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Generation Z is a unique generation. They are identified as the first true digital generation to witness a digital world. The internet and social media rule their world, and instant communication is the norm. The ever-growing world of technology has increased the challenges for marketers. Generation Z includes those who were born from 1997 to 2012.

Over time, they have become the most influential consumer block. This article reviews the five best strategies to reach them effectively. It will cover the importance of having clear values and a vital mission. Furthermore, it will highlight the importance of being transparent and accountable. It is equally important to know about the power of a distinct brand personality and the importance of being entertaining and building a community. All these can create lasting connections with Gen Z consumers. It’s about handling future marketing matters related to Generation Z.

Establish Clear Values & Mission

Gen Z cares about what a brand stands for. Their support goes to brands reflecting their values. A clear mission tells them what a brand is about. It’s not just about selling. It’s about making a statement. They back brands that stand on issues like LGBTQ+ rights, diversity, and social responsibility. These are more than just nice-to-have. They are must-haves for Gen Z loyalty.

This generation looks for more than products. They seek out brands that fight for change. For them, buying is voting. Each purchase is a vote for the world they want to see. Brands that should pay attention to this will stay caught up. Those that get it, like Parade, thrive. Parade isn’t just selling underwear. They’re promoting body positivity, inclusivity, and rights for all. It makes them more than a brand to Gen Z. They’re a movement. This alignment of values and actions wins Gen Z’s hearts and wallets. It’s a powerful connection. A bond not easily broken. That’s why values and mission are everything in marketing to Gen Z.

Be Transparent & Accountable

Gen Z values honesty. They’ll dig deep into a brand’s history, values, and even slip-ups. They respect a brand that owns its mistakes and speaks openly. Trust is big for them, sometimes even more than price. They stick with brands they believe in. Cocokind, a skincare company, showed how it’s done. They promised to share their team’s diversity stats. This was to let their customers check if they walked their talk. It was a bold move that showed they weren’t just about words but also actions.

Gen Z noticed and respected that. They want to see real, ethical action behind the scenes, not just in the ads. This clear, open way wins over Gen Z. They don’t just buy a product. They buy what the brand stands for. When a brand is upfront, it stands strong with Gen Z.

Establish Your Brand’s Personality

To grab Gen Z’s attention, brands must stand out. A strong personality is key. This means being bold and daring. Gen Z wants brands that speak their language and share their vibe. The old ways do not support it.  It is no longer a matter of polished, perfect looks that drew millennials. For Gen Z, being real, raw, and relatable is better. 

Take Starface for example, they sell pimple patches, but their fun, bright yellow star-shaped branding shines. When considering how to appeal to this generation, exploring branding statistics can offer valuable insights into effective strategies.

It’s not just a product; it’s a statement. Their vibe is playful and unapologetic. This fresh approach draws in Gen Z, who see their quirks reflected in the brand. Then, there’s the Crocs and KFC collaboration. It’s so out there it’s genius. These brands mixed comfort with fast food in a shoe.

Also, when it comes to reaching out to potential customers, adopting a similarly genuine and personalized approach, like crafting a well-thought-out cold email, can make a lasting impression.

Sounds crazy, right? But it worked. It caught the eye. Gen Z loves that—it’s weird and different and breaks the mold. That’s the shift. It’s not about looking perfect. It’s about being unique and echoing what Gen Z values—authenticity, creativity, and fun. Brands that get this will win their hearts.

Be Entertaining

To seize the fleeting focus of Generation Z, content must radiate with energy and immediacy. This demographic moves with swift clicks and swift judgment across digital landscapes, only pausing for content that strikes a chord of genuine interest. To halt their rapid-fire tab-switching, marketers must craft engaging but also punchy and memorable videos. Consider the approach of viral challenges and concise tutorials, which are not just watched but experienced and shared.

Fenty Beauty exemplifies this brilliantly with their tutorials that are more than quick—they are a burst of vibrancy, a feast of motion and hue, arresting the Gen Z scroll and sparking a moment of active engagement.

