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Video Banking Guide

Digital Guide The Video Banking Playbook A step-by-step recipe for video appointment success for financial institutions. What’s Inside: Why Video Appointments and Financial Conversations Are a Perfect Pairing Step 1. Use Cases: Deciding on Your Video Appointment Menu Step 2. Buy-in: Getting Stakeholders to Drink From the Same Cup Step 3. Technology: Choosing the Right Mix of Tools Step 4. Rollout: Serving Up a Smooth Implementation Step 5. Measurement: Poring Over the Right Data Why Video Appointments and Financial Conversations Are a Perfect Pairing “In member surveys, people were telling us, ‘I meet with my doctor by video now, why can’t I meet with my advisor [that way]?’” Chrystal Czank, Member Experience Lead, Affinity Credit Union During the pandemic, 50% of all financial institutions’ customer activities switched to digital. And research shows they’re unlikely to switch back—especially from technologies like video. (Source.) In fact, 46% of customers will continue talking to advisors over video when branches reopen. Thirty-six percent say video calls are their preferred medium post-pandemic, and 32% say they’ll continue to avoid branches altogether. But wait—does this mean everything is online only? Hardly. Branches still have a big role to play: Twenty-five percent of customers identify as “phygital”—meaning they want to hop back and forth between the two for services. What clients really crave is the convenience of being able to choose. Luckily, video can help in all scenarios, whether in-branch or at home. It allows you to accommodate everyone, lets your specialists be everywhere at once, and enhances the client experience. In this guide, we’ll walk you through building and executing a video banking strategy—from buy-in to rollout—that makes sense for your engagement and growth goals. What is Video Banking? Customers and members can book virtual appointments with your staff via a video call tool and join using a computer, phone, or in-branch iPad. It allows customers or staff to take the call from anywhere, but feels like meeting face-to-face. STEP 1 Why Video Appointments and Financial Conversations Are a Perfect Pairing To start building your strategy, you need to know what you can use video appointments for and which method makes the most sense for your institution. Meet the Three Video Appointment Formats: In-Branch, Hybrid, and Remote Video appointments aren’t just for virtual calls. They can also be used in-branch, and across any number of devices. Each format is useful for different situations. 1. In-branch: Dedicated Video Call Booths 2. Hybrid: Employees Onsite, Customers or Members Are Remote 3. Remote: Everyone Meets Virtually 1. In-branch: Dedicated Video Call Booths Picture a miniature conference room with great lighting and sound, and privacy-safe glass so nobody walking by can peer in. Customers or members can visit one of these at a local branch, where they connect with a specialist anywhere. This saves them a potentially long drive to meet that specialist or a long wait for the specialist to be at their local branch. Within the booth, everything is adjusted to ensure privacy, professionalism, good audio, and strong internet. Members or staff can reserve these booths online ahead of time. WHAT YOU’LL NEED: In-branch call booths with monitors and video appointment booking software. Alternatively, small conference rooms may work. You may also want e-signature and identity verification software. 