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Providing a Superior Digital Experience with Cross-Departmental Collaboration

By | Blog, Digital Communications, Resources

One of the byproducts of the burgeoning digital age is a sharp rise in consumer expectations for efficient and convenient experiences. Both online and in-person, consumers have grown to expect streamlined shopping experiences, flexible appointment options, and seamless cross-channel interactions. 

According to Salesforce, 62% of customers say experiences with one industry influence their expectations of others, and 88% expect companies to accelerate their digital initiatives. With the rapid evolution of digital services and an increasingly internet-savvy public, the average consumer is no longer tolerant of antiquated digital experiences that are full of friction and hurdles.

Today’s Digital Challenges

However, it’s obviously not always easy to provide this kind of broad and seamless service—especially when the financial services industry is facing major staffing shortages. Banks and credit unions are encouraged to invest in their digital experience, and yet in-branch service remains a prominent factor in the marketplace. Organizations push to engage through multiple channels, and this leaves some of them spread too thin to provide a satisfying consumer experience.

This is what makes a broad, omnichannel experience so vital in today’s market. By optimizing the customer journey and offering consumers various paths to the services they seek, you can not only secure more revenue, but can drive brand loyalty and customer satisfaction as well.

Collaborating to Create a Better Experience

A vital ingredient in this process is cross-departmental collaboration. This is the assurance that all the individual departments in an organization are working in sync to create a cohesive consumer experience. 

Take, for example, a community bank. With the staff of their branches, contact center, lending team, collections department, and investment department all accessible online, it follows that customers will expect to be able to move freely from one department to the next. But because these various departments are managed by different groups of people and run from different locations, the customers are sometimes faced with obstacles.

If a customer begins with a simple customer service request, and then later decides they’re curious about the bank’s auto loan offerings, their customer service agent might only be able to take them so far before transferring them to a lending officer. But when that switch happens, how efficient is it? If the customer is told to visit a branch, or to submit an application on the website, they may not follow through with their inquiry. But if the customer is simply transferred via collaborative video to meet with a lending expert, it could not only provide a more streamlined customer experience, but could also help the bank close more loans. 

Experience is Everything

It’s for reasons like these that providing a satisfying digital experience has become so important. As author and customer experience expert Dan Gingiss put it, “Most companies must realize that they are no longer competing against the guy down the street or the brand that sells similar products. Instead, they’re competing with every other experience a customer has.”

With digital experiences playing an increasingly crucial role in consumer behavior, now is an ideal time to find the right Digital Communications Platform. Implementing the right digital solutions gives you the ability to build a more effective and personalized customer experience, enabling your financial institution to flourish in the digital age. 

If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of our unique Digital Communications Platform, schedule some time to speak with one of our experts here!

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How Financial Institutions Can Stay Relevant Despite the Threat of Embedded Banking

By | Blog, Digital Communications, Video Banking

Embedded finance and Banking as a Service (BaaS) are rapidly reshaping the financial services industry—and have the potential to reshape other industries as well. Banks and credit unions face the increasing threat of financial services being offered by non-banking companies. The Financial Brand writes that “telcos, big techs and software companies, car manufacturers, insurance providers, and logistics firms” are all preparing to launch financial services to serve both businesses and consumers.

This changing landscape threatens banks and credit unions because it holds the potential to eat away at their market share. When non-financial companies are offering services like digital wallets, payments, lending, and bank accounts, legacy financial institutions (FIs) are put at risk of losing crucial business. But what can banks and credit unions do to stop it? How can they maintain their business despite the trend? In this blog, we’ll discuss the growing embedded finance and BaaS movements, and what FIs can do to maintain their market share.

The Developing Trend

Similar to movements like open banking, embedded finance—or embedded banking—is a relatively recent development. With the growth of e-commerce in recent years, people are adapting to new, digitized buying practices. In some cases, financial products, like financing, payments, digital wallets, and more are being built into other products and services and sold to businesses and consumers by non-financial companies.

Researchers looking into embedded finance consistently report that it’s expected to grow substantially in coming years. According to Dealroom.co, the total embedded finance market value is projected to hit $7.2 trillion by 2030. “Embedded finance and BaaS startups have already attracted huge funding in the last year,” the article says.

Companies venturing into embedded finance often have the goal of creating a more comprehensive customer experience. In their own research on the topic, McKinsey wrote that “Companies’ embrace of embedded finance…aims to retain customers and increase their so-called lifetime value.” By becoming a bigger part of their customers’ lives, these brands aim to increase the value of the products and services they provide. “For customers, the appeal is ease of use: a small business can get a bank account from its accounting software, or a consumer can pay via the retailer,” McKinsey wrote. 

How FI’s Fight Back

As The Financial Brand points out, most banks and credit unions are not prepared to compete in this new world of embedded finance. To survive, many financial institutions are partnering with fintechs to remain competitive. But banks and credit unions can still stay in the fight by making sure they have the ability to complete revenue-generating services outside the branch. 

The essential aspect of embedded banking that gives it an edge over legacy financial institutions is that it offers simplicity and comes built in to existing products and services. If financial institutions worked to make the delivery of their products more convenient, they might face less competition from embedded banking. Fewer people might be interested in applying for a loan with a non-financial company if they could just as conveniently apply for that loan at the financial institution they’ve entrusted with their money for the last ten years.

With the right technology, processes like opening and funding accounts, applying for loans, and other revenue-generating services can be easily completed digitally. It’s for reasons like these that so many POPi/o engagements end in document signing events. 

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can implement a Digital Communications Platform capable of delivering all your most important services outside the branch, Let’s Talk!

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Hitting a Moving Target: How to Meet Consumers’ Rising Digital Expectations

By | Blog, Digital Communications, Video Banking

The financial institutions that succeed are often defined by a never-ending mission to enhance their Customer Experience (CX). The people leading these organizations know that the rapidly evolving digital landscape is constantly raising the bar for consumer expectations. And with new metrics for measuring success and an increasing willingness for consumers to share information, there is an almost endless opportunity for CX improvement, including personalized experiences, targeted offers, visual engagement, conversational AI, and a host of other digital communications tools.

In the financial services industry, more than 70% of companies are undergoing a CX transformation, with 39.7% of institutions having a project completed or in-progress, and 30.9% planning a project by the end of 2022.

