Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Back to Normal? Thoughts on Digital Platforms

During the spring, I’ve been publishing my newsletter much more frequently than normal, in order to provide you with some ideas and guidance during the quarantine period.  Depending on the situation in your region of the company, you are likely in various stages of reopening, and I think we’ve covered that in good detail so far.    I’m available if you want to talk about specific situations.

This issue, however, will be a bit more “normal” to help you begin addressing your digital strategy in more detail.  I’m focused on two things: 
1) embrace and reinforce customer behavior that has changed. Because your lobbies have been closed, at least some of your customers have begun using your digital channels more consistently.  We want to preserve that behavior, and benefit from it.  Remember, anytime a customer uses self-service, they are happier, and you save money versus an in-person visit or a phone call.

2) Apply lessons learned to be better prepared for future events that might also result in temporary reductions of service and identify gaps in the services you offer now in order to provide a more attractive and complete digital offering.

Here are the key digital platform tools that I feel you must have:

Online account opening - a lot of the reaction I get here is either driven by compliance concerns (we can’t legally do this) or by misconceptions about control over applications.  My main focus with on-line account opening is to allow your existing customers to easily do more business with you.  If you choose to open it up to new customers, you will find that most vendors can easily help you limit the area (zip codes, counties, states) that you will even accept applications from.  As to compliance, there are plenty of good ways to address KYC, Patriot Act, and funding questions to ensure that you are legal.  Hundreds of thousands of new bank and brokerage accounts are opened on-line each year.  You can do it too.

Online loan applications (as a start, later you should consider approvals and funding for certain simple loans) Customer expectations are high in this area, fueled by offers of “30 second decisions” on credit cards.  In order to remain competitive with both consumer and small business lending opportunities, some level of automation is needed.

Esign technology for any and all customer documents.  Here again, the industry may have passed you by.  Customers are used to such technology on insurance documents, mortgages, and many other financially focused matters. Time to catch up.

Remote deposit, both mobile and desktop

Contactless Payments
    a. Cards
    b. Smart Wallets

Once a customer has successfully used a technology for the first time, you are well on your way to converting them to a primarily digital user.

A key to success in driving customer use of your digital platform is employee use of those same platforms.   Employees should be “endorsing users” of the technology: confident and enthusiastic.  For example, if a customer approaches a teller to make a check deposit with a smart phone in their hand, we would expect that teller to engage the customer in a discussion of how quick and easy mobile deposit is - along with a personal story.  

You also need your employees to use all available payment services in your community, as a way of identifying and improving the merchant experience.  Offering Apple Pay, Google Pay, or contactless debit card technology is meaningless if local merchants aren’t set up for it - or clerks aren’t trained in how to use it.  You’ve no doubt experienced a situation where you’ve tried to use Apple Pay, and have been told by a clerk “oh, that never works” or “I don’t know how you do that.”  Contactless payments are especially important with all the fears for contact transmission of disease - and I really had a disappointing experience of trying to use such a method and finding it didn’t work at that particular register, complete with the clerk announcing that my card was declined!  I put away my smart phone, inserted my chip card, (the same card tied to Apple Pay) and completed the transaction.  As a consumer, what is my incentive to keep trying in these situations?

Sending your employees into the community with the mission of using new bank payment capabilities will help pave the way for your customers to use them without incident.  While the above described scenario was not embarrassing to me, it understandably would be to your average consumer.

Basically, you have two tasks here.  First, get to work to ensure that you have no gaps in your digital offerings, and second, take this opportunity to capitalize on the increased use by customers and solidify their use of digital channels.  Your costs will go down, and customer satisfaction will go up!

As always, let me know how I can help you achieve these goals.



About Trent Fleming
I’ve had a number of new subscribers in recent weeks as a result of my regular COVID-19 updates, so I thought I’d take a minute to let you know more about me.  For more than 35 years, I have helped community banks make good decisions about technology, strategy, and management.  I speak extensively at state banking association events and teach at graduate banking schools at Penn State and Wisconsin.  My consulting work includes significant experience with core vendor evaluation, selection, and negotiations, as well as strategic planning and director education, and of course, “other duties as assigned.”  More information at www.trentfleming.com 

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

June 2 - Mississippi Bankers Web Conference “Integrating Technology into your Enterprise Strategy”

June 3 - Mississippi Bankers Web Conference “Managing a Distributed Workforce”

June 11 - Western Bankers Web Conference 
                > Integrating Technology into your Enterprise Strategy
                > Managing your Core Vendor Relationship

Please call, text, or email if I can help you in any way.

Trent Fleming
901-896-4007
trent@trentfleming.com