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By Rick Lowes
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
COVID-19 continues to have a tremendous impact on every aspect of our lives, from the way we work and connect with friends and family to how we shop and bank. Yet as we look at the world around us changing, the need for social distancing measures and self-isolation has accelerated the pace of digital adoption, especially among a population that is considered highly vulnerable to this pandemic.
While ensuring there continues to be support for seniors available through in-branch visits, we want to keep our seniors safe and that means more focused efforts by phone, and stepping up support to help seniors bank online.
RBC recently initiated customized proactive outreach to seniors, reinforcing the message “be safe, stay home” – and we’ve seen a very positive response from seniors. In the span of just a month, we saw an 84% increase in digital enrollment among clients aged 60+ and a 210% rise in digital activity from seniors who were enrolled, but had not actively used online banking for at least six months. The most actively used online and mobile banking options per week: sending electronic money transfers and making payments.
We understand online or mobile banking can feel intimidating for Canadians of all ages who are first time users. This made it crucial to ensure we could make online and mobile banking as simple and convenient as possible. We set up our “bank easy” hub, with how-to videos and very clear instruction guides, to show how easily – and securely – anyone can bank digitally, using online and mobile banking to do their everyday transactions.
Front-of-the-line access for those over 70
With a significant rise in calls to our contact centre, we are also prioritizing calls from clients over the age of 70: and ensuring seniors get this same “front of the line” access for branch visits.
This is minimizing any wait times, giving these clients faster access to answers for any questions they may have – which have typically been about enrolling in online banking, transferring funds or paying bills online.
In addition, RBC advisors have been proactively reaching out to close to one-million clients – more than 60% of these are seniors – to connect one-on-one by phone. This is helping seniors with their immediate banking needs, while ensuring they have access and understand how to use the tools available to support their financial well-being.
We’re also reaching out to inform seniors about the federal government’s reduction in RIF (Retirement Income Fund) minimum withdrawals by 25% in 2020, to determine if this is the right option for them.
What’s been wonderful to hear are the comments from seniors who have told us how surprised they’ve been to discover that the journey to online or mobile wasn’t a painful one at all. In fact, many have shared they couldn’t believe they hadn’t tried this sooner! This is exactly what we want to hear, as we continue to help keep our seniors connected to banking services they can do online or by mobile – not only during COVID-19 – by giving them this bank-at-home choice in addition to in-branch and phone access.
Rick Lowes is Vice President Retirement Strategy with RBC.