Build a Community

Generation Z’s concept of community is intrinsic to their interaction with brands. They seek connections that resonate personally, not just transactions that end at the checkout. Brands, therefore, must evolve into communities, places where dialogue and personal stories are as integral as business goals and the products offered. This generation values the authenticity found in real stories and relatable faces over the distant allure of influencer endorsements.

It’s about creating a space that feels less like a marketplace and more like a meeting ground—a haven where voices are heard, and individual narratives intertwine with the brand’s ethos. This is where liking a brand evolves into living with it, in a space where Gen Z finds products and a sense of place and community.

Conclusion

To wrap up, marketing to Gen Z means being upfront about your brand’s values and mission. Be clear and own up to mistakes. Show off your brand’s true personality. It should be lively and genuine. Keep them entertained with content that pops up and makes them pause. Don’t forget to build a community. It’s about connection.

These five strategies are key to winning over Gen Z. They value honesty, boldness, fun, and a sense of belonging. Get these right, and you’ll not just reach Gen Z.

Featured Image by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

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Few modern companies could operate without some element of remote working. Remote employees enable a company to get the best people, without the barriers of location or the cost of transport and office space. There are undoubted benefits to remote staffing. Managed well, remote employees can augment your business’s available skills and productivity. 

But how do you ensure that remote employees are well-trained enough to play their part in your company’s success?

Source: Pixabay

As with in-person tuition, training remote employees requires a good teacher, great materials, and reliable technology. But remote training has some unique considerations and best practices that are worth considering. 

We’re going to look at five best practices for training remote employees that a business must get right.

What are the advantages of remote training?

Because remote working is embedded in the way most businesses operate, firms have adapted processes and procedures to serve remote employees, even offering remote work stipends to help new hires optimize their home work environment. As well as ways to onboard remote staff, video meetings, and flexible hours, companies have changed the way training is conducted. 

These changes have been necessary, but remote training also has clear advantages for the business as a whole.

Available anywhere

Training delivered remotely doesn’t need a classroom. It’s available to any employee no matter where they are located. This is as much an advantage for remote workers as for in-house staff based in different locations.

Saves time

Recorded sessions, available when it suits the individual remote worker, meaning they can easily accommodate training into their day. Multiple staff members can also study the material at any time, removing the necessity of booking a room at a certain hour. Even for live sessions that do have a set time, employees can watch a recording, and send in any questions before or afterwards.

Personalized and flexible

With the online training software now available, running remote training sessions can be both personalized and flexible. Topics can be divided into digestible segments that remote workers can access when convenient. Employees can also receive sessions tailored to their particular roles and needs. 

Provides data 

A huge advantage of online training sessions is that data gathered from interactive activities and tests, can easily be logged. This data provides a clear picture of where employees are doing well or struggling, and where they might need extra training. Data also shows how well the learning materials are doing their job, and where improvements are needed.

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

What are the challenges of remote training?

It’s unrealistic to paint a picture of training remote employees as always seamless. There are practical challenges to not having everyone in a room together. A trainer can’t spot those who are falling behind so easily. 

Employees can’t work together on activities as comfortably in separate locations. Different time zones and shifts mean employees are often studying alone, without input from fellow learners, and having to compete with the distractions of their home environment.

Technical issues

The biggest challenge of training remote employees is getting the technical support right. Learners can unwittingly be on mute, content can’t be viewed properly on-screen, or audio isn’t clear. Sometimes recordings of sessions aren’t enabled or subtitles are missing or incorrect.

Content lacking

The quality of learning materials is an issue for both in-person training and remote sessions. But quality is particularly vital for online learning. Without the presence of a trainer and their ability to interpret and enliven the content for learners, the materials will have to work much harder. 