In a study by Metrigy, business metrics were evaluated before and after CX transformations. They based the transformations on four major categories: conversational AI, visual engagement, workforce engagement management, and self-service knowledge management. By tracking the impact these efforts had on customer ratings, revenue, operating expenses, and agent productivity, Metrigy determined that the CX solutions which resulted in the highest average improvement was visual engagement. This category includes video, cobrowsing, screen sharing, and other interactive tools.

According to The Financial Brand, “Consumers have grown accustomed to interacting with video and other visual means in their personal and professional lives.” They went on to say that banks and credit unions “are catching on and increasingly extending video to their customers,” adding that the most efficient way to do this is by integrating their call center and Digital Communications Platform. This allows representatives on web chat to send video links to prospective customers, providing a seamless transition to a more comprehensive level of care.

When CX leaders were asked what benefits their video implementation provided, they offered six key points:

  • Video makes interactions more efficient to solve issues faster (50%)
  • Video improves customer relationships with more personal interactions (49.2%)
  • The pandemic made everyone used to using video (45.9%)
  • Customers were asking for it (40%)
  • Interactions required agents or customers to see something (36%)
  • Agents wanted to use it (36%)

Video is also exceedingly cost effective when comparing its capabilities to traditional alternatives. By leveraging services through these convenient channels, financial institutions can operate outside their service area without the added expense of expanding their physical branch network.

And because the financial services industry has a high average number of agents working from home (54.7%) compared to the average (47.2%), implementation of Digital Communications Platforms that facilitate remote work have become routine across the industry. Along the way, it’s important to use data to make sure the tools being implemented are having the desired effect. Using analytics and surveys to better dial-in the customer experience, successful financial institutions will evolve to meet the changing needs of consumers.

It can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t need to be. We recommend starting simple, implementing the most vital digital solution for the needs your institution has and growing engagement from there. To learn more about how you can get started with your own Digital Communications Platform, click here

Digitization Around the World: How Banks and Credit Unions can Plan for the Future

By | Blog, Digital Communications

If you find yourself wondering what the future looks like for the financial services industry, you’re not alone. Businesses in almost every sector have undergone fundamental changes in response to the turbulence of the last few years. The majority of these changes consisted of using digitization or data to compensate for the disturbances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

But not every effort at digitization results in the business or organization merely compensating for the detriments resulting from COVID. Some have achieved new levels of engagement, and have also seen secondary benefits such as better operational efficiencies, increased security, and more brand awareness.

To see where digitization may be going in the States, we’ll take a look at what’s going on around the world. 

How Public Services are Changing

In the government and public services sector—both in America and abroad—many services are moving online, and citizens interacting with them are often incentivized to use new digital channels. This often results in increased adoption, which provides mutual benefits, as the digitized services not only make things more manageable and organized for the government entity, but make the citizen’s life more convenient as well.

In Albania, for example, the government has worked with the World Bank to introduce more efficient electronic services, which significantly increased satisfaction among citizens and saved them time in the process. In their economic update titled, “Data Digitization, and Governance”, the World Bank relayed, “The time needed to register a vehicle fell from 5.3 days in 2016 to 30 minutes in 2020, and the process to request a health card, which took 5 days in 2016, could be completed in just a few minutes.” 

These new efficiencies have made life easier for Albanians. To the north, similar government improvements have created new levels of efficiency in Estonia. Their new X-Road system, a connected information infrastructure used for population, medical, and business registrations, allows users to register a new business in just three hours.

What makes these results from Albania and Estonia so compelling for financial institutions is the fact that vehicle registration, requesting health cards, and registering a business are all very similar to the services offered by many financial institutions, such as applying for auto loans, requesting replacement debit cards, and opening new accounts. And as digitized solutions like these become more pervasive throughout the world, digital services will eventually become an expected delivery method for services in many industries.  

Mass Digitization in the Private Sector

Along with government and public services, there are untold numbers of businesses in the private sector that are undergoing a change that involves digitization. It is no longer uncommon for a restaurant to only provide menu access via a QR code, or to only allow orders to be made online. 

Many doctor’s offices and medical institutions have integrated digital solutions into their operations as well. If you visit an office like this unprepared, the administrative attendant will likely hand you an iPad and ask you to complete the intake process online. 

Businesses prefer these new digitized methods because they’re more sustainable, easier to keep organized, and more efficient than traditional in-person meetings that involve filling out paperwork.

Of course, nothing indicates that the world is moving in a “digital only” direction that will do away with in-person meetings entirely. The point of digitization is not to remove the person from the equation, it is more commonly an effort to make things more efficient.

What the Future Looks Like

As we all know, tele-health and virtual learning are not on the verge of replacing in-person school or medical practices. But even with COVID restrictions lifted, this technology will continue to play a key role in markets around the world. The market size of digital transformation solutions is expected to more than double in the coming years, at a CAGR of around 17%. 

This means there will always be some level of virtual learning or tele-health in practice, whether it be after-school tutoring, extracurricular activities, or solutions like Better Help, which provide affordable online counseling.

Although foot traffic in branches continues to decline, nobody is suggesting that banks and credit unions shut down all their branches and rely solely on apps and solutions from the fin-tech industry. In-person banking isn’t going away, it’s just getting better with the help of digital services. 

While things like collaborative video conferencing, document exchange, E-sign, and cobrowse might be seen as added features that aren’t particularly necessary for the success of a financial institution, the question that banks and credit unions will need to ask themselves is this: When people are engaging with their school, their employer, their medical provider, and their government through digital channels, how will they want to engage with their financial institution?  

To learn more about how POPi/o can help you deliver your most important, revenue-generating services through convenient digital channels, click here.

What is a Virtual Financial Assistant? And How Could it Benefit Your Financial Institution?

By | Blog, Digital Communications

Since beginning our partnership with Abe.ai, creator of the Virtual Financial Assistant (VFA), we’ve been touching on this unique solution in our communications. But we’ve never really taken the opportunity to give a comprehensive look at what exactly a VFA does, and how financial institutions could wield it to their advantage—especially when used in conjunction with POPi/o’s Digital Communications solutions.

Who is Abe.ai?

Founded in 2016 and later acquired by Envestnet | Yodlee, Abe.ai is an artificial intelligence company that’s focused on building virtual assistant products and infrastructure for the financial services industry. Banks and credit unions of all sizes use Abe.ai’s software to create AI-powered, human-like experiences to scale customer support teams and enhance the customer experience.

