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Here we go again…introducing more new channels for delivering financial transactions to our existing customers/members. Will this just be one more way to check account balances?

It seems that every five years or so banks and credit unions fall all over themselves in an effort to stay competitive by introducing the latest and greatest channel technology. Why?  

Number one reason—because everyone else is doing it. While new technology usually offers some advantages to the customer or the institution, functionality all too often, remains business as usual. The medium is new, but it’s the same old message.

This time it should be different, it’s time for a change in the game. This time when we jump into mobile banking solutions, social media strategies or Web 2.0 initiatives, we should stop and remember it’s about the message not just one more way to check account balances or to deliver a “special offer”  that may not even be relevant to the customer.

This time, when we introduce a new channel technology, it should be unified with most, if not all, existing channel technologies, and the channel applications should share data while executing a single corporate strategy for delivering consistent messages across all channels—not just the latest. By integrating channel applications, you will be able to unify the message and the personalized marketing efforts with the relationship and service efforts of your front-line, whether it is through a service rep or a self-service channel option. Optimizing all channel investments through unification should be the goal, not simply introducing new channels to appeal to segments of your customer/member base.

This time the plans and the strategies need to focus first on the message then on the medium. Who we are trying to reach and for what purpose needs to be unified with other organizational marketing and relationship building efforts.

Mobile, social media and Web 2.0 technologies offer a world of possibilities, but to take advantage of them (in a profitable way) requires a business strategy and an organizational structure that allows the customer to select the channel of their choice. The message should remain consistent whether it is a transaction, a personal service follow-up, intelligent and relevant marketing outreach or a relationship building contact. Being able to consistently deliver (regardless of channel) is the real game changer.

As I am sure you know all too well, some people are more willing and able to engage in selling than others, so there will always be a few people who just can’t get there. At the same time, there will be a few tellers who are naturals. For the rest, we need to help them adapt to a changing role for tellers in the delivery of sales and service. I do not have any magic words to coach the reluctant, but I do have an opinion on how to maximize the overall performance of the teller team.

I believe there are two key factors that need to be addressed early on. First is fear; many tellers are just plain scared of engaging the member/customer. They are afraid of not knowing what to say to begin the conversation, afraid of not knowing what to say if the member does want to talk about a product offer and afraid of annoying the member if they are not interested at all. 

The second factor is motivation. Tellers are busy most of the day. Adding the steps of presenting offers and capturing leads increases their workload—so it’s all about giving them the right motivation to take those activities on. I recently visited a credit union branch where tellers were engaged in lead generation. One teller generated about 90 referrals in a week. Phenomenal! The closest teller did about half that many. When questioned on what motivated her, she said she liked being recognized as the top performer. She was motivated by the recognition of her peers and her managers. Her enthusiasm yielded the additional benefit of motivating her peers to do better. Working as part of a team where everyone’s contribution is tracked and recognized is a powerful message all by itself. Recognition is always the #1 motivator as revealed in industry surveys (even over money).

I have heard it said that all emotions stem from two—love and fear. So, how can we help tellers to stop fearing sales activities and put them on a path to loving their success, if not the activities themselves?  I believe the uncertainties that underlie their fears can be eliminated or at least dramatically reduced by taking a few key steps.

1. The organization should make certain that the offers being made to members have real value. When the teller feels comfortable that the offer really is good for the member, then they are more comfortable delivering the message. If the teller needs coaching to understand the value that is ok. 

2. Knowing that the answers to most potential member questions are at their fingertips will also eliminate a lot of anxiety. Even though tellers receive product training, creating scripts or “cheat sheets” with key details provides support for tellers who are just getting started and gives them a safety net in the early going. Knowing that you are there to catch them if they fall may be just enough motivation to take the next steps.

Coaching is always challenging, but it’s easier when the basics are in place to move the team forward.

The concept of one-to-one marketing has been described and predicted for nearly 30 years. The idea being that as databases, containing information on prospects’ needs, habits, likes and dislikes, continue to grow, retailers should be using this data to fashion highly personalized offers.