Information inaccessible

With remote employees, each learner will be accessing the training materials separately from their home; this can add an extra challenge. If learning content isn’t logically and centrally stored, where each learner can easily locate it, it can lead to training being missed or incomplete. It can also make the learning experience frustrating and demotivating, and can waste employees’ valuable time.

Hard to Monitor Learning

When learners are not in the same physical space as their trainer, it can be much harder to monitor exactly how they are progressing. Tests and activities can help, but that simple human ability to look at a person and see that they are confused or struggling is absent. It’s also much harder to gauge which learners are falling behind and which are leaping ahead.

A trainer simply can’t supervise the learners in the same way as with an in-person class, and this has to be carefully factored in when designing remote training sessions.

How do you train remote employees? 5 best practices

We’ve looked at the advantages and the challenges of training remote employees; now let’s focus on five ways you can ensure your remote staff get the training they, and your business need and deserve.

1. Plan and set clear goals

Whatever the nature of the content you want to share with your remote team, whether it’s hardcore technical training or softer skills such as time management for remote workers; planning and setting goals is a must. 

Even a social or introductory section of the course should have a purpose, i.e, to introduce the topic and help learners familiarize themselves with the course structure.

Every aspect of the training you design should have clear objectives which are measurable. Short tests or quick, fun activities can follow each segment to make sure objectives are being met.

Be realistic about what a learner can digest and accomplish in a particular time-frame. Make a schedule that will impart all of the content at a pace that a person can comfortably fit into their busy working day.

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

2. Include orientation

Nobody likes starting a task without having some idea of how long it will take and what will be involved. Make sure your learners have a clear plan of the time commitment and style of the activities before they start. 

Establish where to get technical help, supply secure remote support, and let learners know how to ask a question or raise a concern. Show them some examples of the type of activities you are expecting them to do, how to complete them, and what to do if they have any difficulties.

Above all, try the whole course out for yourself, put yourself in a learner’s shoes. Make a note of anything you would like to know or need to have explained. Include all of this in an orientation package.

3. Make content engaging

Great content should be tailored to the learner’s needs and style of learning. The materials should be engaging and user-friendly, and specific to the job requirements. Info dumping, in other words giving employees pages of text to read is not advisable.

Interactive content helps learners take in information and apply what they have learned.

Variety of content keeps learners engaged. For example, videos, games, stories, and audio content, as well as short texts. Longer texts can be broken up or downloaded to read later.

Include a social element, even for employees who are not studying at the same time. A chat facility can be accessed at any time, and can give learners the chance to talk to each other and exchange questions and observations.

4. Ensure access

Making sure employees have access to technical support with a remote desktop connection manager is key. Check that each employee’s home tech setup is suitable and that sessions function on multiple devices in case one fails to work. 

Ensure all relevant links and passwords are sent to learners ahead of time. Give them ample opportunity to iron out any access hitches before training begins. Everything they will need in terms of content should be stored in a logical, intuitive manner, with clear instructions about how to access it sent in advance.

Consider creating a cheat sheet with all the most important elements learners will need to access the virtual classroom. Include passwords and the locations of the most relevant materials.

Above all, accommodate every learner, and find out about disabilities and special requirements well ahead of time. Send a questionnaire to assess your needs before designing your training sessions.

Additionally, make sure to pay special attention to the onboarding experience for new remote employees. A well-structured onboarding process is crucial to ensure they start their remote work journey on the right foot and feel integrated into the company culture.

To ensure a seamless implementation of these best practices, collaborate closely with your coworking space manager or shared office management, if applicable, to accommodate the unique needs of remote employees in these environments.

5. Track results and collect feedback

Another advantage of the virtual classroom is that it provides data. This is valuable not only in tracking your learners’ progress but also in improving future training. Post-training surveys provide insights into where learners got the most out of the training and where they needed better content. 

If data shows learners all struggled in one particular area, this guides you to run more training for all employees on that topic. However, if only a few had challenges, it’s an opportunity to reach out to those individuals, providing additional help.

