Thoughts on Reopening and Lessons Learned

Here’s my latest thinking on the COVID-19 situation.  I’ve been considering two particular issues and wanted to share some thoughts with you on each.

First - what will it look like to “reopen”? Most of you have closed your branches for walk in traffic, sending all teller activity to the drive-thru, and meeting in person only with those customers who need that level of attention during this time.  Some of you have also entirely closed selected branches.  

 I applaud those of you who offered innovative solutions like curbside pickup and drop off of documents and transactions.  Depending on the exact situation in your part of the world, you may stay in this operating environment for several more weeks, or you may be considering following your state’s guidelines to begin re-opening your lobbies sooner.

So let’s talk about what re-opening looks like.  Before you announce that your lobbies are again open, consider what you can do to ensure employee and customer safety.  Certainly, limiting lobby traffic will be a part of that.  While there are varied levels of what “open” means, virtually all of them include maintaining “social distancing” and limiting crowds to 10 people or less.  You will need some employee training on how to man the door and effectively control crowds.  

You’ll also want to consider what measures you can and should take to keep everyone safe.  As a PR move, you may want to take the temperature of each employee when they arrive to work.  Make that widely known, and ask anyone who registers a temperature, or otherwise doesn’t feel well, to stay at home.  That’s just good advice, any time.  But let’s make a practice out of it.  Now, the issue of masks.  I’m pretty firm about this: either every employee wears a mask or no one does.  The risk of having selected employees with masks is that someone interprets that they are sick.  

Can you take the temperature of customers before you let them in a facility?  This is more difficult.  Disney says they plan to do that when they reopen their parks.  Our children’s summer camp has been doing this for several years.  Again, kind of a common sense thing but not everyone will see it that way.  You’ll have to consider the number of cases in your area, and overall public sentiment, to decide what to do.

Regardless of these measures, continue maintaining a clean environment. Access to cleaning wipes, hand sanitizer, and gloves will continue to be important for the foreseeable future.  Ask your janitorial company about enhanced cleaning measures, including fogging, that they provide, and make sure you publicize these measures to let customers and employees know how serious you are about their safety.  

Finally, a word about branch opening.  If you closed selected branches, what were the key decision factors?  Are those long term issues and if so, can you get along without that branch going forward?  Such events are a good time to consider those matters.

Second,  I want to talk about what we are learning from distributed work.  There are important lessons here that can make you a more productive and profitable organization over the long run.  Put together a small team to start capturing pros and cons of the current environment.  Think about what has worked well, and what has not.  There are certainly challenges to address, ranging from the quality of Internet access employees have, to the strength and resiliency of your network in supporting remote workers.  Some tasks can easily be done at home, while others require office presence, and those have to be clearly identified.

Many banks find themselves outgrowing office space.  If you find that selected employees work as well - or better - from home, this is one way to address that problem.  You employee a wide range of individuals.  Some require close supervision, others do not.  Effective management will assess employee skills and abilities, and assign duties accordingly.  In addition, it must be said that you should be evaluating your overall work force requirements.  It may be that you simply have too many employees. Situations like the one we are in will often make that more visible to you.  Your ability to grow without a corresponding increase in head count is critical to your long term success.

What are you learning about effective meetings? Have your virtual meetings been shorter or longer than normal,  and more or less decisive? Has the use of video enhanced or hindered your meetings? Again, don’t make this just about crisis situations - consider what you have learned that may be applied to the long term.

Just a few thoughts.  Remember to keep an eye out for fraud,  work to ensure that employees are properly trained and educated for any operational changes you implement, and remember to communicate well to employees, customers, and the media.

Call, email, or text if I can help in any way.

Trent Fleming

trent@trentfleming.com

901-896-4007

Preparing for Cash Hoarding

I’ve purposely waited an extra week to send an update.  I know that many of you are involved with SBA lending and other matters. But I thought it was time to revisit and expand on my comments about about cash and the possibility for a run on an institution or across the industry.  

First, it is important to note that there is not a shortage of cash.  However, we’ve already seen irrational hoarding of other things, which seems to be continuing.   In particular, consider how fast via social media both right and wrong information can travel.  So let’s start with the basics:  

First, as I said recently to you, don’t let your ATMs run out of cash.  It may see like only an operational issue, but I guarantee you it will create a PR problem for you and perhaps your competitors.

Second, take time to do some employee training and education about the matter.  Employees need to realize that offhanded or joking remarks about running out of cash are never appropriate.  Especially now.  For example, a teller who says “I’m out of 20s” means that he or she needs to buy some from the vault, not that the bank physically doesn’t have any 20s.  But customers don’t know this.  Further, while the public doesn’t understand our fractional reserve system, your employees should understand and appreciate it, and know that we do not have 1 to 1 cash on hand for all demand deposit accounts.  As with ALL PR situations, employees should be reminded that (unless they are the corporate spokesperson) that they should not casually or officially attempt to speak on behalf of the bank.  This includes their own social media accounts.  There’s just too much room for interpretation.

Third, especially now, be alert to fraud being perpetrated on your customers. Any requests for large withdrawals that seem unusual should be gently investigated.  This will be a bit more challenging as it may be through the drive up, but you still need to be alert to unusual activity.  Perhaps you will intervene in a fraud situation, or if the person feels the need to hoard cash, you can engage with them to alleviate their fears. For most people, the additional risk of large sums of cash on their person or in their homes is more of a liability than a benefit - risk of loss, theft, or destruction in the case of fire or storm damage. You know the drill, but don’t assume that customers do.

Fourth, talk openly with your staff about what a run looks like, and how to respond.  You will know something is wrong through customer activity (the drive in lanes are full, and around the building) or you are seeing posts on social media encouraging hoarding, etc.  Again, gently inquire about the requests for large sums.  SLOW DOWN.  Count and recount, slowly and purposefully.    Immediately begin limiting the dollar amount of cash withdrawals to ensure that all customers have access to reasonable sums.  Have a plan now for acquiring more cash if you see that you will need it.  Be prepared to support other local institutions if you can.  In today’s environment, again because of social media and rumors, this is likely to be a widespread event, not limited to a particular institution.

Finally, try to extrapolate short term and long term education points from this particular component of today’s environment.  Nothing you do here will be wasted when the current situation is resolved, so take the time to document your efforts, and update your policies, procedures, training and employee manuals to reflect best practices.

My best to you and your staff as you work to serve customers and maintain your business.

I’m here to help.  Call, text or email, day or night.  

Trent Fleming

trent@trentfleming.com

901-896-4007