👍 ADVANTAGES Saves members from having to travel or wait for a specialist Your specialists can “be everywhere” Specialists are freer to plan their day Privacy Consistent, professional setting Verify people’s identity with a scanner Members can get support for video calls if they aren’t tech savvy 👎 DISADVANTAGES Requires several 6×6’or 8×8’ spaces People must visit the branch Maintenance and cleaning Upfront investment in technology and hardware 2. Hybrid: Employees Onsite, Customers or Members Are Remote Hybrid is when your staff is in-branch or at a call center, meeting with a customer or member who’s calling in remotely. This allows your customers ultimate freedom—they can call in from home, their car, or their workplace. Unlike members, your in-branch staff probably doesn’t need their own video booths. You might allow them to take calls at their desk, or set up their laptop at a dedicated cubicle. To verify customers’ identities, agents will likely need to ask questions or ask members to hold up their government ID to the camera. To skip that step, you could require customers to log into video calls using a single sign-on (SSO) integration with your core banking system. WHAT YOU’LL NEED: Employee video call booths or terminals, video appointment booking software, call center headsets, HD cameras, branded digital backgrounds, and possibly e-signature and identity verification software. 👍 ADVANTAGES Customers can call in from anywhere May offer a personal view into clients’ lives Your specialists can “be everywhere” and travel less to other branches Specialists may be able to meet more clients and better plan their day More personal than phone calls or text 👎 DISADVANTAGES Employees must still commute to work Noise could be an issue Potentially harder to confirm identities Difficult to control the caller’s experience (their home internet, video, etc.) 3. Remote: Everyone Meets Virtually With fully remote video appointments, customers can be anywhere, and agents can be nearly anywhere. We say nearly because public spaces with lots of noise such as a cafe aren’t suitable. They’ll come across as unprofessional, and strangers can listen in. It’s best to be very prescriptive with agents about when and where they can take video calls, how they should dress, and whether they should use a branded digital background. WHAT YOU’LL NEED: Laptops, video appointment booking software, call center headsets, HD cameras, and branded digital backgrounds. Possibly e-signature and identity verification software. 👍 ADVANTAGES Freedom of mobility and convenience for clients and staff May offer a personal view into clients’ lives Supports “work from anywhere” Able to launch a fully virtual branch, reducing costs Can meet remote members who don’t live near branches Offer services in territories where you have no physical presence 👎 DISADVANTAGES Requires employee training on best practices and new tools May require employees to navigate or use multiple apps or systems