What a VFA Could do for You

By interacting with consumers in the channels they prefer—such as website, online banking or mobile app—Abe.ai’s VFA plays the essential role of easing the load on customer service teams. Powered by machine learning and natural language processing, the VFA can interact in a natural and conversational way, resolving many common customer inquiries, freeing up call centers to use POPi/o’s Digital Communications solutions on more in-depth customer needs. With the ability to recognize thousands of utterances related to the most commonly asked questions at financial institutions, a VFA delivers a considerable amount of value to the customer experience. With a friendly, personable tone and rapid responses, it can field issues as they arise. 

Some examples of inquiries that the VFA can assist with are:

“I can’t remember my password.”

“What are my branch hours?”

“What’s my routing number?”

“Where’s the nearest ATM?”

“Debit card shipping time?”

“When will my deposit clear?”

“I’m locked out of my account.”

Digital Tools With a Personal Touch

Allowing a VFA to interact with customers on behalf of your institution takes a certain level of trust. It’s important that the software meets customer needs and effectively responds to questions. But it’s equally important that your customers are willing to engage with the VFA in the first place. Making the technology approachable to the common user may seem like a tall order, but the VFA comes pre-trained right off the shelf, making it fast and easy to implement. To make the technology more engaging, financial institutions can do things like give the VFA its own name and profile image. This helps assure that the VFA comes off as friendly and approachable, and also creates an opportunity to brand it as your own. By designing a user experience that feels natural to customers, you build rapport and brand loyalty.  

Abe.ai exampleLooking to the Future

Because conversational AI is a technology that continues to evolve over time, a VFA is a solution that constantly improves, providing greater value as machine learning continues to enhance its responses. And when matched with POPi/o’s Digital Communications solution, you can leverage the most convenient and comprehensive digital tools in the financial services industry. Commonly asked “nuisance questions” can be resolved without the interruption of your customer-facing staff, and more involved customer inquiries and transactions can be resolved using POPi/o’s extensive digital tools, like collaborative video, cobrowse, and more. With a Digital Communications solution, you can provide digital services that are not only fast and convenient, but friendly and personalized as well.

Are you interested in learning more about easing the load on your call centers, preventing abandonment, and meeting customer needs as they arise? Let’s talk.

Happy older woman relaxing on the sofa with tablet

How Financial Institutions are Thriving with Personalized Digital Services

By | Blog, Digital Communications

In the last few years, our way of life and doing business has gone through tremendous changes. Businesses across the globe are undergoing “digital transformations”, altering their practices or business models to cater to the rising demand for digital services.

In 2021, the global digital transformation market size was valued at $521 billion, and is anticipating a compound annual growth rate of 19% between now and 2026. But what does this all mean? In short, the increasing use of mobile devices, smartphones, tablets and other forms of technology has brought a growing demand for advanced digital features. 

Consumers are more comfortable navigating apps and web portals while dealing with businesses, and with this rise in digital fluency, consumer expectations have risen as well. 

But businesses aren’t undergoing digital transformations purely to meet the demands of customers. Some have also invested in digital services because of the monetary value they provide.

Digital implementations help businesses expand their service footprint and extend their hours of operation. A transformation allows a business to leverage services through efficient online tools, negating the inconvenience of in-person meetings.

With these new practices, businesses are opening new streams of revenue while also driving brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Studies have shown that 80% of businesses that undergo digital transformation report an increase in profits, while 85% report an increased market share. Enhanced data collection and more efficient resource management are also common benefits of digital transformation.

Why Personalization is Key

For businesses that sell generic, out-of-the-box products, personalization may not have to play a key role in their digital strategy. But financial institutions (FIs) have a more nuanced relationship with their customers. Because everyone’s financial situation is unique, a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t always effective in the financial services industry. As Colleen Dabbs put it on The Financial Brand, “Much more than just good targeting for offers, organizations need to engage contextually, in real time, helping customers reach their financial goals.”

But what does that kind of all-encompassing, hands-on approach look like? Translating all the services of a fully-operational branch into a functional and easy-to-use app is not an easy task. 

The answer, says Jim Marous, CEO of the Digital Banking Report, is that FIs need to blend the speed and convenience of their digital tools with the friendly and personalized services of their customer-facing staff. 

“Banks and credit unions must focus on building a distribution network that combines the qualities of human interaction with the power of new technologies,” Marous writes.

When it comes to targeted ads and other specified offers, data collection can be highly beneficial practices for FIs. In a survey, Mckinsey showed that triggered communications—typically featuring personalized product recommendations—contributed to 5-15% increases in revenue and 10-30% increases in marketing spending efficiency.

While those numbers alone are an incentive for FIs to be thinking about personalization in their digital marketing practices, there’s a lot more to the story. Enhanced selling isn’t the only benefit that personalization can have. As BCG stated in their publication on the topic, “Personalization in banking is not about selling, yet many banks tend to focus on the sales arena.”

Instead of being limited to the sales and marketing arena, personalization can comprise a large part of an FI’s strategy in coming years. “The combination of data, analytics, applied insights and new engagement models will open the door for an exponential increase in ideas and innovations for new products, services, engagement options and communication strategies,” writes Jim Marous.

With what he calls the “hybrid distribution model”, Marous says that banks and credit unions can meld technology and data collection with the assets provided by their customer-facing staff and their in-branch product experts. 

People are Just as Big a Part of the Equation as Technology Is

Balancing digital self-service technology with the engagement of FI representatives has been shown to lower the abandonment rate of services like loan applications and new account openings. Instead of exiting the page when they hit a snag, these customers are given the opportunity to work with the specialist that best fits their needs.

When they can’t access a branch, yet still need to complete a banking transaction that can’t be accomplished on their own, customers need to know that their FI will still be able to serve them. In the digital world, even collaborative, in-depth banking services need to be accessible outside the branch.

By showing your customers that your FI can deliver friendly, personalized service—whether it be through web, mobile, or in-branch channels—you do more than just enhance your customer satisfaction rating. You open the door to new opportunities, securing new streams of revenue and investing in your ongoing digital relevance.

To learn more about Digital Communications and the ways it could benefit your financial institution, schedule a free demo today!

Image of smiling call center employees

Surges, Staffing, and Strategy: How Financial Institutions can Stay Ahead with Digital Communications

By | Blog, Digital Communications

The pandemic has tested all of us. We’ve all changed our lives, our ways of doing business, the dynamics of our relationships, and more. For many of us, these changes have presented new challenges that have tested our patience and forced us to make sacrifices. For some of us, the cost has been far greater than an inconvenience or a missed opportunity. 

