Recent report compiled by Google India on the financial service industry by combining the Google search trends in India and an independent research report conducted by TNS Australia shows few of the interesting facts about Indian mindset in choosing financial products. It also reported what are the most searched organisation on internet. Let us see those interesting facts.
Below is the list of top 5 searched financial institutions on internet. This data was taken during the period of April 2011 to March 2012.
Interesting thing what you notice about Banking sector is, SBI which is India’s premier bank stands second and ICICI Bank third on the list. HDFC stands on top. This indicates coming days HDFC bank may give stiff competition with it’s customer satisfaction (but we may not judge by searching result, still it indicates customers interest in search about HDFC Bank means we may predict easily).
In insurance sector as usual LIC top the list with ICICI Prudential being in second spot. In insurance section SBI Life is missing in top 5 list. Now when it comes to investment ICICI direct tops the list and Sharekhan second.
Below is the list of interesting facts shown by this survey and report.
1) Seven out of ten people change their mind about products and brands after their research. What it indicates? Is it indicates mis-selling? Why people change ratio is so high? Simple, it indicates that Financial Planners, agents, advisers or any inter-mediators are not giving proper product solution to their client. If the product was suitable then why people changing rate is so high when they do research on their own?
2) Highest change after research was in home loan section and that is around 75%. In that again 73% change is in personal loan section and around 75% for home loan.
3) In Insurance sector again this change of mind after research is so high. It is 69% for Life Insurance, 70% for motor insurance and 70% for health insurance. This shows how much wrong guidance in insurance sector or not understanding about client’s actual need.
4) Total search volume for finance related quarries is growing over 43% year on year. Also mobile usage for internet usage is increasing widely. Report indicates one out of ten search about finance related query was from mobile phone. This indicates how internet and mobile usage is impacting when it comes to decision making about investment.
5) Two third of search user depend on online source when it comes researching about financial products.
6) Offline buying still holds priority over online buying. Offline buying was around 70%, online buying was around 24% and 38% buying offline but influenced by online research.
7) Over 66% users who were in the market to buy financial products changed their mind about the product and brand.
These finding indicates that internet will be the next source of information when it comes to choosing financial products. I personally believe that so much change in user mind after internet research indicates the rampant mis-selling. But thanks to internet and some good informative sites in educating properly and making people aware about proper investment.
