Today’s consumers lead a mobile-centric lifestyle. But for retail banks and the personal finance industry mobile still remains a largely untapped resource. This must change if financial companies want to connect properly with their customers, and not appear out of touch.

In a four-part series, Adrian Sarosi of mobile engagement platform provider OpenMarket highlights how consumer financial service providers can learn from other industries on how to use mobile for effective customer engagement.

Part Four: The games people play

In the fourth and final part of his blog series, Adrian looks at the techniques used by developers of social games like "Farmville" and "Mafia Wars" to use mobile to engage successfully with their players in the era of smartphones and mobile apps. He highlights the lessons that retail banks and consumer finance companies can learn for their own mobile engagement strategies with customers.

Push for more than SMS

For all of SMS’s ongoing appeal and usefulness, nobody can dispute the impact and popularity of mobile apps over the last few years (45 billion app downloads and counting worldwide from Apple’s App Store). However, the sheer number of apps available to download – over a million on iOS and Android combined – means it’s all too easy for your customer to forget or ignore your app once they’ve downloaded it.

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A financial services company that has launched an app can solve this dilemma by using on-screen updates called push notifications – user-relevant content that prompts the recipient to use the app. And as with SMS, the customer must first give their permission, so this is effectively an opt-in marketing mechanism.

Being social

Financial service providers can learn an important lesson from the social games industry in how to use push notifications to generate ongoing customer engagement.

Facebook-based social games like "FarmVille" and "Mafia Wars" have attracted millions of casual players worldwide. Now this phenomenon has spread to smartphones, and developers make good use of push notifications to encourage players to play their games more often and for longer.

A consumer finance company or bank can use push notifications in a similar way by reminding consumers about products they’ve shown an interest in or by inviting them to take part in competitions or promotions. The aim is to give customers a useful tool that simplifies their life or helps them obtain information they need easier.

A longer shelf life

The success of mobile social games shows that if you invest time and money in an app, push notifications can drive usage and extend its shelf life. Any company with a smartphone app needs to include push notifications in its customer engagement and marketing plan.

For a bank or personal finance company, push notifications can be as simple as reminding the user that they’ve downloaded the app but haven’t used it for a while. Or it can be more specific -such as on-screen balance reminders or alerts about deposits and withdrawals. Clicking on the on-screen prompt takes the customer directly into the app, where they can properly engage and interact with the content.

It’s all about the customer

If you’re considering a new or updated mobile strategy, don’t get caught up in the technology – instead, focus on the consumer. Don’t assume that launching a smartphone app is enough to communicate with all the people you need to engage with. Bear in mind the broad range of devices that your customers will be using, which includes connected tablets and smartphones, but also feature phones and low-end devices.

With all this in mind, mobile requires ongoing investment. A single one-off campaign is not enough to properly capitalise on mobile’s ability to build and sustain a productive relationship with customers. Instead, it requires a sustained commitment, as part of a comprehensive strategy for better, smarter customer engagement by a service provider across all platforms.