Transforming CX in Financial Services

CONSUMER REPORT How to Maintain a Human Touch While Deploying New Customer-Facing Technologies Access Now Financial institutions need to strike a fine balance between leaning into technologies that can provide better, faster service to customers versus maintaining a human touch where needed. This report explores how financial institutions can retain the human touch that is so important in their consumer interactions while leveraging the latest customer-facing technologies.

Improving Share of Market (and Wallet) Through Better Customer Experiences

Improving Share of Market (and Wallet) Through Better Customer Experiences Learn why creating seamless physical and digital engagements help to gain new customers and cultivate loyalty, leading to a higher share of wallet in a competitive market. Introduction Gain and retain members or customers in a competitive financial services environment by providing frictionless engagements. Building consistent user experiences and making it easy to engage with your financial institution across all channels, in person and online, demonstrates your value to your members or customers, and emphasizes that you understand that their time is valuable. In this white paper, we’ll cover the followingkey considerations when evaluating your enterprise financial institution, and how you can gain and retain your member or customer base using the next stage of customer engagement. Sections 1.0 Why is it important to prioritize member & customer experience? 2.0 How digital and physical engagements help the bottom line? 3.0 Considerations for an acquisition & retention strategy using personalized engagements 1.0 | Why is it important to prioritize member and customer experience? Last quarter, we created several white papers about the importance of humanizing banking by way of better customer experience. In those reports, the evidence pointed to the fact that members or customers who feel valued stay, spend and advocate on behalf of your financial institution. Combined with the fact that barriers to entry are crumbling and the increase in digital-only banking is dialling up the pressure on experience, traditional banks and credit unions must use every available tool to not only keep their existing members or customers, but attract new ones in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Triggered by branch closures and service reductions due to COVID-19, many bank and credit union customers and members are reconsidering their relationship with their financial institution – they want to bank in a way that is convenient and comfortable for them. Not to mention financial institution leadership is evaluating their branch network strategy and the evolving roles of physical locations versus the omnichannel nature of digital. Even before the pandemic, US bank branches have decreased by 2% every year since 2009. Members and customers still want access to branches but they don’t require the same level of branch density as they don’t visit as often – even still, most members or customers want a branch within 15 minutes of their location. According to Forrester Customer Experience Index online survey, when brands deliver a high-quality experience by communicating clearly, their customers are nine times more likely to spend more with them. A phenomenon at play for banks and credit unions with an established and high density branch strategy is the “network effect” whereby large networks capture a disproportionate share of market deposits. For example, an eight branch network captures more than twice the deposit volume of a four branch network, which in turn captures more than twice than that of a two branch network. This has been a basic tenant of many financial institution strategies for keeping existing members or customers and growing their base – open up many locations in a localized area and saturate the market. Even as expectations and methods of engaging change, this network effect still holds true – creating and maintaining awareness and consumer confidence helps to secure your existing member or customer base. It also demonstrates the importance of having convenient and frictionless ways to engage your members or customers at each location, as well as understanding the analytics and data points to manage operational costs and capitalize upon your existing branch network. Do you know typical location foot traffic patterns in order to help smooth out peaks and valleys during the day? Which services tend to encourage the most physical appointments or walk ins, and does that align with your support structure and cost-to-value strategy? 2.0 How do digital and physical engagements help the bottom line? Financial institutions are facing challenges for revenue growth: not only attracting net new members and customers, but retaining their existing high value members and customers and capturing additional share of wallet. Many technologically savvy members and customers are comfortable opening new accounts and purchasing products online, the more transactional services, and as a result are attracted by low maintenance, overdraft and ATM fees provided by fintechs and neobanks. However, in our previous research we have found that your members or customers want to be met somewhere in the middle of the digital/bricks & mortar continuum – encouraged to use digital options when low value transactions can be completed, but welcomed into their local branches when advisory and life milestone discussions need to happen. We found that the majority (51%) of individuals prefer a digital experience through a mobile app, followed by in branch at 29%, and finally a desktop digital experience at 20%. But the most interesting part is that 71% of those same respondents believe it’s important to build a relationship with bank personnel. Sections 2.1 Attracting New Members or Customers 2.2 Keeping Existing Members or Customers & Growing Share of Wallet 2.3 Inoculation Against Competitors On average a ‘Highly Digitally Engaged’ consumer has 4.4 products with their main bank compared to only 2.7 for the ‘Digitally Unengaged’. Digitally engagement correlates with more products per member or customer, improving retention rates. (Reference) 2.1 Attracting new members or customers Historically, financial institutions relied heavily on physical locations (and the signage, branding and foot traffic it promoted) to create awareness of their offerings. As the reliance on visiting branches has decreased, financial institutions now have to place more emphasis on marketing to potential members or customers outside of the branch itself. Locations can’t simply exist to service existing members or customers, but need to be refocused to act as a marketing beacon for the larger unpenetrated market. Novantas has found that the primary checking purchasing drivers in 2019 were branch sourced at 43%, followed by marketing and branding at 38%, and digital at 11% (the remaining comprising ATMs and others). By 2024, they estimate that marketing will be the source of 50% of purchases, followed by a distant 23% from branches and 19%