And now, a full two years after this all began, the COVID infection rate in the US is the highest it’s ever been. In-person appointments are being cancelled, remote work is being enacted (or reenacted), and Financial Institutions (FIs) across the country are rolling out digital platforms to serve their customers outside the branch.

These are a few of the reasons why Digital Communications is more important than ever before. With POPi/o, your FI can deliver all your personalized, branch-based services through convenient digital channels, allowing your team to safely serve customers in a convenient and cost-effective way. 

Staffing Struggles

Allowing banks and credit unions to operate safely in the midst of COVID surges is only one of the ways a Digital Communications platform could help your institution navigate the current landscape. Because, along with surges, many FIs are also facing serious staffing issues. According to The Financial Brand, 80% of community banks and credit unions believe their biggest concern going into 2022 is staffing. Many branches are staffed with only one or two employees, and some are limited to drive-thru-only service.

With such limited access and so few experts to serve their customers, it’s become hard for FIs to operate efficiently. Opportunities are lost, call centers are overloaded, and product experts are underutilized. But with an effective digital platform, your FI can serve a broad customer base, even with scaled-back staffing. 

Lending officers and other experts can work remotely or from a centralized location, eliminating the need to staff branches with all your product specialists. And with the integration of an AI assistant for simple customer service inquiries, you can lessen the workload for your call centers.

Digital Strategy

An effective digital strategy can not only act as a safety net from staffing struggles and COVID surges, but can also provide added benefits and new opportunities. Centralized lending departments can be enacted to make services more efficient than ever before. Expanded service hours are made possible through serving customers outside the branch. And everything from simple interactions to detailed, branch-based processes can be driven through convenient digital channels.

In an unpredictable world, FIs still need a reliable way to service customer relationships and deliver personalized services. With a Digital Communications platform from POPi/o, your FI has all the tools it needs to stay ahead of the curve—no matter what comes your way. 

Ready to learn more? Let’s talk.

Image of Hurricane Ida flooding

Braving the Storm: How POPi/o Helped Xplore FCU Serve Members During Hurricane Ida

By | Blog, Client Experiences, Digital Communications

When Lousiana-based Xplore Federal Credit Union implemented the POPi/o platform a year ago, they didn’t know how heavily they would come to rely on it come hurricane season.

This summer, the deadly and destructive Hurricane Ida struck the struck the gulf coast, leaving many without power, food, water, and other vital resources. In the video below, Xplore President and CEO, Rafael Rondon summarizes the palpable sense of relief his credit union felt knowing they at least had POPi/o to help them continue serving members through this difficult time.

Being a Louisiana-based financial institution, Rafael and his team were no strangers to hurricanes. They had seen the damage sustained in previous hurricanes. So, when Hurricane Ida arrived, they knew they’d have to think fast to keep their members taken care of.

“Hurricane Ida hit on Monday morning,” Rafael begins, detailing the experience. “But by Friday afternoon we were up and running using POPi/o.” Watch the video below to hear more on how Xplore got up and running so quickly.

Most of what they were doing was assisting people who had evacuated the area. They were greeted with members that were grateful in the face of difficulty.

Another way POPi/o was able to help the situation was by providing the technology for Xplore’s employees to work from home during the hurricane. With POPi/o’s flexible platform, the Xplore team was still able to deliver vital services to members from outside their office.

But POPi/o also helped Xplore handle more pressing matters. Using POPi/o’s uniquely extensive capabilities, Xplore was able to provide emergency loans to members who were affected by the hurricane. In the video clip below, you can hear Rafael explain the value this service provided during his members’ immense time of need.

“Our video banking department was processing something like 120 emergency loans during those last two or three weeks of the month, after Hurricane Ida—because, you know, our members needed those emergency funds,” Rafael says, detailing the urgency of the situation they faced.

When asked if he could imagine repeating the experience without POPi/o, Rafael states plainly, “I couldn’t imagine not having POPi/o… It’s a scary thought to be honest with you.”

While members were able to receive some limited services from the credit union over their phone lines and mobile apps, only POPi/o allowed them to deliver their personalized, comprehensive services that they’re known for. To hear Rafael’s full answer, watch the video below.

And if you’re interested in learning more about POPi/o’s Digital Customer Engagement platform, talk with one of our experts.

Dead End sign

The Ones That Got Away

By | Blog, Digital Communications

A closer look at the reasons for dead ends and abandonment in today’s digital banking services.

 

Well if that isn’t a captivating subtitle, I don’t know what is. But behind that statement is a real—and in some cases, dire—fact of digital banking services: Some of them don’t work.

Users begin processes on their phones and tablets, only to leave them incomplete. They run into snags or are told they have to visit a branch in order to proceed. So they close the app or the webpage, and leave the transaction unfinished.

Meanwhile, other digital services are able to provide the convenience and support needed to create a successful customer outcome. They give the user a host of quick and easy solutions, while also offering the full capabilities of a branch visit.

So, what does it take to make the cut? Why do some digital services outperform others? And why are digital banking services so important anyway? In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at what’s needed to offer a satisfying experience to today’s digital consumer.

Great Expectations

Meeting consumer needs has always been a challenge for businesses. And with the recent growth and disruption of emerging technology, providing customers with satisfying experiences has become something like trying to hit a moving target. 

Then, as if the situation wasn’t already complicated enough, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, profoundly affecting the standards consumers had for digital experiences. With many in-person transactions, services, and experiences shut down, consumers shifted their reliance to digital outlets. This meant that many businesses had to quickly and effectively provide a digital infrastructure to their customers.

But now digital services have become a prominent feature in the lives of many users. People have become adept at navigating various kinds of digital experiences. Because of this increase in digital adoption and user proficiency, people no longer tolerate an inefficient, frustrating user experience. They want services to be fast and comprehensive, they want their needs to be understood, and they want clear, navigable pathways to whatever they’re trying to accomplish.

After years of being well-versed in streamlined apps and online services, the average consumer has little patience for frustrations and roadblocks in the online world. 

Robot Rage

One area where these frustrations crop up is with chatbots. These tools, along with AI, automation, and self-service channels, can anger the customer, failing to understand their need, and offering no through-line to human assistance when requested. 

In banking, chatbots, AI, and self-service channels may be excellent tools for simple, high-frequency interactions. But when these limited services are all a customer is offered, they can be made to feel like their FI doesn’t value them as a customer, that it doesn’t want to provide them with a solution to their problem. 

