One way around the rapidly declining effectiveness of email communications is to prominently post new messages within the secure online banking area. Not only is it useful to create an archive of bank communications, it also provides reassurance that no message(s) have been missed.

Ebay recently added this capability to its the My eBay platform, where users can login to track account activity. Ebay keeps messages for 60 days. Financial institutions should allow storage for far longer, one year at least.

Because bank messages are often time sensitive, you should also send the message, or a message notification to the user's standard email account. Better yet, allow users to receive message notifications at multiple email accounts, therefore increasing the chances that one will go through.

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Many banks already have this capability, but it may be overlooked by customers, as they have become accustomed to receiving messages over the Internet.

Now would be a good time to remind customers to look in their message folder periodically. You might run a sweepstakes or treasure hunt that requires looking into message folders to win.

If you'd like to learn more about the future of online bank messaging, check out the Online Banking & Bill Pay Forecast: Current, future and historical usage: 1994 to 2016 from our sister publication, The Online Banking Report.