6 Banking Experiences That Help Attract More Customers and Members
In a nutshell đ„„ Customers and members want simple, fast, and flexible banking experiences. This article shares six practical ways banks and credit unions can step up their customer experience (CX): using biometrics to speed authentication, creating fast lanes for simple requests, redesigning branches to be more welcoming and intuitive, enabling instant digital appointment scheduling, offering personalized financial education, and delivering services wherever people are through channels like P2P payments, curbside, and mobile branchesâall to save time, reduce friction, and deepen relationships. Your clients and members care about the little things. They want to save time waiting in line. Receive relevant financial resources. Access services wherever and whenever they choose. Is your institution prioritizing making these customer or member experiences (CX) easy enough? If you need ideas for how to get there in 2023, weâre here to help. In this article, weâll define the six banking experiences your customers and members wish youâd adopt, with real-life examples you can implement in the short or long term. From express lanes and in-branch redesigns to financial literacy and queuing management, we take the guesswork out of cultivating client delight. P.S. If thatâs not enough read our customer and member experience trend report for ten more examples of exceptional banking experiences. â Implement voice recognition, fingerprinting, or eye-scanning so clients donât have to remember their password or oft-forgotten security questions. (What was the name of my first-grade teacher again?) Not only does biometric security decrease the risk of fraud, but it also saves time authenticating the identities of your customers every time they visit a branch or log in into their mobile banking app. Before using a biometric identification solution in its call center, Connexus CUâs agents were spending the first 90 seconds of each call authenticating the callerâs identity. With biometrics, they reduced that to 12.5 seconds among members that opted in. Plus, customers feel like theyâre getting their needs met faster by skipping admin fluff. That reduction in time and smoother overall experience really adds up.  For straightforward transactions like ordering checks or replacing credit cards, add a dedicated in-branch window, phone line, or video call kiosk for quick appointments (similar to an express checkout at a grocery store). The team at Yolo FCU experimented with a dedicated quick appointment option for transactional services that was so popular, they made it permanent. Members with simple requests booked an appointment ahead of time or via a kiosk in the branch. It directed them to a dedicated teller for withdrawals, deposits, wires, savings bonds, account and card maintenance, and more. The express lane thrilled clients, many who said, âIâll never wait in line again!â Fast lanes help staff manage requests quickly and cut down on waiting time for everyone else. Banks and credit unions that typically do CX well, according to Forresterâs research, are the ones that focus on making their branches feel welcoming. âA great experience is not just one thing,â says Jared Jones, Director of Sales at DBSI, a firm that designs branch experiences. âIt’s not just having an open concept. It’s not just investing in cash automation. It’s not just digital signage. Itâs thinking about how a combination of those things can convey the feeling of being welcoming and guide customers where they need to go.â A redesign can also include physical changes like: A redesign can be as simple as creating an environment that addresses clientsâ needs as soon as they enter the space. Clients can sign into tablet kiosks near the entrance, find out the wait time for the central queue, and receive alternative options like booking a future appointment. Tablets can also direct them to use your app, an express lane, or initiate an instant video call with an available associate. Customers and members can easily book an appointment for most services in their livesâfrom doctor visits to haircuts. Why should their banking be any different? Similarly, your clients expect the same level of high-quality customer service, whether theyâre talking to someone on the phone, emailing an advisor, or lining up in-branch. Exceed their expectations by implementing bank appointment scheduling software. With self-serve appointments, members can reach an advisor using the method of their choosingâa video call, phone call, or in-person meeting. They can see open slots on the right advisorâs calendar and book instantly, no back and forth required. Before the team over at Rogue CU launched a new experience around one universal queue, in-branch and over the phone, members walked out of its branches every day because of the wait. After the switch, the wait times dropped, staff received rave reviews, and it saved many people from visiting in personâ30% of people thereafter choose to take their appointment over the phone. The easier you can make booking appointments and manage them in your back-office systems, the better the customer experience. Financial education is more important than ever. A recent survey found that 66% of consumers want proactive, personal advice from their financial institutions to address their financial stresses. The Money$ense team at Opportunities Credit Union saw the need in their community and launched a range of group workshops and one-on-one mentoring sessions. Their financial coaches help community members demystify their financesâfrom budgeting tips and credit repair to supporting those looking to buy their first home For your own financial education programming, try a personalized approach with trained financial educators who can identify clientsâ needs, risks, and goals to create an action plan for them to follow. Or share financial resources like asynchronous online training, articles, and podcasts with your membersâa lighter lift for advisors and staff. Not only do these resources help clients and community members achieve their financial goals, but it also shows them youâre invested in their financial experience. Make your banking experiences more delightful by making them more accessible. Launch peer-to-peer paymentsâ1 in 3 Americans use apps like Square, Venmo, and Zelle to pay one another. Clients know itâs possible to move money without fees and theyâre expecting their banks and
