Hoping to take advantage of an SMS text alert market that Javelin Research says should hit 65 million in the next four years, Bank of Stockton is plotting the rollout of a number of alert features over the next few months, including the introduction of a new level of functional sophistication.
“Customer will have the ability to get up to 13 new alerts,” says David Thompson, a vp at Clairmail, Bank of Stockton’s mobile alerts provider. The bank had previously offered one alert for low balances. “The bank will have a whole other opportunity to interact with the customers. The more you touch the customers, the more you can cross sell products.”
Once customers enroll through the bank’s website, customers will be able to receive courtesy alerts which notify customers when account information has been changed, balance alerts and various transaction alerts. Bank of Stockton customers can also set preferences for the triggers and frequency for their alerts.
These services are similar to what most mobile banking platforms offer, but they are paving the way for a more robust rollout in the near future that will include actionable alerts—time-sensitive, account-specific, bank-to-customer alerts which empower customers to resolve issues directly on their mobile phones with a text response.
“At a time when staying in full control of their finances is a top priority for our customers, ClairMail’s alert functionality enables us to immediately inform them about critical aspects of their accounts, and also allows our customers to customize their alerts so they receive the account information that’s most important to them,” said Douglass M. Eberhardt, president and CEO of Bank of Stockton, in a prepared statement.
