Many small businesses that do not use mobile bill-payment services are unlikely to use them in the near future, a survey suggests.
Of the 327 small-business owners and executives Synergistics Research Corp. surveyed who do not use mobile bill payment, 30% said they likely would not use the service in the next 12 months, while 38% said they were "not too" likely to use it.
Bill McCracken, Synergistics' chief executive, said he believes banks have an opportunity to persuade more small businesses to use mobile bill payment because roughly 80% already use electronic bill-payment services.
"This next step to mobile bill payment isn't as big of a step as going from check to electronic bill pay," he said.
Banks should do more to educate small-business owners about the advantages of mobile bill payment and address any concerns they might have, McCracken said.
Synergistics in January surveyed 602 small businesses with annual sales between $50,000 and $10 million. Just as consumers are doing, small businesses are increasingly using mobile phones to conduct banking sessions and other financial activities, the research found.
In its report, Synergistics said that 40% of respondents use mobile banking services and 90% use a mobile device.
Mobile banking for small businesses is more a necessity than for consumers who often find those services convenient, McCracken said. Small-business executives want to "very quickly determine what is happening from a financial standpoint and react to it" when using mobile services, he said.
That need should compel financial institutions to sell small businesses on the advantages of mobile banking, McCracken said.
Among the 275 respondents who did not use mobile banking, 40% said they were likely to adopt such activities in the next year. But 31% said they were "not too" likely to use mobile banking and 28% said they would not use the services at all.
McCracken said those respondents' tendencies have more to do with preferences than age. "It's not necessarily that small-business people are dinosaurs," he said. "They are pulled in different directions every day. There are so many things on their plate that if something is working on the banking side, why change it?"
But banks can take steps to change those preferences, McCracken said. "Banks definitely are in the front seat from a trust perspective and are able to call this group and say, 'I think I have something to help you,' " he said. "The future of this product is somewhat in the hands of financial services executives."
Small businesses primarily use mobile banking services to check balances, but they also are conducting what may be viewed as serious financial activity, the survey found. Some 59% of the 290 respondents using mobile banking check account balances, while 26% conduct mobile check deposits and 17% conduct payroll processing through a mobile device.
