Automation Allows Community Banks to Better Serve Clients and Undermine the Disruptors
Above all else, community banking is a “people” business. Client relationships are critical. To succeed, banking professionals must have a heightened focus on client needs. But with disruption from digital-only banks, fintech firms and Big Tech companies moving into the financial services sector, how can a community bank keep existing customers satisfied, as well as entice new clients to trust them with their business?
As the banking industry has undergone a digital transformation, the touch points that helped build strong client relationships have all but disappeared. But fighting against the technology that is driving profits at the disruptors and the Big Banks is a futile and losing approach. Customers want the personal touch, and they also want the conveniences that 24/7 service, online banking and other innovations provide.
However, community banks have something the disruptors do not possess: a personal connection with their clients that goes beyond knowing their names when they walk through the door. Community bankers are also their customers’ neighbors, local leaders, Little League coaches and more. Rather than hold back the tide of technology, community banks should embrace how it can improve their already strong relationships. And the best way to accomplish that is through adopting digital automation that frees up time to lean in to client service.
Think about the days before the automatic coin counter and you’ll recognize how far banking automation has come. With the ability to quickly and accurately count large amounts of coins without human intervention, the coin counter was perhaps the first piece of real banking automation. Customers deeply appreciated the speed and convenience this new device provided, and bankers appreciated how it allowed them more time to work with customers. Today’s digital automation is no different, and can be used to not just improve internal processes but also to directly impact customer satisfaction.
Internally, automation is helping refine and streamline issues related to compliance, efficiency, and risk management in the banking sector. Automation is best used for repetitive, rules-based tasks that center around structured information. It can support data entry for invoices in Accounts Payable or streamline the research and comparison of financial data. But increasingly, banks are recognizing the powerful ways automation can be used to redefine a bank’s relationship with customers, such as providing personalized financial advice to help customers resolve problems and obtain their financial goals.
Yes, automation can provide you an opportunity to directly address client needs because of all the other benefits it offers. The key automation tools that can directly impact a community bank’s ability to service customers include:
- Automatically capture and organize information/documents: How a bank manages the flow of information in its organization can make the difference between keeping a customer happy and seeing a frustrated client walk out the door. By instantly and automatically capturing information in real time, bankers are able to provide knowledgeable, personalized service every time they interact with a client.
- Automatically classify and extract needed information: Automation that leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) to classify documents by type and to enable data extraction is a game changer for community banking. Now customers no longer have one person at the bank who seems like an old friend. Everyone a client connects with can access critical information on their needs, history and previous interactions, making the customer feel they have a team behind them.
- Speed up processes, allowing banks to focus on larger client concerns: When bankers are saddled with routine tasks that consume more time with little client impact, opportunities to grow business or retain customers fall by the wayside. But when processes are streamlined and automatic, employees can focus on the bigger picture — and customers gain the benefit of more personalized attention.
Automation Supports Community Banking
Automation allows banks to digitize, manage, store, and route financial data, minimize downtime, maintain strict security standards, and save money. Manual processes are replaced with the help of electronically controlled software user accounts that perform routine tasks like data entry or researching and correlating information across multiple systems. Bank workflow management coordinates tasks and processes to improve efficiency. One or more solutions using multiple platforms are often required to coordinate tasks within a bank. Through bank workflow management, an organization examines its existing processes and account opening procedures and seeks to make them more efficient.
Some workers worry that automation might eliminate their job, but automation impacts work tasks much more than it impacts the actual number of jobs available. It can give community banks an opportunity to refocus jobs on promoting client needs. Employees love the opportunity to direct their efforts toward more rewarding tasks, whether that be helping a business client secure that new loan or helping a new customer open a new checking account. Mundane tasks are gone while employee and customer satisfaction is increased.
It is no longer a question of utilizing digital content management to modernize the banking experience. In order to truly compete and win, community banks must keep up with current technology. And that means identifying how to automate many manual functions and processes to enable stronger customer relationships. A strategy that utilizes effective workflow automation improves customer service, streamlines processes and simplifies workload, which improves employee as well as customer satisfaction.
There is no longer a question of whether or not to automate. The question is if the automation strategies a bank is deploying are working to its best advantage.
HK Bain is CEO of Digitech Systems LLC, one of the most trusted choices for intelligent information management and business process automation worldwide. For more information, visit www.digitechsystems.com