The Complete Guide to Smart Appointment Scheduling Software for Enterprise Financial Institutions

The Complete Guide to Smart Appointment Scheduling Software for Enterprise Financial Institutions Download the PDF or read it below. Access The PDF Introduction Trends come and go, but some technology advancements are here to stay. One of these technologies is appointment booking software. With the Covid-19 pandemic shaping how we manage businesses across all industries, financial institutions like banks and credit unions are in the perfect position to capitalize on these latest innovations. In this fast-paced world, where every customer expects speed and convenience, implementing appointment scheduling software is a smart choice for financial institutions. Despite the revolutionary power of this software, many financial institutions have yet to grasp the returns on investment and benefits that appointment scheduling software can offer their current and prospective customers. We have created a comprehensive guide that will illustrate the benefits and considerations of implementing enterprise-grade appointment scheduling software into your bank, credit union, wealth management firm, or tax preparation organization. Contents 1.0 How electronic appointment booking systems can revolutionize the financial services industry 2.0 What is an electronic appointment booking system? 3.0 How online booking platforms tie into financial industry trends 4.0 Best Appointment Apps for Enterprises 5.0 Impact of a queue management software on staff productivity 6.0 How appointment web apps are driving revenue in banks & credit unions 7.0 Why online booking systems are required for better retail banking customer experience 1.0 | How electronic appointment booking systems can revolutionize the financial services industry Over the past decade, consumers and staff have primarily used traditional methods to book appointments or simply could not manage prebooked appointments at scale. Imagine the stress of receiving hundreds of calls per month while manually entering prospects and customers’ data. Another primary concern is keeping the customers on hold during calls. According to Hubspot Research, 66% of customers get frustrated when required to wait on hold or when forced to repeat information to different customer support personnel. This poor customer experience not only leads to disengaged call center staff, but you are also losing potential customers to your top competitors. Even if you are the incumbent financial institution, customers are looking for a brand that can provide a simple, seamless, and convenient experience. Have your customers ever complained about the quality of your customer service as a result of tedious appointment booking? If yes, your organization is missing out on an increased wallet share and likely losing customers due to poor customer experience. For every one negative customer experience, you need 12 positive reviews to counter its effects. Why force your current and prospective customers through a painful experience when electronic appointment booking systems are readily available and simple to implement? Before we dive deeper, let’s briefly review electronic booking systems. 2.0 | What is an electronic appointment booking system? Also known as online scheduling software or appointment scheduling software, an electronic appointment booking system is a web-based program or application that allows customers to seamlessly book and secure appointments online via any internet-connected devices in real-time. In every business, customers value their time, and the financial institution is no exception. We have all come to the age where we want things done fast and seamlessly. Customers often see businesses that integrate automated technology as being better positioned to satisfy their needs. A report from InMoment showed that 50% of customers had ditched a brand for a competitor that was better able to stay relevant and meet their needs effortlessly. With the real-time booking that electronic appointment systems offer, you can stay ahead of the competition. Let’s highlight some of the merits your financial institution stands to gain when it switches to an electronic booking system. 2.1 Revenue Increase Your revenue relies heavily on the number of customers you can serve at scale, as well as the opportunity to grow share of wallet through the cross-sell and up-sell of additional products to existing customers. Since most customers engage in some form of background research before choosing their ideal financial institution, having a booking system that works is nonnegotiable. Although it would be unfair to discard the usefulness of conventional booking methods like phone calls and in-person bookings, digital methods are simply faster, less expensive, and less prone to errors. With an electronic booking system, you can service more customers per day while improving customer satisfaction. In financial services, a mere 5% increase in customer retention scales up your margin by 25% to 95%. Customers can access a plethora of self-service options, depending on their ‘channel of comfort.’ Providing options to your customers as to how they are supported means they feel in charge of their banking experience, and their time is valued. 2.2 Build a Strong Customer Relationship The smartest way to build a base of loyal customers is to make their lives easier and respect their time. This includes fast access to customer services, a critical value that an electronic booking system provides. A study conducted by Forrester revealed that 73% of customers acknowledged that valuing their time is the most critical attribute of excellent customer service. When booking an appointment, they can easily check what days and time slots are available and how best it fits into their schedule. If those customers have to cancel or rebook their appointments, they can do so in a few clicks. 2.3 Accurate Customer Records Harnessing electronic appointment booking systems provides an additional way to capture customer details and behaviors at every engagement with your financial institution. These details can then be analyzed to paint a picture of what your customer base looks like, as well as predict future behaviors. Since most electronic booking systems integrate cloud storage, you can rest assured that these details will always be available whenever you need them and can integrate into CRM tools such as Salesforce. 3.0 | How online booking platforms tie into financial industry trends The financial industry has experienced massive growth over the past few years. eCommerce platforms have further increased the need for digital banking services globally, with a rise in the number of entrepreneurs and business-oriented individuals. This transformation has triggered a transformation

The Importance of Humanizing Banking for Enterprise Financial Institutions

WEBINAR The Importance of Humanizing Banking for Enterprise Financial Institutions Access Now How can banks balance between low value but necessary transactions versus high value advisory solutions, and delivering those activities in the ‘channel of comfort’ for the individual clients? Consumers want to spend time on what we find to be worthwhile – financial institutions need to demonstrate that banking with them will be convenient, simple and valuable.

