Many small businesses that do not use mobile bill-payment services are unlikely to use them in the near future, new survey data suggest.
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, believes banks have an opportunity to persuade more small businesses to use mobile bill payment because some 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 says.
Banks should do more to educate small-business owners about mobile bill payment’s advantages and address any concerns they might have, McCracken adds.
For its research, Synergistics in January surveyed 602 small businesses with annual sales between $50,000 and $10 million. Just as consumers are doing, small-businesses owners and executives are increasingly using mobile phones to conduct banking sessions and other financial activities, the research found.
In a report summary, Synergistics noted 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 says. Small-business executives want to “very quickly determine what is happening from a financial standpoint and react to it” when using mobile services, he adds.
That need should compel financial institutions to sell small businesses on mobile banking’s advantages, McCracken says.
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 believes those respondents’ tendencies have more to do with preferences than age. “It’s not necessarily that small-business people are dinosaurs,” he says. “They are pulled in different directions everyday. 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 adds. “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 says. “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.
What do you think about this? Send us your feedback.
