Open letter to National Bank of Dominica: Recommendations on ways to improve the MoBanking experience
Some recommendations to National Bank of Dominica Ltd on ways to improve the MoBanking experience.
The content of this article were first published on Facebook on June 8th 2024 (Link), and received over 200 reactions, over 100 comments, and over 70 shares, but no response from NBD.
Some recommendations to National Bank of Dominica Ltd on ways to improve the MoBanking experience. (Obviously much of this would have to be implemented by the app developer Mobilearth).
1. Allow users to generate, export, and scan QR codes to add Peers and Merchants to the platform.
This would drastically reduce the time, effort and complexity of adding a peer, and eliminate mistakes in doing so.
2. Remove the need to enter your own Mobile ID when adding a Peer.
You are already signed into your account. Why do you still need to enter your own Mobile ID? It’s repetitive and unnecessary.
3. When receiving funds from a Peer PLEASE include in the transaction details the Account number and Name of who the funds were transferred from.
Many businesses (especially small businesses and self-employed persons) utilize moBanking to receive payments. Often times the customer does not include their name in the reference, and even when they do the reference is truncated. This leaves the recipient having to hunt down to find out who sent a payment, and relying on the honesty of customers as to who sent it.
If the business has to send their transactions to an accountant or auditor it’ll be hell to reconcile who paid what, and what was paid for.
4. Allow the MoBanking app to send notifications to the user’s mobile device when funds are debited or credited to the user’s account, with the option of toggling notifications on or off for each account separately.
SMS notifications are often delayed, and not available for business accounts.
5. Incorporate a Point-of-Sale (POS) feature into moBanking.
This suggestion is more technically challenging to implement, but could drastically increase the functionality and usage of the app. Some high traffic businesses (such as supermarkets, restaurants or bars) use MoBanking, but the time it takes to add a peer/merchant, transfer the funds, and then physically show the vendor your screen to verify the transaction is very time consuming. Plus, the transaction can be faked, and the funds sent to an accomplice rather than to the vendor.
NBD/Mobilearth could partner with an existing POS provider or engage our many very talented local developers to create a POS system that integrates with moBanking. It can be a separate app used by vendors (with a fee), that allows the vendor to enter the transaction details and generate a QR code which the customer will then scan in the moBanking app and transfer the funds. The vendor will then get an instant confirmation in their vendor app that the funds were received.
NBD has a very capable technical team, but their manpower is limited, and they may have their hands full with existing projects. There are many local qualified IT consultants/project managers that could be tapped to spearhead the development and implementation of these and other ideas.
Recommendations by Grayson J. Stedman jr., Business Technology Solutions Consultant for Eclypse Technologies.
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