The Importance of Humanizing Banking for Enterprise Financial Institutions

White Paper The Importance of Humanizing Banking for Enterprise Financial Institutions Download the PDF here, or read it below. Download The PDF Summary How can financial institutions balance between low value but necessary transactions and high value advisory solutions, while delivering those activities in the ‘channel of comfort’ for the individual customers? Customers want to spend their limited time on the people and experiences they find valuable. Inefficient processes often leave consumers feeling as though they are not being prioritized but are rather a digit in line waiting for their turn. As a financial institution, it is important to demonstrate your value for them by personalizing your engagements to humanize your interactions. “As digital becomes the channel of choice for many more customers during the pandemic, banks should focus on making customers feel valued, appreciated, and respected in these digital moments too. How? Start by streamlining task flows and minimizing steps, a signal that you value and respect customers’ time.” The US Banking Customer Experience Index, 2020, Sept. 1, 2020, Forrester Why Humanize Banking? Much of our world treats individuals like numbers, with minimal concern for the person behind the digits. Consumers want to spend their limited time on the people, experiences and things we find to be valuable – financial institutions need to demonstrate their value for their customers by personalizing engagements and interactions and building deeper connections. No matter how quickly organizations delve into much needed digital transformation by using apps, CRMs, IVRs and chat bots, financial institutions cannot replace human to human connection for the pivotal moments your customers are expecting it – the consultative advice for those very important life moments. In this white paper, we’ll cover the following key considerations when evaluating your enterprise financial institution, and how you can humanize your engagements: Customers who feel valued stay, spend and advocate You can’t manage what you can’t measure Engage in individuals’ ‘channels of comfort’ Different activities require different levels of support Improving your customer engagement is necessary to gain and retain market and share of wallet. Engaged customers are key to growth in 2021 and beyond, especially considering the complete digital transformation currently underway in the financial services space.Ideally, banks, credit unions, wealth management firms and tax preparation companies will be able to bridge the digital and physical channels to create a seamless banking experience, with little friction for customers when they move from online to bricks and mortar, then back again. If your financial institution gets a good handle on these considerations, you’ll be well positioned to balance between digital and physical, providing consistent value to your customers. And treating them like humans. Customers Who Feel Valued Stay, Spend and Advocate The September 2020 US Banking Customer Experience Index from Forrester looked at the three dimensions of customer experience to determine the drivers behind high quality journeys. They found that effectiveness, ease and emotion were the most important considerations, however they were not equally important. Emotion, how customers felt about the experience, was the key differentiator between various financial experiences. This differentiation is necessary to stand out from the increasingly homogeneous crowd of financial institutions. 30% of US online adults agreed that “All banks are basically the same” with a further 32% stating they were neutral. It’s even worse in Canada where 47% of Canadians felt that all banks were the same, according to another Forrester study. With the increasing pressure from new entrants into the world of finance, banks, credit unions, wealth management firms and tax preparation companies all need to return to the crux of effective customer engagements: the emotion behind the experience through deeper relationships with prospective and existing customers. A Gallup research study also found that the emotional connection is what keeps customers coming back, with fully engaged customers netting an incremental 23% revenue. However that same research showed that only one in five customers are actually emotionally connected to their primary banks. Meaningful differentiation doesn’t just come from products and interfaces; it comes from having a holistic view of customer need. For example, while most consumers in … North America prefer online interactions, physical locations continue to serve as important touchpoints (even for Millennials) when opening accounts and buying banking and lending products. Retention Is Not Enough: Banks Must Build Emotion-Rich Relationships To Grow May 14, 2020 You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Measure Coconut Software regularly discusses industry trends, upcoming challenges and internal processes with banking executives. It is surprising how often financial institutions are not tracking basic metrics to measure prospect and customer engagements. Understanding what your meeting no-show rate is, how many walk-ins you have at each location per hour per day, what channel is most popular for which question, and what services are in highest demand, means your team understands how, when and where your most valuable engagements are happening and which areas require more attention.  28% of banking executive respondents to a recent study of ours say that improving in-branch personnel’s access to insights about individual customers is important. But what are those other 72% of banks doing – are they not providing their staff with this data?  Measuring engagement goes beyond a simple tally of how often a customer logs into a mobile app, calls into the call center, or visits a branch. Financial institutions need to be able to connect each of these touchpoints across all channels to records in a CRM tool to begin painting a picture of how an individual behaves, as well as track how they want to be engaged with in the future. Collecting these data points will allow you to segment prospective and current customer bases to understand what is driving valuable, revenue driving behaviors, what can be used to predict future actions, as well as help with operational execution like workforce capacity planning in branch and upskilling your talent for popular services. Using technology is the only way enterprise level financial institutions can begin to measure the engagements between staff and customers. Using analytical tools like Hubspot, Pardot and Google

