Banking Over IM? It's What the Kids Want

Ars Technica reports: Kids these days, with their text messaging and their IM and their Twitter. (That's me channeling Managing Editor Eric Bangeman.) By now, it comes as no surprise that young people have different preferences for how they use technology than the older folks in the crowd. But the techie habits of young people are beginning to creep into the most mundane of activities, such as banking, as companies look for ways to appeal to the younger generation and grow their businesses.

A new survey conducted for Microsoft by Javelin Strategy and Research shows that "Millennials"--people between the ages of 18 and 30--heavily prefer interacting with their banks through higher-tech (and lower-human-interaction) methods like the web, IM, and SMS. Unsurprisingly, a large majority of Millennials surveyed said that they prefer to go online for basic banking transactions, like checking account balances (74 percent) and paying bills (70 percent). (Hell, doesn't everyone who's into technology does these things nowadays, Millennial or not?)

Young people tend to go a step further than most average people, though, when it comes to dealing with banking customer service. 15 percent reported that they prefer dealing with customer service over IM, and Canadian Millennials in particular preferred IM for a plethora of other activities, like receiving financial advice, opening a new account, or applying for a loan. Australian Millennials seemed to like receiving account alerts over SMS at more than double the rate of the general audience (23 percent).

"In this difficult economic time, banks are understandably eager to attract and retain new customers, particularly the estimated 80 million tech-savvy Millennials who have entered or are soon to enter the work force," Microsoft's US banking solutions director Rich Feldmann said in a statement. "This survey shows banks need to consider a wide variety of channels to reach these tech-savvy Millennial consumers, and ultimately drive seamless integration across the Web, branches and phone."

Of course, a majority of Millennials still prefer face-to-face communication when it comes to important banking matters; 57 percent said they would rather open a new account in person, and 52 percent said the same of applying for a loan. But times are changin'--10 years ago, those numbers would have been a lot higher. Even the older generations are starting to use SMS and IM en masse, with parents texting their kids more and more frequently. It's just a matter of time before financial (and other) services beef up their offerings so that we can all conduct our daily business in any way we'd like.

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