3 Golden Insights On Balancing Digital & Physical Channels (From A Branch Ops Expert)
In a nutshell đ„„ Credit Union of Southern Californiaâs Aaron Young shows how to build a human-centered hybrid banking model where digital is an extension of the branch, not a replacement. By using data âbreadcrumbsâ to understand member behavior, choosing platforms that feed insights back into core operations, and repositioning branches as advice centers, FIs can give members options, reduce friction, and drive growth through high-value, appointment-based interactions. Besides deposit growth, every financial institutionâs experience and operations teams have one thing on their collective hive mind: When do clients want to interact in person, and when would they rather interact with my institution online?  From the delivery of services to transactions to communication, financial institutions have discovered that not all clients want the same combination of physical versus digital. When empathy is the ultimate goal in servicing members, it may seem counterintuitive that robust data, analytics, and interconnected software solutions are the means to get thereâbut this is exactly what Aaron Young, Senior Vice-President of Branch Operations and Retail Banking at the Credit Union of Southern California, discovered during his FIâs digital transformation. We asked Jim Marous, podcast host and co-publisher at The Financial Brand, to dig into what Aaron can pass on to other FIs in the midst of their own digital transformations. Watch the full conversation or keep reading for the highlights, with time-stamps to help you dive deeper where you want to. https://proofdigital-assets.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/videos/ignite-athletics/Two+Halves+Dont+Make+A+Whole+Webinar.mp4 1. “Digital needs to be an extension of the branch, not the other way around.” Itâs tempting to think digital-first, but Aaron says the reality is that a lot of members may still need education on how something like a mobile app can make their lives easier in the long run. âOne of the things we’re testing right now,â Aaron says, âis when our members come into a branch to open an account, we walk them through our mobile banking app instead of going to a teller.â Aaron notes that people are trained to visit a teller when they need to make a deposit, but that behavior can change with an in-person walkthrough at a branch. Key phrases Aaron emphasizes are âoptionsâ and âwhatâs possible.â âWhen we’re thinking about how we can improve the member experience,â he says, âwe want to provide options. When you give people options, theyâre in control. When you force one direction by only giving one option, that’s where friction starts to happen.â The Credit Union of Southern California uses data to decide what those options look like. With an understanding that member experience is their only differentiator, they track: Member demographics Website exits Chatbot abandonment Coconut online appointment abandonment  Type of in-branch transactions Digital channel paths Aaron thinks of these data points as breadcrumbs that answer some fundamental questions about his members: Do members leave one channel to go to the next? How many times did they drop off? Why did they drop off? Then, as technology evolves, Aaron connects parts of the digital journey to solve member problems. 2. âChoose platforms that feed data back to pieces of core business.â Credit Union of Southern California offers several access points to their members: texting, phone calls, mobile app, chatbots, in-person, video. But Aaron says the institution is ultimately a live answer credit union, and his goal is to make sure heâs giving members the fastest route to completing a taskâespecially if it means talking to a human being. âOur phone center is our central nervous systemâwe aim to answer 75% of our calls in 60 seconds,â Aaron says. âEven when youâre using our chatbot, itâs an easy prompt to speak to a human. We continue to build around that as we grow because we know it’s important for people to be able to get to someone.â When Aaron started looking for an appointment solution, he prioritized platforms that could increase member satisfaction scores and net promoter scores, both of which increase with human interactions. âWe learned through having Coconut in place that our NPS scores are higher when people make an appointment versus when they walk in,â he says. âWhen members make an appointment, 70% of them give us high scores versus only 30% of walk-ins. When we started out with Coconut and that behavior wasn’t yet built with members, we were getting 600 combined walk-ins and appointments per month. We’re now up to 3,700 combined walk-ins and appointments per month. 3. âOur key to success is transforming into an advice center.â As financial institutions shift to digital for basic tasks, many of them are repositioning the branch as an advice center that focuses on larger financial challenges. The Credit Union of Southern California is no exception, and a rethinking of their branch locations by type has been as much a part of their digital transformation as technological solutions. Aaron says this repositioning started with their employees, and he stresses the importance of their involvement from the beginning. âWeâve mapped out the skill sets our team members have today versus what theyâll need as we transition into a more advice-driven model,â he says. âWe’re piloting a program for licensed bank employees, and we have a few team members who have volunteered to get insurance training so they can sell annuities.â Aaron believes that branches still carry major importance, but that modern institutions need to optimize their branch network around their members. âInstitutions need to listen to their members and adapt branches to what they need,â he says, âwhich will determine the style of branch and where theyâre located. Credit Union of Southern California is as of now trying to break down the types of branches we have within our configuration.â While Credit Union of Southern Californiaâs digital transformation isnât over, Aaron is far enough into the process that he has some thoughts on what he would do differently if he had to start over. Watch his full interview with podcast host Jim Marous and learn how to smooth out your own hybrid model adoption process, make sure your