Strategizing a New Year, New Goals, & Better Banking Transformation
While it would be easy to remain complacent, community financial institutions need to do what they do best: prioritize their account holders’ needs, grow customer/member relations, analyze risks and potential growth opportunities, and take action. As digital banking remains on the forefront, financial institutions (FI’s) need to continually evaluate and evolve this channel.
Most financial institutions are continuously evaluating processes and setting goals to improve the digital banking user experience to remain competitive. As financial institutions prepare for transformation, below are a few suggested areas to incorporate into your digital banking strategy:
- Identify Key Goals & Initiatives
Brainstorm goals and write them down. Are you seeking to improve your operational efficiencies, improve account holder engagement, transform your account holder’s experience, identify competitive advantages, or simply grow your bottom line with a new business strategy? Although it’s crucial to be mindful of the user experience and evaluating new trends, don’t overlook opportunities to create internal efficiencies as you’re building your roadmap. Identifying your objectives will help achieve your mission.
- Assemble Key Employees, Define Responsibilities, & Evaluate Success
It’s important to select the right employees to provide input and share their vision. Include personnel from all levels that will be involved in implementing the new process or service. Identify roles, assign responsibilities and evaluate progress. Giving employees a voice will help them invest in the FI’s vision and strategy.
- Identify & Assess Potential New Processes, Software Applications or Vendors
Evaluate how new technology, software applications or processes will impact your customer/member and your bottom line. Ensure implementing a new software application is within your budget and has no hidden fees that could skew your investment costs. Revisit your requirements checklist to ensure the application will fulfill your current needs and progress your vision for future capabilities. Take your time on vendor due diligence. Confirm the vendor understands your goals and timeline, has a similar mission and values that align with your FI, and offers excellent customer service. We also recommend requesting a demo, asking for current client references, and inquiring on the implementation and training process so you know the expectations set forth for your team. Data security should also be top of mind; ensure your account holder’s data will be protected. And finally, ask about their roadmap and what enhancements they’re planning to implement. Ensure they are forward looking and will meet future demands.
- Strategize Implementation & Customer Communication
Devising an implementation strategy is integral to the success of launching your new vision. Identify key players and delegate their roles accordingly. Assess the project scope to ensure daily duties are met and time is allocated to meet deadlines while simultaneously executing your new strategy. If your new solution is customer/member facing, ensure account holders are notified in advance and are aware of the upcoming changes. Communication is key to a seamless transition. This will help account holders prepare for the transition and more willingly embrace change. During go live, make certain account holders have access to easy to understand guides for quick reference via print or video.
- Evaluate Your Process, Software Application or Vendor
Measure your success by identifying vital areas of improvement (or decline). Survey or personally reach out to your team members and customers for feedback. Evaluate your results and identify next steps. Always be forward thinking on how to further enhance the customer experience or identify problematic areas seeking a more EFFECTIVE process. There’s always room for improvement; stay ahead of the competition.
While the banking landscape continues to transform to keep up with industry demands, community banks and credit unions have upheld their mission and remained focused on building personal relationships and anticipating their account holder’s needs. Enhancing the user experience, offering new products, and drawing the account holder closer will help grow the bottom line and accelerate growth.
About CSPI:
As a valued software and service provider leading the FinTech industry for 33 years, CSPI continues to focus on the needs of today’s progressive community banks and credit unions to meet the growing demands of account holders by providing core solutions, digital banking, document management and item processing.
We are core-agnostic (and also offer a core cloud solution) and support API-first technology to create real-time integration for our Aurora Advantage Digital Banking product suite. Our dedicated team strives to enhance the user experience, deliver innovative solutions, significantly increase productivity, and provide exceptional service that exceeds your expectations. We believe if our customer succeeds, we succeed. https://auroradigitalbanking.com/
Prior Blog Posts:
