Technology makes customers more loyal

Contactless payments, mobile banking and e-commerce developments in retail banking have made a significant contribution to higher levels of customer satisfaction and advocacy, according to new research.

Visa commissioned researcher RFi to find out what impact new payment and transaction technology was having on customers. It found that transaction banking was increasingly the key factor determining a main financial institution relationship.

It also found that customers who hold their primary credit or debit and/or credit card with their MFI are more satisfied than those who hold their primary cards with other institutions.

And "digitally enhanced" customers (those who interact with their bank using a mobile device) hold more products with their MFI than any other group of customers.

"Cards are at the heart of successful cross-sell," the report said.

According to the research report, 86 per cent of consumers have made an online purchase in the past 12 months and 62 per cent of people with contactless cards have made a contactless payment.

In January, contactless payments accounted for more than 60 per cent of all face-to-face Visa transactions in Australia, compared with 40 per cent in January last year.

Twenty-six per cent of respondents said they would use less cash for their spending in the next 12 months.

The report shows that take-up of contactless is growing but a significant number of consumers remain concerned about security. Sixty-seven per cent of people who have not made a contactless payment said "concerns" had prevented them from using the technology.

A longer-term challenge is to encourage consumers to use their smartphones to make contactless payments. Only eight per cent of people have used their smartphone to make a contactless payment.

Visa head of product for Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, Rob Walls, said there was more work to be done around the process of getting payment card details into the phone and also making the phone as easy to use at the point of sale as a card.

"The technology is going to change. The process will change," Walls said.