Mintel Compremedia, a service providing competitive intelligence for businesses looking to advance and improve their direct marketing strategy, conducted a survey which showed that people would still prefer contacting their bank at a branch instead of online or email communication. 

About 65% of respondents say they prefer to get up close and personal at a bank branch to communicate. At the same time 43 % choose the phone as a preferred method for its real person, real time qualities. About three in seven (44%) of respondents say they like logging on to a bank’s secure website while just 34 % like email as a best method of bank communication. 

However we cannot exclude websites and email from the methods of customer-to-bank contact. Exactly these avenues are used by young adults, especially, when they want to reach their banks. Over half of Echo Boomers and Gen Xers (52% each) say they prefer contacting their bank through a secure website.

Susan Wolfe, VP of financial services at Mintel Comperemedia, commented the results of survey: “When it comes down to it, people still crave personal contact when communicating with banks. Talking in person or over the phone brings on feelings of familiarity and confidence, which are especially important to consumers in light of the financial crisis.”

When Mintel Comperemedia asked survey respondents how they prefer their banks to contact them—mail, email and in person were near ties (43%, 42% and 40%, respectively). 

Susan Wolf added: “Though people have clear preferences for how they like to contact their banks, they aren’t as opinionated about how their banks contact them. Banks need to be mindful that every customer has different communication preferences, so they should offer multiple points of contact.”