Ask what learners enjoyed the most about the training, and find out if there were any other areas not covered in the sessions that they would like help with. This information can steer you to design more useful and fulfilling future training.

Effectively train your remote employees 

There are undoubted challenges in training a remote workforce. It can be hard to create the buzz and connectedness of having everyone together in a physical space. But as we have seen there are also many advantages.

Your remote employees are as integral to your business as those you see at the coffee machine every day or share an office with. Remote training, effectively designed, planned, and executed, can help the business and its employees wherever they are based, have the skills and know-how to work towards a common goal.

Featured image by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

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In today’s fast-paced business world, adapting to modern practices is essential for achieving excellence in performance reviews. The onboarding process and performance reviews are two critical components in nurturing a high-performing workforce. This comprehensive guide, “The Onboarding Revolution: Achieving Excellence in Performance Reviews,” delves into embracing modern onboarding trends, fostering feedback and communication in performance reviews, leveraging technology for both onboarding and reviews and building a culture of continuous improvement. By the end of this article, you’ll be well-equipped to revolutionize your organization’s approach to onboarding and performance reviews.

Embracing Modern Onboarding Trends

To excel in performance reviews, it’s imperative to embrace contemporary onboarding trends that adapt to our ever-evolving work landscape. Modern onboarding is characterized by the following key components:

Firstly, Personalization and Tailoring take center stage, where the onboarding process is customized to cater to individual employee needs, aligning with their role, skills, and preferences. The shift towards Virtual and Remote Onboarding becomes vital as remote work continues to rise. Embracing technologies like video conferencing, digital training materials, and virtual office tours ensures a seamless virtual onboarding experience. Inclusivity and Diversity are fundamental, emphasizing the importance of accommodating the diverse backgrounds and needs of new hires. Gamification and Interactive Learning make learning enjoyable and memorable, fostering engagement and participation in the onboarding journey. Additionally, Employee Well-being is at the forefront, acknowledging the significance of work-life balance and mental health support for new hires. Modern onboarding extends beyond the initial days and weeks, evolving into a Continuous Onboarding process that spans the first few months to facilitate a seamless transition and long-term success. These trends collectively form the cornerstone of contemporary onboarding, essential for achieving excellence in performance reviews.

Feedback and Communication in Performance Reviews

Effective feedback and communication are pivotal in the success of performance reviews. To make them central to your review process, consider these strategies:

Promote Frequent Check-Ins between managers and employees. These 1 on 1 meetings serve as a platform for continuous communication and feedback, enabling timely adjustments and ongoing dialogue. Fostering a culture of Open and Honest Dialogue is essential during performance reviews. Creating an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and concerns ensures that feedback is genuine and constructive.

When providing feedback, focus on its Constructive nature, emphasizing improvement. Specific, balanced, and future-oriented feedback guides employees toward growth. Incorporate Peer Feedback into the review process to gain a well-rounded view of an employee’s performance and promote a sense of teamwork. Including Self-Assessment as part of the review allows employees to reflect on their progress and achievements. Last but not least, remember to express Recognition and Appreciation for employees’ accomplishments. Positive feedback serves as a powerful motivator, reinforcing good performance and encouraging continued excellence. By integrating these elements into your performance review process, you’ll foster a culture of productive feedback and open communication, even when addressing areas that require improvement.

Leveraging Technology for Onboarding and Reviews

Harnessing the transformative potential of technology has the capacity to revolutionize not only modern onboarding practices but also the landscape of performance reviews. Elevating these essential processes involves the strategic integration of innovative technological tools. A paramount step is the adoption of Digital Onboarding Platforms as a foundational investment. These platforms empower new hires to seamlessly navigate paperwork and training online, offering a centralized repository for onboarding resources while meticulously tracking their progress. Simultaneously, the implementation of Performance Management Software is indispensable for simplifying the review process. This software efficiently schedules evaluations, gathers comprehensive feedback and closely monitors ongoing employee development.

