Pub. 7 2018 Issue 3

l e a d i n g a d v o c a t e f o r t h e b a n k i n g i n d u s t r y i n k a n s a s 20 CUT COSTS, INCREASE EFFICIENCY, BUILD BETTER RELATIONSHIPS By Roy Karon, President, BVS Performance Solutions S INCE THE ESTABLISHMENT of the first national bank in the United States in 1791, other than size, the difference between commercial banks has been location and people. After all, if commercial banks didn’t have the same primary product they would be talking to the secret service who don’t look kindly on printing your own. After more than two centuries the dynamic of that bedrock of banking is changing. With the growing use of internet banking by customers, location is becoming less a factor while customer interaction with bank staff is becoming more important. If you aren’t conducting business the way your customers want to do business, you’re losing out. But, here’s the good news. You have a perfect opportunity to cut costs (who doesn’t want to do that) and, at the same time, improve the customer experience. A major cost cut will come through the reduction of one of, if not the largest non- interest expense--compensation. How, you ask, can reducing compensation result in a greater customer experience? Very simply, create a plan that allows for 1) increases in staff efficiency and capability 2) better educated customers and, 3) easier customer face-to-face access to the bank. Let’s get started on the plan: a 5-step process. Step 1 Embrace and adopt online banking including remote deposit and e-signatures. With a full suite of self- service online banking tools available to your customer, your bank reduces its reliance on staff for completing customer transactions while it gives the customer 24 / 7 access to the bank for their transactions. A win for all involved. $$$ Saved – Fewer customer contact positions because fewer transactions require staff action or intervention. Step 2 Move away from the teller line in the branch and to a branch model using recycle machines which makes balancing cash drawers and tellers, sometimes known as human interaction machines, a thing of the past. While recycle machines may have an initial cost they don’t get sick, take vacations or have bad days. Recycle machines balance every time or show where the mistake was made-- and don’t require a payroll payment every two weeks. $$$ Saved – The cost of job specific staff members. Step 3 Adopt a universal banker model for the preponderance of customer interface employees. This area may involve the biggest change with respect to staffing and training as some of your current staff may not have the skills or interest to operate at a higher level. There are numerous options/models for UA training, so you don’t have to go it alone. $$$ Saved – The cost of employing job specific staff members. Ah, and what is lower turnover worth to you? Step 4 Provide education for your customers and prospects by building or acquiring a customer education program for delivery through your website. Helping your customers make smarter financial decisions is in everyone’s best interest. Again, there are many options for providing a customer education benefit. $$$ - Earned! An educated customer is your best customer. At the same time, you are keeping your website relevant to your customers’ needs and ensuring they look to you first for products and/or services. Step 5 Adopt video communications both internally and externally. Internally the bank augments its internal phone system with full screen computer managed video communication that not only lets staff members see each other full screen, but lets them share screens and work on each other’s screens as though they were in the same room. No more traveling between branches for loan meetings or training, just to name a couple of reasons for travel. With screen sharing, full screen picture video the bank is able to operate as though all employees worked in the same building. Externally, the bank makes its universal and specialized bankers available to its customers through screen sharing, full screen video that allows the customer to go to the bank without ever leaving their home, office or wherever they might be. This access is provided through the bank’s website with each page about a particular product directly connecting customers via video to staff members knowledgeable about that product. The website is not the only place customers can use video to connect with a particular expert. By putting privacy kiosks that give video access in the branch, it’s possible to execute a “staff multiplier” that lets a particular expert serve multiple branches without ever leaving their office or wherever their workspace exists. And, speaking of privacy--it’s actually the lack of privacy that has hampered the success of video teller machines. Who wants to do their most personal financial business standing in a line at a grocery store with one’s neighbors listening and watching behind them? Privacy kiosks in the bank, however, enables a personal, private connection with an expert not physically present in that particular branch. $$$ (and time)--Saved. Relationships cemented. Five steps, some a bit more involved than others, but a clear roadmap for delivering the experience your customers want and the bottom-line savings you want.