To keep up with the rapidly evolving technology of today, many businesses are implementing a multitude of online services to offer to their customers. Today’s customers expect a certain level of convenience including anytime/any place, instantaneous access to business services. Here we take a look at the pros and cons of financial institutions ‘going completely online’.

Geographic convenience – Online services can replace, reduce or supplement the need for multiple offices – and their significant costs - located in every city and town to service customers.

Immediate service – Customers can perform business transactions without delay or a waiting period.

Less human resources –Businesses may require fewer employees conduct business and serve members.

Younger demographic appeal – Millennial and Generation Z individuals are considered the digital generation and they rely heavily on technology. Online services are a “must-have” to service these groups, who live on their mobile smart devices!

There are some cons of going completely online though.

If all services are made available online the customer and business may never (or very rarely) have any face-to face-encounters. The relationship may lose the social/personal interaction that can be important. However, there are measures that can be implemented to compensate for this and strengthen the relationship such as customer loyalty programs, personalised birthday greetings and member achievement acknowledgements.

There will also be a complete reliance of your business on working telecommunication with the outside world - if this communication were to fail, it could result in loss of business. With proper infrastructure redundancy e.g.Internet access from multiple providers, this potential issue can be mitigated.

And finally, let’s not forget cyber-attacks. There are always malicious individuals looking for ways to gain unauthorized access to confidential information and data. The more services that are made available online, the larger a target a business becomes to these hackers. Mechanisms such as very strong data and network security, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), complex login codes and email activity alerts as offered by Emortelle greatly reduce these risks.