Forbes noted in an article that though chatbots are being offered by an ever-increasing number of banks and credit unions, they continue to lead to fewer happy customers. Research shows that 22% of chatbot experiences lead to customers being “frustrated”, and a further 11% led to them being “angry”.

These sour experiences can erode brand loyalty, which is leading to many customers leaving their FI’s for more technologically-adept ones. This act of leaving one’s institution for another is called “customer churn”, and in the next few years, it’s expected to hit an all-time high. According to Foresight Research, the pandemic created a “hot spot of churn”. They found that customer churn increased from 12% to 22%, and is still on the rise. At some banks, it’s gotten as high as 27%, making it increasingly clear that effective digital services have become a vital aspect of customer retention. 

To many FI’s, this statistic should be a canary in a coal mine. The proliferation of digital services is not a trend, it’s a shift. And the businesses that don’t adapt to it will always run the risk of being left behind.

Don’t Settle for Dead Ends

Satisfying the digital consumer may seem like a daunting endeavor. Many FI’s are left wondering what digital services to implement, or whether the digital tools they have will still be relevant a few years from now.

But the best advice, as offered by Forbes and other outlets, is to provide a host of services, allowing users to find the appropriate level of assistance for their needs. The goal for any business in this position is to eliminate dead ends from their customers’ digital journey. If one particular point is causing hang-ups, frustrations, or high abandonment rates, it should be rethought to offer a more efficient and comprehensive pathway for the customer.

This idea especially applies to the services that banks and credit unions typically perform in branches. Applying for loans, opening new accounts, and speaking with experts about mortgages and investments are just a few examples of tasks that users struggle to complete through digital self-service channels. 

According to Jim Marous, publisher of the Digital Banking Report, the baseline abandonment rate for online users opening new accounts through self-service channels is 19%, and at some FI’s it’s as high as 75-80%. Furthermore, Javelin Research found that only 8% of mobile users seeking to open a new account were able to complete the process on their phones.

What’s the Solution?

For services like these, users are calling for a “mayday” button—a direct connection to the expertise they need to complete their desired task. This option seamlessly elevates the customer from the chatbot, self-service, or call-center roadblock that they’re facing, and puts them in touch with the banking professional they need to effectively resolve their issue.

Especially helpful for loans, new account openings, and other operations that comprise the majority of a typical FI’s revenue stream, this personalized, human-to-human service improves brand loyalty and digital satisfaction. 

It can be delivered over chat, voice, or collaborative video, giving users a satisfying digital alternative to the in-branch experience, and giving your FI a proven way to operate efficiently in the digital space.

At POPi/o, we know it can be tough to keep up with the changing demands of consumers. But finding an effective digital solution doesn’t have to be an arduous task. We’re here to help you discover and explore new options for managing customer relationships, because we know there’s nothing more important to you than being there for the people you serve.

If you’d like to learn more about the POPi/o Digital Communications platform, schedule a demo today.

Xplore Federal Credit Union building

Serving Members Around the World with Xplore Federal Credit Union

By | Blog, Case Study, Client Experiences

In the late 1940’s the Shell Oil Company began providing financial services to a few of its employees. The services were limited, but employees of the oil company welcomed the idea. Because so much of their time was spent offshore or traveling, banking was—to many of them—a chore that they were glad to see simplified by their employer. 

Decades later, Shell Credit Union would become Xplore Federal Credit Union, but their aim to simplify the banking experience for workers in the oil and gas industry never went away. 

Xplore recently overhauled their digital offerings with the help of POPi/o. They now offer a suite of digital services, with video banking playing a key role in the implementation. In anticipation of the rollout, Xplore held an in-house contest to choose a name for their new services. The contest helped garner company interest, getting the employees acquainted with the new video banking platform. One employee suggested “Xplore Away”, which ended up taking the cake. 

The credit union began offering the service to all its members free of charge. They did some marketing to build awareness, and soon, their new video banking service was garnering real interest. Today, Xplore Away boasts an impressive adoption rate. Over 67% of their memberbase has used the solution. Additionally, the majority of their new account openings are driven purely through Xplore Away.

Xplore has a modest staff of only 45 employees, which means they have to work hard to service their 8,000 members. And because a large portion of their memberbase still work in the oil and gas industry, they don’t always have the option to come visit a branch. Whether they’re out of the country, working on an oil rig, or would just rather not make a trip, Xplore Away has given them the ability to easily perform transactions or work with a financial service professional. 

By connecting members directly to in-branch professionals, Xplore is able to service Member relationships in the most efficient way possible. Their loan officers, which may have been underutilized in a traditional branch setting, can quickly and effectively field calls that apply to their area of expertise. And the financial service professionals that comprise the department report that there are rarely, if ever, wait times for Xplore Away.

When you hear the Xplore Away team talking about their experiences helping members, there’s no denying that they’re glad to be a part of the department. Having the ability to serve people with the convenience of a digital platform and the personal touch of an in-branch experience creates new standards for efficiency and face-to-face service.

One of Xplore Away’s Member Advisors, Rocio Cueves, has worked at other financial institutions in the past, but she says she likes working at Xplore more. “At Xplore, it’s a little more one-on-one,” she says, smiling. 

And now, with POPi/o’s unique digital banking solution, Xplore can deliver that one-on-one service to their members any time. Whether they’re calling from their living room, an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, or their office in the Netherlands, they still have access to the in-branch experience that makes Xplore special.

The Xplore Away team now provides a one-touch digital experience for their members, allowing them to handle everything from simple customer service inquiries to complex banking transactions.

To see the POPi/o solution in action, request a demo now.

Affinity Federal Credit Union in Grand Rapids

Putting People First With Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union

By | Blog, Video Banking

Affinity Federal Credit Union in Grand Rapids

One of the most fascinating things about Minnesota is the infrastructure. It’s a state that was built to thrive in the cold. In the major city of Minneapolis, for example, there are nearly 10 miles of enclosed pedestrian footbridges. Referred to as the Minneapolis Skyway System, the elevated bridges and tunnels connect 80 full city blocks, giving people access to numerous downtown destinations, free of exposure to the often frigid weather.

This type of industrious, connective thinking and planning seems to be built in to the mindset of many Minnesotans. They understand the importance of staying connected despite circumstances and environmental factors. For that reason, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Minnesota is a place where video banking has not only been adopted, but embraced.

“We felt like it just really opened up the capabilities for our membership.”

If you went to Minnesota and visited one of Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union’s 28 locations, you’d find a robust yet humble financial institution. Their locations are concentrated in the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas, but their footprint has increased in recent years. They’ve grown to serve smaller, more disparate communities in the far reaches of the state. 

