Key Insights
- Community financial institutions may be overestimating business customer satisfaction with digital and mobile banking.
- Limited data and “view as user” capabilities obscure real business user pain points.
- Stronger measurement of business digital/mobile usage is critical to defend against larger banks and fintechs.
On Friday nights in the 1990s, Blockbuster’s crowded stores looked like proof of a winning model. The company sat atop the movie‑rental industry, generated enormous revenue from physical rentals and late fees, even though customers openly resented those fees. Netflix’s mail‑order flat monthly subscription with no late fees, and later streaming models, were designed around what viewers clearly preferred: more convenience, fewer penalties, and the ability to watch at home without a trip to the store. By the time Blockbuster leadership recognized that customer behavior had moved decisively toward convenience and flexibility, the gap between how Blockbuster thought people used its service and how they wanted to use it was too wide to close.
Many community financial institutions (CFIs) face a similar risk with business digital and mobile banking. When Cornerstone Advisors conducted its annual survey of digital banking, one finding stood out: relatively few institutions flagged business customer digital/mobile user experience as a concern. It was the least frequently cited business digital/mobile issue in the study with ten other business banking “pain points” ranking higher.
While the survey found that just 21% of financial institutions checked business customer digital/mobile user experience as a top issue, Cornerstone concluded that the actual dissatisfaction level may run much deeper. The reason: an inability by banks to accurately track how well they are meeting business customer digital/mobile needs and demands.
Inside the Business User's Digital Experience
According to the survey, there is still limited business user digital banking logins and mobile banking adoption. Cornerstone says that the average active user logs in across digital and mobile channels only 11.6 times a month, and only 26% of business users have adopted mobile banking.
The fact that a majority of surveyed financial institutions see digital/mobile user experience as a lower-tiered issue could signal an awareness issue. 81% of financial institutions cite the lack of an internal "view as user" capability, meaning staff cannot see the platform through their business customers' eyes. 77% flag inadequate availability of usage data. The trick for CFIs is understanding exactly where they are falling behind on digital/mobile and then moving to fill the gaps.
A More Focused Business Customer Digital/Mobile Measurement
For community financial institutions (CFIs), here are four ways you can effectively collect and analyze digital/mobile services data, when it comes to business customers, using the Cornerstone survey as a guide.
- Track number of digital users. Focus on what percentage that represents of your entire sample of business bank accounts. In the Cornerstone survey, 65% of all business banking customers enrolled in digital banking. But that varied widely. At the high end (the 75th percentile) 85% were enrolled, compared to only 40% at the low end.
- Track usage by monitoring logins. The average digital banking user logged in 11.6 times per month, but there was an even wider divergence between top banks and lagging ones. At the 75th percentile, logins averaged 18.8 times per month, compared to just 0.7 times per month at the 25th percentile. If your CFI is in that bottom bucket, your business customers may not see your digital offering as worth the effort to even log in.
- Track mobile usage. Mobile adoption still lags digital banking usage, but it can be an important focus. Business customers who tried it were apparently sold on it. Among those who were enrolled in mobile, an average 75% were actively using it. At the 75th percentile, 92% were active users. But even at the 25th percentile, 68% were active users. Mobile banking appears to be a high-engagement service for business customers, which can make it an important service to offer and to get right.
- Online business loan origination. Only one in five survey participants said they offered online business loan origination, so this is a service still in its early stage. Those who have offered it reported rapid growth with a fourth of loan originations now digital. What’s more, the amounts were higher than might be expected, with digitally originated loans accounting for 37% of all loan origination dollar volume. In other words, more complex, larger loans are now being originated digitally. Banks that don’t offer it could lose out on significant loan volume.
Digital and mobile banking represent some of the most powerful channels CFIs have to deepen relationships with business customers, but only if institutions are honest about how those channels are actually being used. Apparent satisfaction scores can mask low adoption, infrequent logins, and a lack of visibility into the real customer experience, making it difficult to determine whether perceived satisfaction aligns with actual customer engagement
By treating business digital/mobile metrics as a strategic priority and not a secondary concern, CFIs can identify where their offerings fall short, invest in the tools and data needed to “see as the user,” and proactively close service gaps before larger banks and fintechs do it for them. Those that commit to measuring, understanding, and improving business user engagement today will be far better positioned to retain high-value relationships and capture the next wave of digital-originated business lending tomorrow.
