Imagine how satisfied your account holders would be if they could walk into a branch, open a new account, and walk out with their new debit or credit card in their wallet, ready for activation and use.
With instant card issuance, this could become a reality.
Adopting a new technology can be daunting for organizations both large and small, but with so many concrete benefits for your financial institution and your account holders, instant issuance is a win-win. Below are three major reasons why.
Instant Issuance Is Better For Business
One of the quickest ways to promote adoption of a new technology is to talk revenue. Instant card issuance has been proven to increase revenue for financial institutions by producing five additional debit transactions per month. Cardholders are choosing their instant-issued cards on a regular basis in fact, instant issuance has been shown to lead to a 5% increase in overall transaction volume.
This technology not only makes money, but it saves money too. Instant issuance leads to increased use of mobile deposit, which equals cost savings for branches.
Instant issued cards also see higher activation and usage rates, which can be as high as 89%. Account holders are using their cards within hours, rather than days, which means instant gratification and better account holder experience. In fact, instant issued cards are used on average within the first 93 minutes of activation compared to the first 10 days as with standard issue.
Instant issuance allows credit unions and community banks to affordably offer the same custom card services as larger financial institutions, a factor that influences account holder decision-making. Among all debit card users, 36% say instant issuance would influence their choice of financial institution a number that jumps to 47% for 18- to 24-year-olds.
Save Costs with Cloud-Based Technology
Implementing a new software-for-purchase solution often means expensive up-front and licensing costs, complicated infrastructure changes, dedicated IT resources, and numerous upgrades.
In contrast, Card@Once instant issuance is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that uses cloud-based computing. This means that financial institutions only need to invest in the card printer, and can be up and running with just an internet connection and a web browser. From there, the cloud-based service provider handles all updates, security and maintenance.
SaaS is an efficient solution that offers benefits such as:
- Rapid deployment
- Minimal staff training
- Increased productivity
- Minimal IT overhead
- Lower operating costs
- Improved security and scalability
This puts instant issuance within reach of both large financial institutions and smaller credit unions and community banks.
Enhance The Onboarding Experience
Instant issuance naturally leads to an improved customer experience, but it can make for more successful onboarding as well.
Instant issuance keeps the new account holder dialogue active much more efficiently than standard card issuance, which can put distance between you and your account holders at a crucial selling stage. This active dialogue makes the contact strategy and insight collection of onboarding more seamless and effective.
When account holders receive their cards in-branch, this allows you to earn trust and build engagement, which lays the foundation for deepening the relationship with account holders by engaging them in sticky services and other products.
Instant issuance naturally builds account holder loyalty and even creates the opportunity for account holders to become brand advocates, providing free, organic marketing for your financial institution.
Click here to learn more about Card@Once, the instant issuance technology from Harland Clarke.
Renee Jones is Product Manager, Card Services, at Harland Clarke