How Bank Leaders Are Reimagining Their Branch Networks to Drive Business Growth

CONSUMER REPORT How Bank Leaders Are Reimagining Their Branch Networks Access Now Based on the results of our 2020 survey, this report highlights the three ways branches boost customer acquisition, satisfaction, and revenue in their growth efforts. In 2020, banks are identifying new ways to expand the value and accessibility of their branches to drive business opportunities. As part of a two-prong effort, banks are expanding the capabilities and capacities of existing branches, and capturing more customers to drive revenue. But while experts outline clear, practical solutions for banks as they transition their branch networks into a new decade, there is more to discover about the strategic decisions among bank executives at a broad scale.

Financial Services Consumer Report

CONSUMER REPORT Understanding The Relationship Between the Bank, Branch, and the Customer Learn why creating seamless physical and digital engagements help to gain new customers and cultivate loyalty, leading to a higher share of wallet in a competitive market. Access Now What This Study Covers How the average consumer approaches banking. How consumers choose their banking relationships. What makes the bank branch special? Common challenges for consumers and the role of technology in solving them.

The Covid-19 Kit

COVID-19 KIT Optimize Your Customer Engagement Channels Get Your Covid-19 Resource Kit Today Access Now What’s Included: Gap Assessment Tool Pandemic Communications Plan Covid-19 In-Branch Procedure Template Quick Guide to Optimizing Your Customer Channels Not only has the way we bank is changed, but your customers’ expectations for convenience, customer experience, and accessibility have changed as well. Download our Covid-19 Kit to immediately help staff and customers navigate a changing financial world.

Millennial Money – Insights & Opportunities

CONSUMER STUDY Millennial Money: Insights & Opportunities for Banks and Credit Unions Download our consumer study to learn more. Access Now Millennials Are Disrupting Financial Services As technology evolves, banks and credit unions will have to work hard to keep pace with millennial banking expectations. The challenge is finding the right balance between offering convenience packed digital banking features and products, while still delivering a personalized experience that speaks directly to your millennial customers’ needs and desires. In this report, we cover the following: Opportunities that the millennial generation offers financial institutions Millennial financial priorities Key insights to help you market to millennials Insights and trends into millennial spending Content Summary Millennial Money – Insights & Opportunities Who Are Millennials And Why Should You Care? Over the next 10 years, 75% of financial customers will be millennials. Understanding this generation has never been more important. Millennial Money: Good News & Bad News When it comes to money, millennials often get a bad rap. But as with anything, there are two sides to the story. Explore both to get the full picture. Evolving Life Goals Millennial goals are changing. But not necessarily because they want different things from life. Discover why, and what they’re doing about it. Decoding Their Financial Priorities Stability, independence, security… Millennials have the same priorities as any other generation, but the way they manage them sets them apart. Learn how they do it. Three Types Of Millennial Customers, And Their Expectations Examine three of the biggest opportunities that the millennial generation offers, and gain insights into the services they enjoy. Small Business Owners First Time Home Buyers New Parents Key Insights When it comes to targeting millennials, there’s a lot to consider. In the final section, we bring everything together to provide key insights into gaining their business. DOWNLOAD THE STUDY