Likewise, their assets have grown as well. At over $3 billion—and having grown from $2.4 billion just in the last year—Affinity Plus manages a significant amount of assets. But as a not-for-profit, member-owned cooperative, Affinity Plus isn’t only focused on their asset size. Their main focus is serving their 220,000 members. In their own words, they’re committed to “improving the lives of [their] members through meaningful banking, exceptional experiences, and trusted relationships.”

With the shuttering of branches during the COVID-19 pandemic, delivering on these key goals became difficult for Affinity Plus. But like a bridge built to connect people in a blizzard, the Minnesota credit union decided to use the adversity as an opportunity to improve their member experience. It was time for them to make the jump to video banking.

“We’ve been able to do everything that we do in a branch through video banking.”

“We started looking at it pre-pandemic,” said Jenny Nubeck, director of the Affinity Plus digital branch. “We felt like it just really opened up the capabilities for our membership.” Corey Rupp, Senior Vice President of Lending, shared the sentiment. He said the pandemic hastened their launch of video banking channels, but that it wasn’t the sole motivator leading up to it. Affinity Plus was already looking for ways to better serve their members and keep them connected—no matter where they were.

When asked how willing their members were to try the new service, Nubuck said she was surprised. Adoption of the video banking channels was higher than she’d expected. “It’s surprisingly simple,” she stated. “Based on everything we’re hearing from members, they’re like, ‘Ok, don’t let this service go away.’”

According to Rupp, the willingness to adopt is tied not only to the platform’s ease of use, but also to its versatility and functionality. “We’ve been able to do everything that we do in a branch through video banking,” Rupp said. “It’s been a great experience.”

“POPi/o has allowed Affinity Plus to see members again.”

Samantha Prudhon Falkowski, a member advisor at Affinity Plus, also commented on POPi/o’s functionality. Falkowski says she generates three to four loans per week through the video banking channel. And more importantly, she takes the video calls as a chance to discuss and compare options with members. By conversing face-to-face, Falkowski can get a sense of what the member is looking for, allowing her to best advise them. “The majority of calls that I’m seeing through video banking are people who want to have that in-depth conversation about ‘What’s the best recommendation?” 

By taking video calls and fielding members’ questions, Falkowski gets to restore the personal connection she shared with members before the pandemic. As she puts it, “POPi/o has allowed Affinity Plus to see members again—to see them in their own spaces, and to help them with their banking needs.”

To learn more about the adoption of video banking by Affinity Plus, watch the video case study.

Young African American woman on street looking smartphone

How to Capture and Service More Profitable Relationships in 2021

By | Blog, Video Banking | No Comments

For years, financial institutions have physically modernized their branch environments to direct customers out of transaction teller lines and into new self-service channels like ATMs and banking apps. The shift was designed to allow branch employees to capture and service revenue-producing activities like loans, investments, and business accounts. Some banks and credit unions executed this revenue-focused branch strategy even more efficiently by connecting customers via video to centrally located lending and other product knowledge experts.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered branches in nearly every community across the country and around the world. Without warning, financial institutions were forced to find new ways to capture and service those profitable relationships.

Most had already heavily invested in mobile banking apps, online applications, and highly experienced call center teams. Most thought these digital channels could replicate branch services. Most discovered that wasn’t the case.

POPi/o® experienced exponential growth in 2020, including a 283% increase in call volume. We credit that growth to many of our new clients, using video to fill that in-person service gap. These banks and credit unions didn’t invest in video banking technology as a leap of faith; long before the COVID-19 pandemic, our platform usage data had already revealed that revenue-generating activity represented more than three-fourths of total call volume. The percentage of video banking calls to support new accounts and lending compared to total video calls rose even further in 2020 to 80%.

Our 2020 user data also reveals that as branches have reopened and other delivery channels have improved, video banking usage remains high. In fact, as 2020 came to a close, video banking traffic continued to climb.

For financial institutions seeking additional new account and loan volume, this is great news. Video banking not only replaces branch service in a pinch, but it can also extend the reach of your in-person service to capture and service even more profitable relationships. This centralized operational strategy frees your most talented employees from being confined to a specific geographic location. Video banking allows your best employees to make the biggest impact on your organization, leveraging the efficiency and convenience of digital delivery to generate even more high-touch, revenue-generating activities.

Educators Credit Union is a perfect example of a financial institution that had modernized branches to include centralized lending via video banking but was forced to switch gears quickly when branches closed. Because Educators Credit Union needed to deliver face-to-face service to members quickly, the credit union first deployed video banking to its website, which only required pasting a few lines of code. After some marketing across social media platforms, website video banking traffic grew enough to convince Educators Credit Union that the next step—mobile video banking would be a profitable move.

Educators Credit Union deployed a standalone video banking mobile app, rather than integrating video banking into its existing mobile banking app. Nearly all POPi/o video banking clients deploy mobile video banking this way because it allows for more rapid deployment and provides availability to non-customers to connect for new business. In fact, financial institutions that have launched video banking through existing mobile banking app integrations have often later added a standalone app to capture new business.

Looking for other video banking best implementation practices? Our phenomenal 2020 growth and influx of new institutions live on our platform has provided a treasure chest of tips and strategies for creating and deploying a successful video banking. Download our 2021 Video Banking Implementation Guide here to begin. Then, when you’re ready, click here to talk to an expert.

To learn how POPi/o Video Banking can help your financial institutions maintain relevance and personal service, request a FREE demo.

Young boy using smartphone to visit with Santa Claus

Video Brings Santa Claus to Town

By | Blog, Video Banking | No Comments

PCSB Bank has already won Christmas.

The leaders of this $1.5 billion financial institution in Clarinda, Iowa, were crushed to learn that officials had canceled this year’s community Santa House. The cancellation left no place for local kids to meet Santa, share their wish list, and pose for a photo.

Even with social distancing and frequent photoshoot wipe downs, COVID-19 has turned Santa House into a risky spreader event. While the decision made sense, CEO James Johnson felt like he had to do something. The bank couldn’t let local kids miss birthdays, graduations, summer with friends, school, trick or treating, and Santa. It was just too much.

PCSB and his team brainstormed ways the bank could help bring Santa Claus to town. The answer was our video banking.

PCSB is offering free video visits with Santa to local children using its video banking channel, which is available to customers through PCSB’s website and mobile app. The 10-minutes video chats are by appointment only. PCSB is making Santa available to both customers and non-customers. Parents can schedule visits for kids by calling the bank or filling out an online form that provides the jolly ol’ elf with important personal information that makes the moment magical.