Adapting to the prevailing trend of remote work necessitates the utilization of Video Conferencing tools. These tools facilitate virtual onboarding experiences and remote performance reviews, mitigating geographical constraints and ensuring the benefits of face-to-face interactions are preserved. Furthermore, the strategic integration of eLearning Solutions for training and skill development ensures that employees have convenient access to materials, promoting a self-paced learning environment.

For gaining valuable insights into employee performance and areas for improvement, the incorporation of Data Analytics tools is imperative. These tools provide a data-driven approach to monitor progress towards established goals. Lastly, online Feedback Surveys offer a dynamic avenue for collecting employee input on both onboarding experiences and performance reviews. Analyzing the feedback data gleaned from these surveys becomes instrumental in driving necessary enhancements. By wholeheartedly embracing these advanced technological solutions, organizations can optimize efficiency, foster engagement, and ensure resounding success in both onboarding and performance review endeavors.

Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Fostering a culture of continuous improvement in onboarding and performance reviews is essential for organizational excellence, with a key focus on enhancing employee engagement. Here’s how to make this journey a part of your company’s DNA:

Start by establishing Feedback Loops, enabling the continuous collection of insights from employees and managers. Use this feedback to make iterative improvements to both onboarding and performance review processes, ensuring they align with evolving needs and goals. Schedule Regular Reviews of your onboarding program to keep it current and effective. This may involve updating training materials, reevaluating orientation procedures, and enhancing the overall onboarding experience.

Benchmark your processes against industry best practices, identifying areas for improvement to stay competitive and on the cutting edge. Invest in Training and Development to equip both employees and managers with the skills needed to succeed and adapt to new trends effectively.

Lastly, don’t forget to Celebrate Success by acknowledging and celebrating achievements and improvements in onboarding and performance reviews. Recognizing progress motivates your team and reinforces a culture of excellence, making continuous improvement a shared and valued endeavor that contributes to enhanced employee engagement.

Conclusion

The evolution of onboarding and the pursuit of excellence in performance reviews are indispensable for any forward-thinking organization. Embracing contemporary onboarding trends, fostering robust feedback mechanisms, utilizing cutting-edge technology, and nurturing a culture of continuous improvement are all pivotal in propelling your organization to new heights of success. As you embark on this transformative journey, it is crucial to recognize that this is a continuous process, demanding an unwavering commitment to excellence. Welcome to the onboarding revolution, where performance reviews become the linchpin for achieving and sustaining excellence in your organizational landscape. This commitment ensures that your organization not only keeps pace with industry advancements but becomes a trailblazer in setting new standards for success.

Featured image by Duncan Meyer on Unsplash

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We operate in a business space wrought with misalignment between business objectives and customer needs. It’s fascinating to see that while 69% of business leaders are pushing more budget towards personalization, 72% don’t actually consider customer needs in their personalization.

To that end, today I thought I’d give you a quick overview of some low-effort, high-return customer success tactics to better bridge the gap between you and your clients. 

Within business and SaaS particularly, meeting customer outcomes is consistently proven to be a key driver of growth. So let’s review how you can learn, understand, and adapt to service those goals.

1. Implement feedback forms throughout your product

Implementing context-aware product feedback forms represents one of the most efficient ways to get high-impact, low-effort feedback tied to specific product functionalities. By adding these short in-product surveys, you’re:

• Giving customers every opportunity to voice their feedback
• Enabling an understanding of how customers feel about specific features and functionalities
• Allowing single users to voice their unfiltered feedback without going through the account owner
• Reassuring customers that you value their opinions
• Reaffirming that by implementing high-value feedback and then going back to notify the original customers who provided said feedback.

Here’s an example of a feedback form from Jotform that you can use inside the product:

2. Launch a voice of the customer initiative

If you want to go even further from in-product forms, you can build on those to design a full voice of the customer (VoC) program within your organization. A VoC initiative does wonders for company-wide customer success alignment, allowing you to efficiently boost retention and revenue with ease just by zeroing in on what actually matters for customers.