Build vs Buy: Examining the Options for Your Future Customer Engagement Platform

Build vs Buy: Examining the Options for Your Future Customer Engagement Platform Download the PDF or read it below. Access the PDF Introduction Financial services organizations looking to implement technology based solutions to improve customer experience, staff operations, data collection and other areas of their business have more options than ever these days. With the increasing demand from both organizations and their customers for a frictionless and personalized user experience, third party offerings are becoming a more interesting option for financial institutions. It’s easier than ever for companies to find a software provider with a solution to fit their needs. At the same time, this demand is creating an ever expanding pool of talented designers and developers, allowing organizations to bring in skilled professionals to strengthen their in-house capabilities and build their own custom solutions. Sections 1.0 Cost and Control 2.0 Asking the Right Questions 3.0 Conclusion 1.0 | Cost & Control Contents 1.1 Is it less expensive to build your own solution? 1.2 Cost: Factors to Consider 1.3 Does building provide more control? 1.4 Control: Factors to Consider For most organizations looking at the question of build versus buy, it typically comes down to two important factors: cost and control. The goal of minimizing cost while maintaining as much control as possible plays a major role for nearly every company looking to implement a new software solution. With these key factors in mind, it seems as though the obvious choice would be to build your software in house. After all, building allows you to customize your solution and adapt it to your specific needs, rather than trying to adapt to one that was built for a general market. At the same time, you could plan and control the level of investment by utilizing your own in-house developers. But it’s rarely quite as straightforward. In this report we will examine the critical questions financial institutions should ask when looking at the ‘build or buy’ issue, examining the pros and cons of each route to allow for an informed decision. 1.1 Is it less expensive to build your own solution? While there are most definitely occasions when building your own software could save you money, the unavoidable truth is that this route has much higher potential to cost you more than you would have hoped. Between rework, delays and inexperienced resources learning and testing as they go, the costs can add up. Software development is generally a lot more involved and complex than non-SaaS companies believe, with hidden costs, risks and complexities that only often show themselves once a project has been committed to and the code is starting to be written. According to a report by Standish Group, 19% of large IT projects are scrapped completely after spending money, having investing resources and time in the project. Additionally, according to an article by McKinsey, “On average, large IT projects run 45% over budget and 7% over time, while delivering 56% less value than predicted.”  If (or rather when) your team encounters these issues, you then have another choice to make – do you continue with development and battle your way through? Do you change the scope of the project? Or do you cancel it all together? The sunk cost fallacy often results in future delays and investments, purely due to the perceived time and effort already invested. “Next thing you know, you’ve spent literally hundreds of hours building a tool that’s not core to your business. Hours that really hardly saved you any money. But worse than that, it was hours that weren’t spent making more money by improving your core product. Not only did you save an insignificant amount of cash, you actually stifled future cash.” Josh PigfordFounder, Baremetrics 1.2 Cost: Factors to Consider Build As it’s an internal project, your organization can decide how much it wants to spend on such a project. While the upfront cost of building a custom software solution may be higher than buying one, the long-term cost of implementation may be lower (for example, with no ongoing software license fees to pay). Most large financial institutions will have the IT resources in house to work on a customer engagement platform, but there would likely be delays due to inexperience. Consider also the costs of having those individuals not focusing on their primary roles and the ramifications of backfilling. Delays in rolling out the newly built in house platform will have impacts on total project costs, but will also affect your revenue through missed engagements, continuation of the status quo customer experience, and the slowed resolution of the challenges that kicked off the project in the first place. In-house IT projects are well known for experiencing major problems and costing far more than the estimated amount. The temptation to reduce costs could lead to corners being cut and a solution that’s not fit-for-purpose, as opposed to a specialized vendor solution which fits your needs ‘out of the box.’ Ongoing maintenance of a custom built, in-house solution can be considerable with significant implications on customer and staff experience. Disconnected systems built in silos result in orphaned data, multiple channels to manage and update as well as code duplication, complex testing environments and prolonged release cycles. Buy Building your own solution in-house requires you to build a team to do it. Good software developers don’t come cheap. Commercial solutions are usually much faster to implement as they have been purpose built to scale quickly with repeatable processes and tested change management methods. These companies also tend to employ specialists who have deep subject matter expertise on topics like scheduling, visitor and queue management, contact center engagements and customer journey mapping. When you buy a solution from a third party, that vendor bares the costs of keeping the platform up to date and is accountable for regular code releases and fixes, as well as designing a future proofed product roadmap. The right vendor also has a vested interest in understanding the financial services industry to ensure that the solution they are building,

