediately get excited about. Occasionally they did, often they didn’t.

But e-Statements are so good, why wouldn’t everyone jump on board?

Well, there are several reasons, and I’ll address three of them here. At the top of the list for slow acceptance of this service, and acceptance for any other new service being introduced, is that people don’t like change! You can bring up all the logical reasons to people that you want, and you’ll be effective with some, but many will be reluctant to change. Should that discourage you from working hard to achieve new service and product acceptance? Only if you are willing to accept the status quo, and never achieve the services acceptance and bank earnings results you could have achieved!

A second reason is that people are concerned that their e-Statements won’t stay on line long enough. Research shows us that e-statements really should be available for a mimimum of 12 months, and preferably for 18 months. Even after 18 months, many customers want to know they will be sent a paper statement if they want one for their taxes, or for any other reason.

And, thirdly, customers want to know…and they often doubt this…that their on line statements will be as thorough as the ones they receive in the mail. Add to this the common perception that e-Statements are hard to read, and you see a best case scenario that bank e-Statements would be a PDF exact copy of the actual paper statement.

Well, that’s enough excitement for today! There are other reasons, and suggestions for ways to improve your e-Statements acceptance. Do your diligence and research, and contact us to talk further.