Here’s a breakdown of things to keep in mind for a VoC process:

One of the biggest advantages of a VoC initiative is that it keeps all relevant stakeholders in the loop and allows for increased velocity for deploying product updates. Just take a look at the simple steps of a typical voice of the customer program: 

• gather the feedback
• handpick the most insightful suggestions
• forward those to stakeholders and those who can act on it
• make related adjustments and changes
• close the VoC loop by going back and informing the customer once you’ve reached a resolution or product update

Of course, the process will change based on your business specifics, but the core elements remain the same and can be applied at scale.

3. Proactively reach out based on account data

Proactivity is one of the great pillars of customer success. It holds customer relationships up by allowing CSMs to see potential issues before they happen.

Now, proactive engagement within SaaS can mean different things based on your engagement model and account specifics. The overall approach involves:

• Setting up your customer success platform to monitor account activity and identify friction points.
• Creating a trigger for your CS tool to notify you whenever those common friction points resurface for a specific customer.
• Stepping in manually or through automation to check in with the customer and make sure they’re okay and not stuck mid-product flow.

The distinction between manual engagement and automated messages varies mostly based on the engagement model and CSM workload:

• For high-touch SaaS, CSMs must step in manually and talk to the customer directly, preferably via their most common channel for communication.
• For tech-touch and low-touch, automation flows can deliver solutions in a timely manner, but you should go one step further and ask customers if they’ve actually helped them or if they require the assistance of a real person.

4. Hold very high-touch onboarding and implementation meetings

For this point on our list, you need to be in that tech-touch-to-high-touch range for your engagement model. Otherwise, it may be a waste of your time and budget to attempt it for upwards of hundreds of accounts.

However, I believe high-touch onboarding to be essential when you’re in a type of business that services very demanding customers. Similarly, that’s also the case when you have a complex product or range of services. The more your customers have to work to get to their desired outcomes, the more you should be in touch with them during the onboarding stage.

Think of it like this:

• There’s no better way to know a customer than to sit down and talk about their problems.
• If you’re there with them as an ally in those initial stages, that relationship is only going to get better.
• If you can ensure their product implementation works and serves their goals, they’ll easily turn into retained, ideally loyal customers.
• The work to optimize onboarding into a positive experience will drive up your onboarding costs. However, it will also decrease your customer retention cost by a lot, so pay close attention to the balance and always remember retention is a constant effort and cost you need to support, while onboarding only happens one time per customer.

5. Use your customer success dashboards and analytics

While customer success will get you far once it gets going, it won’t get nearly as far as it could without a proper customer success toolset. Here’s a list of the usual suspects for kickstarting your CS machine:

•  A customer success platform with customizable dashboards and weighted health scores, allowing you to monitor customer activity in a goal-conscious way.
• A comprehensive list of communications tools and channels at the ready: from email to Skype, Zoom, Slack, Discord, and anything in between. Make sure you do your research and are prepared with the appropriate channels.
• Multiple ways for customers to request support: your SaaS users need to have ways to reach out at their disposal, from a live chat on the website and other support solutions set up and activated for their accounts.
• A product tour solution for low-touch accounts: not every SaaS can afford lofty one-to-ones with customers during onboarding. For low-touch products and overextended teams, a product tour can mean the difference between your customers immediately churning and becoming loyal.
• Account tools that prevent involuntary churn: a good portion of customers that leave do so passively due to expired payment options or because they simply forgot to renew. To actively prevent this, try using an account updater tool as well as dunning emails.

6. Encourage customer reviews and read what customers are saying

Last but definitely not least, you should encourage your customers to leave reviews on platforms such as G2, Capterra, and other similar ones. That way, you’re not just attracting new clients by putting the spotlight on you and growing your online presence; you can also use that feedback (which, by and large, tends to be brutally honest) to better understand customer needs and get to work improving your product.