Becoming Future Proof

Becoming Future Proof: Four Strategies to Create the Branches of the Future Download the PDF or read it below. Access the PDF Overview Financial institutions like banks and credit unions exist in a rapidly changing environment fueled by evolving customer and member preferences and new technologies. The growth and opportunity these changes ignite are exciting, but financial institutions need to understand how their operations and customer experience will be affected. In the wake of the pandemic, FI leadership is asking, is the physical branch going to remain relevant in the coming years? The simple answer is, yes but branch strategy (and the execution of said strategy) will need to change substantially. Branches will always be important to your customers and members. Major financial decisions like new mortgages, education loans and financial advisory will always benefit from having a human on the other side of the virtual or physical table. After all, this money your customers and members are trusting you to assist with represents their future, their childrens’ dreams and the hard work they put into their careers. They want to have a strong human connection when making these important investing decisions. This chart (below) was created from a report we commissioned with Future Branches that asked banking customers their thoughts on how they prefer to bank with their financial institution. It showcases that the majority (51%) of individuals prefer a digital experience through a mobile app, followed by in-branch at 29%, and finally a desktop digital experience at 20%. But the most interesting part is that 71% of those same respondents believe it’s important to build a relationship with bank personnel. We saw this clearly during the COVID 19 pandemic. Branches were forced to close and drastically reduce their traffic, yet customers and members still needed ongoing support to pay loans, receive government assistance and access safety deposit boxes. While many  transactional, and even some advisory, services can be rerouted to digital or self-service channels, there will always be a need for branches, and thus a branch network strategy. The role of branches is changing. Customers and members are increasingly comfortable taking advantage of online and mobile channels, leading to lower branch traffic and fewer teller transactions. As more of them use digital channels to deposit checks, transfer funds and manage their accounts, banks and credit unions must continue to move away from their transactional focus and adapt to meet the expectations of the evolving relationship that customers and members have with their branch. In this report, we’ll explore some of the options to become future proof. #1 Provide Self-Serve Kiosks As the first engagement for any customer or members entering your branch, upgrades to the lobby should be a top priority when seeking to future-proof the physical banking experience. While some companies have gone for a complete technological overhaul as seen with the robot-run branches of China Construction Bank or Bank of America, the majority of these upgrades involve bringing in technology to supplement the human experience, rather than replace it. It appears that this relationship-centric approach to technology is more likely to lead to long-term success. We commissioned several studies in 2020 to better understand how your customers and members want to engage with your financial institution. Our research found that your customers and members want to be met somewhere in the middle of the digital/bricks & mortar continuum – encouraged to use digital options when low value transactions can be completed, but welcomed into their local branches when advisory and life milestone discussions need to happen. 71% say access to self-service tools in the branch are important in their physical banking experience. By far, the most efficient method is through replacing or augmenting the standard greeting desk with self-service kiosks. Through this relatively simple investment, visitors can conveniently complete their task, creating a streamlined lobby that’s more engaging to your customers and members and more efficient for your staff. They also provide the added benefit of tracking and measuring operations metrics across branches, providing leadership with the information they need to make more informed decisions and improve the experience even further. It is important to consider all the ways that a visitor, whether they are already banking with your financial institution or it’s their first time walking into a branch, might engage in-branch. Expectations are at an all time high and the technology your financial institution uses will either make or break those key touchpoints. “Digital technology and new forms of automated service offer many exciting opportunities for financial services to become more tailored and convenient. But there will always be a role for face-to-face service when it comes to banking. Money issues are complex and emotive. Customers like to talk through what it all means with a real human being.” Paul Riseborough, CCO, Metro BANK Self-serve must include options for visitors to: Add themselves to a walk-in queue and immediately see how long the wait will be Check into a pre-booked appointment and receive notifications when staff are ready to meet them Book a future appointment if the visitor doesn’t have time to wait at that moment These three key functions will cover off the majority of the use cases for self-service kiosks and if designed and implemented well, will be a valuable way to quickly engage a visitor as soon as they enter the branch. Most importantly, this forward-looking strategy shifts the focus for branch employees from answering routine questions and manually booking appointments to growing revenue. By empowering visitors to self-serve where appropriate, your staff are given more time to engage in higher quality conversations with your customers and members about their financial goals. #2 Lobby-as-a-Hub To push lobby improvements further, it’s also important to make the atmosphere more conducive to human interaction. Some contemporary banking providers like Capital One made the radical decision to entirely revamp their branches, turning them into cafés. Such concepts were far and few between, and those that tried them were often ridiculed.  Bank and credit union leaders are reimagining the purpose of