While many of the major retailers have made good strides, main stream success has remained elusive—especially for financial institutions. Most continue to seek a fool-proof way to automate the process of zeroing in on the “next best product” to offer their customers.

As a result, millions of dollars are being spent annually to gather and mine data on existing customers in hopes of identifying “cross-selling” opportunities based on “calculated” needs.

MCIF approach misses the mark
Today, the focus of much of these mining efforts is to create ”campaigns” where offers are made through a range of media (i.e. newspapers, billboards, radio, TV and the Web); and, groups of customers or prospects in a geographical area are targeted for a specific product.

To launch and manage these marketing campaigns institutions invest in MCIF technology as a basic way to provide a structure for managing (one size fits all) campaign activities. But, this approach is outdated, and a poor use of limited corporate resources. This is especially true as channel investments continue at a rapid pace with a second generation of internet banking, mobile banking and the use of social media; not to mention the sales training investments for branch and call center staff over the past 5 years.

Enable front-line staff to close business
The opportunity exists right now to change this practice. It’s time to stop launching global campaigns and instead, fashion personalized offers that are delivered to customers and prospects through your existing channels. Don’t make any more expensive media placements! Enable your frontline staff to deliver offers and close business on the spot or effortlessly (automatically) refer customers to an appropriate representative for closure.

How? It’s all about the unification of delivery channels…because unification allows for true integration of your sales and marketing programs and the ability to learn more about the customer, directly from the customer! Beginning with the earliest new account activity and building with “on-boarding” campaigns and subsequent interactions with the customer, you can capture insights into their real-life needs and product interests—rather than “calculated” values essentially spit out by an MCIF system. 

Reel customers in via their channel(s) of choice
Just imagine…your front-line staff and self-service channels can actually ask a customer about their needs, lifestyle factors and interests and then log this information into a centralized contact history database. In this scenario, the customer’s channel of choice also becomes part of the equation where you can interact with them when and how it best suits them—whether in a branch, on the phone, through the web or via mobile device.

For the past 30 years there has been an almost continual shift in the ways that customers interact with their financial institutions-and to a large extent, this has been driven by technology innovation. From online branch systems and ATMs, to telephone and internet banking, the change has been constant and will inevitably continue.                 

Customers have come to expect that their financial institution will provide access to their accounts from any and all channel technologies and not just for inquiries, but real-time transactions too. The competitive nature of the financial services industry necessitates that community institutions meet these expectations in the same ways that large multi-national banks do.  

The problem is that this has driven community institutions to make massive investments in channel technologies, as they have appeared in the market-with little regard for existing channel implementations. Consequently, silos of customer data have been created, disparate technology architectures are not "playing well" together, and system complexity is requiring that institutions add IT staff. So what can be done? 

Establish a single technology architecture that makes technical support and system integration much less challenging. And, the good news is that this doesn't have to be daunting. The technology advances of the past several years make it possible today to create your own company standard (selecting the applications and infrastructure that will be used uniformly across the enterprise-SQL Server, Oracle, Linux, etc.). Therefore, for example, if you are going to standardize on Linux, apply that to application selection as you upgrade existing channel technology or choose a new vendor. 

You can also reduce information silos by establishing "systems of record." Rather than maintaining redundant data in various applications, a single system/application can become the "official" source of certain information. For example, rates can be entered and maintained in one location instead of via multiple files, thereby streamlining processes and eliminating the risk of inconsistency between channel applications. Another good example is using a CIF for customer/member data rather than multiple account files. 

Perhaps the biggest savings opportunity offered by standardizing your channel technology is to reduce the number and variety of technical skills required within your IT organization. Not only do you save by the range of skills, but you make it far more straight forward for the current team to address support and enhancement requests. In a competitive market, having the ability to embrace change and easily apply new technology capabilities to a uniform infrastructure gives you an advantage that can make a big difference to your customers and to your bottom-line.