Aldan Bilgen, Akbank Direct’s digital channels management and marketing vice president tells Douglas Blakey about the bank’s drive to breathe new life into the digital age of banking with its Akbank Direkt Mobil app. By all standard banking metrics, the launch has been a soar-away success
Akbank has scored a hit with its Akbank Direkt Mobil service, designed to provide mobile banking services to both Akbank direct customers and credit card customers.
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Claiming a first in the Turkish market, Akbank Direkt Mobil has been designed with a homepage that can be personalised, providing many different user experiences.
At the heart of the offering is a simple menu structure, offering a class-leading processing capability and a login facility with single password feature.
Aldan Bilgen, digital channels management and marketing vice president at Akbank Direkt says that the success of the app has exceeded the bank’s expectations.
“The App has received excellent responses from users and surpasses its competitors.The response of users and positive customer testimonials has helped Akbank Direkt Mobile enter the ‘Featured App’ list at Apple Store, Windows Phone Store and other various stores.
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By GlobalData“With Akbank Direct Mobil, Akbank customers are able to easily access many banking services such as money transfers, investment transactions, account services, credit card payments, foreign currency transactions, invoice, payments and loan transactions.”
In late 2011/early 2012, recognising the huge growth in the use of smartphones in Turkey, Akbank launched a new mobile strategy, focusing on a crossplatform approach, with the aim of bringing to market a new m-banking service in the shortest possible time.
“The objects of the development project were shaped according to customer needs and desires.
“Therefore, the mobile app has been built upon a very strong infrastructure in terms of compatibility and flexibility which enables our team to develop device and platform independent applications under an in-house developed framework.”
Akbank Direkt Mobile runs across the iOS, Android and Windows 8 platforms on smartphones and tablets as now offered by many banks but Bilgen is at pains to stress the novelty of the log-in process for customers.
“The Single Password facility was a unique solution in Turkey and internationally when the app has launched. What makes it superior over other login solutions is that it ensures a quick and flexible login service without avoiding any security protocols.
“Contrary to impractical login processes that require multiple logins or additional passcode solutions, it achieved a significant breakthrough with its simple and convenient pattern.
“Moreover, the user-centric thinking of Akbank team ensured that our customers could decide how to login the next time they used the service according to their preference.
“The algorithm we use ensures a fully secure authentication for customers. Our competitors could not have come up with any more competitive solution.”
Bilgen says that the mobile banking service has been a hit not just with existing customers but has also assisted the bank win over new customers to the bank.
“There has been a remarkable customer acquisition success due to Akbank Direkt Mobile and “Single Password”.
Bilgen says that Akbank’s “Login with Single Password” feature, means that users can log in to their mobile banking account in 3 seconds and complete a money transfer within 10 seconds, considerably quicker than any rival offering in the Turkish market.
Since launch in 2012, Akbank Direkt Mobile has been downloaded almost 2m times by more than 1m customers.
App store ratings include:
– Android: 4.4 / 5 (The best rate in Finance category in its region)
– Apple: 4.5 / 5 (The best rate in Finance category in its region)
– Windows: 4.5 / 5 (The best rate in Finance category in its region)
Bilgen adds that Akbank’s Direkt Mobile NPS(Net Promoter Score) is running at 62%, not far off the rates enjoyed by global digital hits such as ipad: %65, iPhone 70% and Amazon.com with 69%.
Since rolling out the iOS & Android apps, Akbank Mobile Banking active customers (at least 1 login per month) have increased by 750% compared to the old Wap application figures (August 2012), and the number of monthly transactions has increased by 2,700%.
Meantime the number of Akbank Direkt Mobile active customers has increased by 1,000 in less than two years.
Bilgen concludes: “The long term strategy is to ensure that Akbank stands out among its rivals and reinforces its position as a leader in Turkish mobile banking.”
