You’re traveling cross-country when you realize your card – your primary payment method – is missing.
Your stomach drops down into your knees as your mind races to remember where you last used it ... Was it at the airport? Did you drop it in an Uber? Did you leave it behind at that diner in a small town? Was it swiped in the crowded subway?
Panic surges, but you take a deep breath, steadying yourself. You know exactly what you need to do next: report your card as lost or stolen and request a new one.
Card Issuance: Pain or a Relationship Building Opportunity?
It’s a scenario your front-line employees and back-office support teams see daily.
When a card goes missing, is stolen, or an account is compromised, the accountholder is likely facing a whirlwind of frustration and anxiety. Deeply concerned about the potential of losing funds (even temporarily) to fraud, coupled with the fear of losing access to their funds to pay for things until a new card arrives only adds to their stress.
Now the question is: do your next steps cause additional friction for accountholders and create delays while card details are assigned and physical cards are printed and shipped? Or, do your next steps transform the situation into an opportunity to strength accountholder relationships and preserve revenue by leveraging digital issuance and provisioning?
Digital Card Issuance and Push Provisioning
You’ve probably heard the terms, but they’re often confused …
Digital issuance is a seamless process that involves the immediate digital assignment of card details (e.g., number, CVV, expiration date) often done through a secure portal like your digital banking platform, whereas push provisioning is about making it easier for accountholders to add their cards to digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Rather than manually entering card details, push provisioning empowers accountholders to link their cards directly to their digital wallet from their digital banking app. This feature also enables cardholders to add non-activated (but digitally issued) cards to their digital wallets so they pay in-store and online before their new physical card arrives.
The Benefits Don’t Stop There
Together, digital issuance and provisioning provide banks and credit unions with opportunities for happier accountholders and additional non-interest income. You can also expect to see:
- Accelerated card usage: Cardholders can use their cards via digital wallets before physical cards arrive.
- Top-of-wallet status: Cards added to digital wallets often become the primary card your accountholders use when making purchases online or in stores.
- Enhanced security: Rather than sending your accountholders’ actual card numbers, transactions made through digital wallets use tokenization, which safeguards your cardholders’ actual card numbers.
- Operational efficiencies: Digital issuance and provisioning reduce the need for costly expedited shipping of physical cards by allowing immediate digital card access.
Building Your Business Case: The Financial Benefit
Given 86% of those who receive a digital card use it while waiting for their physical cards to arrive, it’s easy for banks and credit unions to make the business case for digital issuance and provisioning.
After all, while your accountholders are without their cards, you’re missing out on the daily interchange income you would’ve received from their day-to-day purchases.
Let’s assess the impact …
Calculate your average daily interchange revenue based on the purchase activity of you cardholders. Next, deduct five to seven business days of income (depending on your physical card issuance process) for the average number of cardholders waiting on a new card. This approach will reveal potential opportunities for revenue optimization, as you’re likely to see tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in interchange revenue lost to time spent waiting.
To further strengthen your case, calculate the opportunity cost of a mass reissuance event. Presenting these figures will make the financial benefits of digital issuance and provisioning clear to even the most conservative CFO.
Bringing Your Team Onboard
While “if you build it, they will come” may be true for accountholders already looking for digital access to their cards, you’ll find more success using a holistic approach to the rollout of your digital issuance and provisioning program.
Consider the following:
- How can digital issuance and provisioning impact the way you ship cards or run your instant issue program?
- What operational processes can be changed to recognize new efficiencies?
- What training is necessary to ensure front- and back-office support teams have been upskilled to promote push provisioning and support accountholder questions?
- How do you want to promote provisioning to digital wallets within your digital app, online, or through other channels?
- Which account opening or card replacement processes do you want to adjust to help cardholders begin using their cards more quickly?
A Vision of the Future
While cardholders may always experience that moment of panic when they lose their card or experience fraud, you have the ability to mitigate that anxiety through digital issuance and provisioning capabilities.
Not only will a fast and easy resolution cement the trust your accountholders have in your ability to serve their needs, but it’ll protect your interchange revenue and create operational efficiencies, too.
It's a step that further ties your digital banking and payments solutions closer together bringing you top-of-wallet and top-of-mind.
Discover how you can leverage digital issuance and provisioning to enhance your accountholder experience and stay top-of-wallet. Connect with a Jack Henry™ expert today!
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