I think this is such a great idea because it’s not only good for local kids and the community, it’s good for the bank’s bottom line, too. Here are four benefits, for starters:

  1. Joy for local children. Sure, we love to achieve career success, but real leaders get even more fulfillment out of using their resources and influence for the greater good. They couldn’t have picked a better year to do this!
  2. Corporate citizen goodwill. Community financial institutions are the foundation of healthy communities. By making Santa available to kids for free at a time when families are struggling financially and feel unsure about the future, the bank is providing a sense of normalcy and hope for the future.
  3. Video banking demonstration. I can’t think of a better way to motivate people to try video banking than a visit with Santa. Customers are often impressed with how easy video banking is to use and return to use the channel again and again.
  4. New Customers. All FI marketers know the key to getting new business is being top of mind when the customer is ready to buy. Not only does Santa raise awareness and the bank’s reputation, it cleverly showcases new technology that sets PCSB apart from its competitors. And, I’m sure Santa’s elves are able to transfer Mom or Dad to a service representative if the topic of a credit card to pay for all of those toys comes up in conversation.

“When we learned that the children in our town would miss out on meeting Santa Claus this year, we were crushed—and determined to find a way to help,” said James Johnson, CEO of PCSB Bank. “We’re thrilled to bring some merriness and cheer to all the people we know and love in this great community.”

How can you use POPi/o video banking to spread good cheer? Drop your ideas in the comments section below.

Educators Credit Union Branch

Careful and Steady Wins the Tech Urgency Race

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Financial institutions have had to pivot quickly this year when it comes to delivering products and services, launching new delivery channels adding to and modifying using existing ones. Even those banks and credit unions confident in their digital delivery strategies were caught off guard by the dual challenges of operating remotely and switching to entirely digital interactions.

Andy Crisenberry, SVP of eLending Solutions at real estate lending fintech Black Knight, said his firm scrambled to provide support for its remote online notarization product after COVID-19 shuttered its clients’ real estate lending offices.

“This is a great technology solution that really helps with the challenges of COVID-19, but unless your business is ready to deploy, use and support RON, you won’t be very successful,” Crisenberry told HousingWire.

All new technology produces unexpected friction. In a normal year, launches are carefully planned and include feedback that identifies friction. Yes, COVID-19 drastically increased the urgency with which firms needed to launch technology or find new ways to use existing technology. However, increasing consumer expectations for intuitive, real-time digital service had already been pushing CX modernization forward faster than expected in all sectors well in advance of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Take, for example, the $2.5 billion Educators Credit Union in Racine, Wis. Like many community FIs, Educators had already determined smaller branches, supported by video access to centralized product specialists, was the most effective strategy to serve its market. It planned an in-branch video banking launch offering auto lending, mortgage and investment services that included training, testing and weeding out of all known friction points. On March 5, the credit union excitedly opened its first modern branch featuring video banking.

Less than two weeks later, COVID-19 closed every branch lobby in the credit union’s network. Existing online and mobile banking products handled essential transactions well on a dime, but new service friction points quickly popped up, including a hasty transition for employees to work from home.

Around this time, POPi/o reached out to Educators and asked if they would like to launch video banking digitally, through the credit union’s website. Within days, the executive team approved the initiative.

While this decision seems like a no brainer, consider that it required Educators to execute a 180-degree shift in video banking strategy. Staffing and workflows had to shift; the technology would now be used to provide branch services like cashless transactions and new accounts, not specialized lending and investments. Second, staff would have to be trained remotely and access new technology from their homes. Third, because Coronavirus had blocked access to lobby branch service, time was of the essence.

The solution to this challenge was a balance of speed and CX in the form of a measured, step-by-step rollout. To begin, Educators reviewed what it did know: how to train employees on using the technology and how to provide effective service on camera. It also had staff with video experience in its existing interactive teller machine service department, a valuable resource for the video skill set.

Within 60 days, the credit union had a team trained, staged, connected and ready to serve members via video banking. Educators was ready for the next step, a soft launch. On May 19, WeCU video banking branch was open for business. The launch was purposely limited, offering video banking via a widget button on the credit union’s website only a couple of days a week. Because there was no advertising, adoption numbers were small; on the first day, only 16 video calls were completed. However, this soft launch allowed the credit union to collect ample feedback from members and employees, and then take the time to address friction before taking the next step.

After one week, WeCU was promoted on the credit union’s website and social media accounts. Traffic climbed quickly and by the end of May, in just four total days of service, Educators had completed 193 video sessions.

Feedback and adjustments weren’t just limited to friction. From the first day, members raved about being able to see credit union employees face-to-face while in lockdown. Educators capitalized on the benefit of personalization and added the video banking representative’s branch location or department to the welcome screen.

Step by step, Educators collected feedback, made adjustments, increased service hours and carefully managed channel growth. Changes during the summer included increasing service hours to Monday through Saturday, providing staff with professional lighting, staging, and more on-camera training.

Educators launched its mobile app on August 12. After a couple of weeks to work out any bugs, a marketing campaign followed. By the end of October, ECU handled 5,278 sessions.

What began as an operational pivot during the Coronavirus pandemic has developed into a popular service delivery channel that members will continue utilizing after branches resume regular service. ECU didn’t change its original video banking strategy; it expanded it. The credit union will continue to offer video banking through digital channels, while also executing its original plan to provide specialized lending and investment services in branch from centrally located staff.

The future still isn’t clear when it comes to how COVID-19 has permanently changed consumer habits, but ECU has all its delivery bases covered with the ability to provide a branch experience in person or digitally through a virtual branch. This allows the credit union to focus on the future instead of worrying about it. ECU can instead focus on enhancing video banking to improve CX and achieve new member and loan growth goals.

Like other financial institutions, the Coronavirus shutdown turned ECU’s service delivery strategy on its head. Despite the urgency of the situation, credit union leaders calmly rolled out video banking using a carefully measured approach. The result was a new delivery channel that will pay dividends for ECU and its members long after its branch network reopens.

Interested in a deeper dive into Educators’ remarkable business pivot? Click here to download ECU’s case study and learn more about the unique way POPi/o approaches your growth and service goals.

To learn how POPi/o Video Banking can help your financial institutions maintain relevance and personal service, request a FREE demo.