Even if you don’t encourage customers to leave reviews, they might do so anyway. So check common review places and even the uncommon ones. Many SaaS make the mistake of ignoring reviews that don’t come through the usual channels – such as Google Maps reviews.

Summing Up

Putting customer needs ahead of your own in SaaS is not easy. Because of our bottom line and the KPIs assigned to us, it’s easy to start with what we want and try to get the customers to help us deliver. But it’s not a good way of doing business. Instead, we should actively help customers achieve their outcomes and, by extension, complete our own goals. Successful customers will always bring in more ROI than those left to their own devices – a simple 5% increase in retention rate has been shown to drive up profits anywhere between 25% and 95% (State of Customer Messaging in 2023). So, how are you making sure your customers’ needs are heard?

Featured image by Judy Beth Morris on Unsplash

The post How to Understand Customer Needs Using Customer Success appeared first on noupe.

Financial inclusion ensures that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services. These services help them meet basic needs, protect against vulnerabilities, start or expand businesses, and invest in the future. 

However, according to the findings of World Bank, about 1.7 billion adults globally remain unbanked. Most of them live in developing countries and survive on low incomes. Lack of access to financial services exacerbates poverty and inequality while constraining inclusive economic growth.

The financial inclusion imperative

Financial inclusion is especially critical for emerging economies, home to 85% of the world’s unbanked population. Expanding access to these markets carries massive socio-economic benefits. McKinsey estimates that bringing the full unbanked population online could boost GDP across all emerging markets by $3.7 trillion by 2025. Financial access empowers people to save securely, invest in health and education, manage unpredictable income flows, launch small businesses, and gain resilience against shocks – all crucial for prosperity.

However, traditional banking leaves large swathes underserved due to deficiencies in reach, cost structure, accessibility, and customer experience. This makes a compelling case for banks and NBFIs (non-banking financial institutions) in emerging markets to harness mobile phones and digital financial services to responsibly expand access.

Adopting integrated eWallets can help providers rapidly on-board customers with basic KYC, make transfers vastly more affordable via interoperable payment rails, customize experiences to local contexts, and responsibly bring unbanked groups like women, migrants, and gig workers into the formal financial system. This includes leveraging alternative data sources to qualify credit invisible based on cash flow patterns. Such initiatives aligned with account aggregation services hold the key to genuine financial inclusion at scale in emerging markets.

Financial inclusion: Challenges to overcome

Improving financial inclusion is also badly needed for sustainable development and inclusive economic growth globally. Yet many barriers still exclude large parts of the population, especially in emerging economies, from access to basic financial services. This exacerbates inequality and constrains prosperity.

Barriers that hinder financial inclusion include:

• Lack of physical access. People in remote areas don’t have access to bank branches.
• Affordability. Minimum balances and service fees are beyond low-income budgets.  
• Exclusivity. People without ID proofs or credit histories don’t qualify for accounts.
• Low awareness and trust. Many doubt traditional banks serve the interests of common people.

However, digital financial services delivered via mobile phones can help bridge these gaps at an immense scale across emerging markets. Solutions like mobile wallets, payment rails, and agent networks can circumvent traditional barriers around cost, documentation, distance, and trust to promote inclusion.

Realizing this potential requires coordinated efforts between banks, NBFIs, governments, regulators, mobile operators, and fintech partners. By working together, they can build seamless enablers to expand the reach and capabilities of mobile-powered financial services. The result will be bringing billions more individuals and micro, small, and medium enterprises into the inclusive umbrella of responsible digital finance.

Digital Technologies Offer a Solution

Recent advances in digital technology provide an opportunity to rapidly expand financial inclusion. Smartphones, mobile internet connectivity, biometrics, big data analytics, blockchain, and cloud computing can circumvent traditional barriers.

