The materials available in this article are for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your own advisors with questions regarding the digital application content herein. The opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the individual authors and may not reflect the opinions of MeridianLink, Inc.
Would you want to fill out a paper-heavy application or wait in long branch lines if you could get the same product with quicker, hassle-free service elsewhere? That’s exactly how consumers feel when applying for loans or opening new deposit accounts. They want to shop, apply, and get approved—all from their phones—before their morning coffee is even finished. Instant, seamless, on-the-go banking is now the norm. Yet, too many banks and credit unions are still falling short.
Research shows that less than half of financial institutions can manage their products entirely digitally. And let’s face it—long, tedious application processes don’t just annoy consumers; they drive them away. We’re all feeling the heat as faster, smarter solutions become the expectation. But many financial institutions are stuck without a clear plan to figure out where they stand and how to move forward.
But here’s the good news: Transforming your digital applications from frustrating to frictionless is within reach. In this blog, we’ll share the five pillars of achieving this and three tips to help you get started on the right path.
1. Start with the consumer in mind
To transform your digital application process, the first thing you need to do is focus on the consumer. If your application form is complicated or confusing, you risk losing them before they even finish. But a simple, intuitive process? That’s how you build trust, drive conversions, and keep them coming back.
Consumers want transparency and convenience. So, by keeping your digital applications smooth and straightforward, you can turn a potentially frustrating experience into a seamless one.
Your three tips:
- Simplify online forms with dynamic fields that adjust to the consumer’s input.
- Eliminate friction with pre-filled forms, omnichannel access (mobile, web, in-branch), and the ability to save and return to applications, ensuring a seamless experience for all users.
- Keep them informed by providing transparency on their application’s progress and outlining the next steps clearly.
2. Let advanced technology help
We’re all consumers, right? And whether it’s same-day deliveries or binge-watching our favorite shows in seconds, we’ve come to expect instant gratification in our everyday lives. So, when a consumer applies for a loan and has to wait days for approval, it can feel like a major step back. That frustration often leads to abandoned applications and, worse, consumers taking their business elsewhere.
This is where advanced technology—like instant decisioning—can truly elevate the experience. Quicker decisioning can mean fewer abandoned applications, more successful conversions, and more satisfied consumers. It’s a win-win-win!
Your three tips:
- Use automated credit-decisioning models to evaluate applications in seconds.
- Leverage tools that offer conditional approvals based on pre-set criteria.
- Integrate real-time verifications, like ID scanning or income validation, to streamline the process.
3. Capitalize on the relationship
When consumers use more of your products and services, their connection to your financial institution grows stronger. Trust builds, and with trust comes the opportunity to deepen that relationship through cross-selling and upselling. But here’s the key: It’s not just about having great products—it’s about offering the right products at the right time, in a way that feels personal and relevant to each consumer. That’s how you turn satisfaction into loyalty and loyalty into sustainable growth.
Your three tips:
- Leverage data from successful applications to suggest additional services, like savings accounts or credit cards.
- Implement cross-selling strategies that are tailored to the consumer’s behavior and preferences.
- Offer loyalty rewards or bundled services that encourage greater engagement.
4. Scale smarter with automation
As your financial institution grows, complexity grows with it. Manual processes—like document collection, compliance checks, and application reviews—become roadblocks that slow everything down, increase errors, and drive-up costs. These inefficiencies frustrate consumers and make it harder for your team to keep up.
Automation can be the key to turning stagnant growth into long-term, scalable success. By streamlining repetitive tasks, you create faster, more reliable workflows that eliminate bottlenecks, deliver a consistent experience across every channel, and free up staff to focus on building stronger accountholder relationships. Best of all, the efficiency automation brings allows you to process more applications without the need to expand your workforce—delivering both efficiency and cost savings!
Your three tips:
- Automate routine tasks like document collection, compliance checks, and account setup.
- Use workflow management systems to standardize procedures across branches and teams.
- Offload repetitive work to technology to free up staff to focus on complex, relationship-driven tasks.
5. Use insights to refine and improve
Data isn’t just numbers; it’s a roadmap to better decisions and stronger performance. By making data central to your strategy, you can uncover bottlenecks, anticipate consumer needs, and refine your processes to work smarter, not harder.
With insights guiding you, everything from consumer acquisition to risk management becomes faster and more precise. The result? A streamlined digital application process that evolves with your consumers’ expectations, keeps your institution ahead of the curve, and drives meaningful, lasting improvements
Your three tips:
- Use analytics to identify bottlenecks in the application process and continuously optimize.
- Leverage predictive models to assess customer needs and tailor offerings.
- Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure and improve application success rates.
Your Next Step Toward a Frictionless Future
And there you have it—five actionable steps to take your digital application process from frustrating to frictionless.
Research shows that 80% of banks and credit unions plan to increase their technology spending this year. However, many institutions make the mistake of implementing new systems without rethinking their entire approach. Don’t let that be you. This is the perfect time to rethink how you engage with consumers and optimize your investment in technology to eliminate pain points, streamline your operations, and drive faster results.
The journey to a smarter, more efficient digital application experience doesn’t happen overnight—but it begins with a single step.
Use our Digital Progression Assessment to get started today!
