Independent Banker - May 2017 - 17

been a forerunner among community
banks in executing a comprehensive
digital strategy. It's always looking for
ways to improve its mobile capabilities
and has several enhancements in
the works for this year.
Currently, for instance, customers
can purchase digital gift cards and
send them to friends, relatives,
coworkers or others via email or
text through the bank's mobile app
or using internet banking. The bank
is also testing Amazon's Ask Alexa
technology for use with the Avidia
Bank mobile app. This would allow
customers to check their balances,
send money to a friend, queue up
bill payment and more-all simply
by voicing a command. This feature
won't be live until at least the end of
the year or early 2018, Cormier says.
Mobile marvel
Avidia Bank already has an impressive
lineup of mobile offerings. Since
2013, it has offered p2p (person to
person) payment services for Avidia
Bank mobile app or online banking
customers. Dubbed People Pay, it
allows users to send money to anyone
for whom they have a valid email
address or mobile phone number.
Then, in 2015, Avidia Bank became
one of the fi rst banks to launch
Cardless Cash, a service that allows
its customers to scan a QR code with
their smartphone and securely withdraw
money at an ATM-without
swiping or inserting a debit card.
Avidia Bank created buzz about the
rollout on social media, which led to
a sizeable uptick in mobile-baking
enrollment.
The number of customers signing
up for mobile banking continues to
" We saw this as an
opportunity to provide
more convenience for
our customers. It's the
next step towards a
fully integrated Avidia
Wallet. "
-CARRIEANNE CORMIER,
AVIDIA BANK
grow. As of mid-February, 64 percent
of the bank's customers were using
the app. By contrast, 80 percent use
internet banking-a fi gure that has
stayed constant for a number of years.
Cormier notes that Avidia Bank's
mobile banking usage is growing
nearly two times as fast as internet
64%
The percentage of Avidia
Bank customers who use
its mobile app
banking usage did. When the bank
rolled out internet banking in 1998, it
took 13 years to get the same number
of users that mobile achieved in only
fi ve years, she says.
Certainly, much of Avidia Bank's
mobile growth can be attributed to its
aggressive promotional efforts. For
instance, it ran a highly successful
" Summer of Mobile " campaign last
June, July and August. Each month,
customers who used certain mobile
features were entered into a drawing
to have their winning transaction
rebated to them. " This gave the
branch staff something exciting to
talk about and led to customers using
new features that they hadn't tried
yet, " Cormier says.
Avidia Bank executives believe that
having an active digital strategy helps
it stand out from the crowd of local
competitors. " For us, it's a differentiator, "
Cormier says. " Customers
are savvy, and they want digital
convenience. We want to be there to
provide those services. "
In addition to differentiating the
Palm power
Avidia's mobile banking
app is multifunctional.
Among other features,
it off ers PayPal One
Touch and the option
to buy and send digital
gift cards through the
app. Avidia is also testing
Amazon's Alexa technology,
which would allow customers
to talk to the app, rather than use a
traditional touch interface.
bank, Avidia Bank hopes its digital
forays will make life easier for customers.
The bank's goal is to make
banking as simple as possible for busy
people who don't want to spend a lot
of time doing it.
" Banking shouldn't feel like a
chore, " Cormier says. " You don't want
banking to be the dreaded thing you
have to do. You want it to be as seamless
as possible. "
Cheryl Winokur Munk is a writer in
New Jersey.
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17
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Independent Banker - May 2017

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