Particularly impactful are mobile money wallets that let users store, send, and receive funds via basic mobile phones. Launched around 2007 in Kenya, such services took off globally this past decade. As per the GSMA State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money:

• The number of registered mobile money accounts grew by 43 million globally in 2021 to surpass 1.35 billion. 
• The total value of transactions hit $1.1 trillion, up 20% from 2020.
• Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for the most growth, reaching 548 million accounts. However strong uptake continued in South Asia, Latin America, and MENA.

This positions mobile wallets as a potent solution for driving financial inclusion in populous emerging markets.

How Mobile Wallets Bridge the Inclusion Gap

Mobile wallets help underserved people enter the formal financial system in several ways:

1. Easy Sign-up

• Opening a mobile wallet only requires a basic mobile phone and SIM card. No paperwork or credit checks are involved.
• Mobile operators leverage existing data for digital KYC during activation. This eases entry for those without IDs.

2. Accessible Payments

• Users can transfer money, pay bills, and shop digitally via basic USSD menus or starter apps.
• Being network-based, wallets work on all types of phones. Agents assist new users unfamiliar with menus.

3. Affordable Services 

• Transacting via mobile wallets costs a fraction of using cash or bank transfers.
• Most wallet apps allow micropayments, micro-savings, and microinsurance for people with irregular incomes.

4. Localized Experience

• Wallet apps now support multiple languages and voice assistance for wider adoption.
• User workflows mirror local payment practices rather than bank transfer norms.

5. Impact on Financial Inclusion

An IFC survey covering 5 Sub-Saharan countries found that access to mobile money services significantly improved financial resilience:

• 53% of female survey respondents reported increased financial autonomy and safety.
• 65% could now make emergency payments during income shocks or disasters.  
• 15% of enterprises increased wages and hired more employees.

As this data shows, mobile wallets empower underserved communities in line with key financial inclusion goals like gender equality, resilience to poverty, and enabling entrepreneurship.

Challenges in Scaling Mobile Wallets

While mobile wallets dramatically boost financial access, some barriers slow their growth:

1. Need for smartphone compatibility. Feature phones still dominate emerging markets. Entry-level wallet apps need to add robust smartphone experiences.
2. Dependence on mobile operator distribution. Telco exclusivity limits interoperability. Third parties should be allowed to harness the technology.
3. Security and compliance concerns. Rapid user growth makes wallets vulnerable to cyber fraud and money laundering. Robust safeguards are essential.
4. Viability beyond cash-in and P2P payments. Adding value-added services can grow revenue streams beyond commissions on deposits and transfers.

What does the future hold for banking and mobile wallet apps? 

The mobile wallet revolution has come a long way in a decade but remains a work in progress. Some developments to watch for:

• Growth of financial super-apps. Super-apps like Grab, Gojek, Paytm, and M-Pesa go beyond payments to aggregate services ranging from lending to insurance. Their scale can profitably expand financial access.
• Global interoperability. Systems like Mowali enable mobile money interoperability across geographies. Seamless global money movement can accelerate financial inclusion.
• Central bank digital currencies. Government-backed digital currencies aim to make digital payments universal. Policy coordination is needed to synergize CBDCs with mobile wallets.  
• Banking as a service model. Open API infrastructure gives third-party managed access to bank capabilities. This allows nonbanks to use bank-grade rails to enhance mobile wallet security, speed, and versatility.

Conclusion

Mobile wallets have already delivered a seismic shift in financial inclusion over the past decade. And the technology still holds immense disruptive potential to achieve universal financial access.

Realizing this would require coordinated efforts between banks, governments, mobile operators, and technology partners. Working together, they can maximize wallets’ coverage, capabilities, and interconnectedness at scale.

The result will be bringing billions more individuals and micro, small, and medium enterprises into the inclusive umbrella of digital financial services. This can significantly contribute to global targets around alleviating poverty, boosting prosperity, and promoting equality.

Featured image by Emil Kalibradov on Unsplash

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