InRoads Credit Union branch

Does Video Banking Create Relevance? InRoads Credit Union Thinks So

By | Blog, Video Banking | No Comments

Remember back before the pandemic, when traditional financial institutions’ greatest concern was relevance? Today with Covid-19 concerns, FI executives are consumed by the need to deliver touchless service while managing new concerns about employee safety, dwindling earnings, loan losses, and capital.

As a result, relevance has moved down on the priority list. While relevance may not be an immediate priority, the need for it remains high. Consumers understand or perhaps don’t care if an organization struggles with financial or regulatory concerns, they just want a relevant provider to serve their needs.

InRoads Credit Union is a $288 million community-chartered institution headquartered in St. Helens, Ore., a town of approximately 13,000 people. In St. Helens, $288 million in assets buys a lot more relevance than in nearby Portland. Still, President/CEO Brooke Van Vleet, who began her credit union career in the marketing discipline, recognizes the value of continuing to evolve that strong brand with the times. She and the InRoads team knew the credit union needed to continue investment into their digital services to remain relevant in their marketplace and ensure a sustainable future.

In 2019, InRoads went all-in on ITM drive-thru service for teller services and POPi/o’s Video Banking solutions for both mobile and in-branch video consultations.  The goal was to provide members with a combination of digital convenience and face-to-face service to meet member’s needs. In the very early stages, members’ response to the new technology was lukewarm, that is until COVID-19 shuttered the community and InRoads closed all of its branches. Suddenly, video became the only way to get face-to-face service and adoption quickly grew four times over.

InRoads LIVE Manager Kim Preston said response to the new video-branching normal has been very well received, even by members who previously rejected digital delivery. She recalled one grandmother and grandson duo who used video banking to open the boy’s first account. The young saver didn’t appear to be thrilled about his first credit union experience until the video representative appeared on the screen. “I can’t believe this, Grandma! Wells Fargo has nothing like this,” the boy exclaimed. And just like that, InRoads Credit Union gained Gen Z relevance.

Preston recalled another member who refused to use video banking, loudly demanding that he sit across the table from a live human being. A branch employee eventually convinced him to just give the service a try. As he emerged from the video banking office and headed for the lobby door, the teller said, “Bye, see you later!”  “No you won’t,” he said, “I’m using this from now on.” And just like that, InRoads gained relevance from a member who was perfectly happy with the status quo.

Chief Experience Officer, Ron Winter, explained that rolling out new technology and asking a small town community to adopt it isn’t always well-received. However, when the pandemic hit and InRoads already had a solution that was not only safe, but also maintained face-to-face service, perception of the credit union shifted in Columbia County. InRoads became the most relevant game in town. “It certainly positions us differently than six months ago,” Winter said. Video banking was a perfect complement to the new branding initiative the credit union began in 2018, in conjunction with its name change. In fact, video banking has become a cornerstone of how InRoads plans to serve members in the future. “We’ve talked a lot about what traditional used to mean, and I don’t think we’ll ever build another branch the way we used to,” he said. “Yes, we will have brick and mortar, but it will be different. Video banking will allow members to speak with a subject matter expert from anywhere. Even if you visit a small location, we can connect you to a commercial mortgage loan officer or whomever you need. That’s the vision.”

To learn how POPi/o Video Banking can help your financial institutions maintain relevance and personal service, request a FREE demo.

Man looking at smartphone meeting with agent, coffee cup in background

How Video Can Bring Digital Sales To Life

By | Blog, Video Banking | No Comments

I’m a big fan of the convenience of digital services, unfortunately, most deployments are targeted to such narrow use cases that it doesn’t address most consumer’s needs. This is especially the case for more complex financial service products. It shouldn’t be that difficult, right? Consumers should just go to the FI’s website, find the products they want and “sign-up”, or in the model of Amazon, add the product to their “online shopping cart”.  Yet as branch traffic dwindles and digital adoption grows financial institutions are finding that their “online shopping cart” abandonment rates remain sky-high.

According to research by UK-based behavioral marketing company SaleCycle, the financial sector has the highest global online shopping cart abandonment rate at 83.6%. The overall average for all sectors wasn’t much better at 75.6%.

Why so high? In general, digital channels are a one-way experience. Closing a sale has traditionally been a five-step process that requires two-way communication, which is missing in digital sales interactions.

Below are the five most common sales steps:

  1. Introduction
  2. Discovery
  3. Offer
  4. Objections
  5. Close

Research shows a variety of reasons online carts are abandoned; however, they all have one thing in common, a stalled sales process. But Video Banking can help since it provides a customer experience that combines two-way, face-to-face service with the convenience, security, and efficiency expected with digital interactions. When Video Banking is leveraged to its full potential it can become the ultimate sales channel, providing financial institutions the ability to take a customer through all five sales steps in just one call.

Let’s examine how Video Banking supports these five sales steps.

Introduction

For institutions focused on increasing wallet share, the introduction and rapport building stage are already occurring while providing service to existing customers. Video banking provides an ideal channel to discuss complex transactions, solve problems, and ultimately builds rapport that leads to additional sales. Video banking helps build trust quickly with prospective and new customers in the moment of need when facing major life events.  Our customers expressed the value of providing an empathic face with video while discussing consumer loan modifications and payment plans during the recent branch closures.

Discovery

Video banking allows your customer service representative (CSR) to initiate conversations that reveal unmet financial needs, which is the purpose of the discovery step. Customized digital sales pages backed by data and artificial intelligence (AI) can perform better than general digital sales tools, but only a live CSR can listen to the customer’s needs and effectively tailor their sales pitch or presentation accordingly.

Offer

No matter how well you craft an online offer and sales page, it will never compare to a well delivered presentation by an experienced CSR. Video banking can integrate professional presentation tools that add consistency and polish to your message. And, a two-way conversation during the offer step allows CSR’s to confirm that they are matching the customer’s needs with the right features and benefits of your product.

Objections

Handling objections is where two-way communication truly shines. Data and AI can anticipate which objections a digital customer may have, but video banking has a definite advantage with two-way communication that effectively identifies objections and provides the opportunity to answer questions. Additional POPi/o tools like dynamic call routing, warm transfers make accessing the right experts easy.  Plus our Positivity Coach feature allows the CSR to monitor the consumer’s reaction and adjust if emotions indicate some fear or trepidation.

Close

The most important step in making a sale is asking for the business and closing the deal. However, even expertly optimized digital sales pages convert just 20% of leads. That’s because the close step can only be completed if the previous four steps were successful. Your seasoned CSRs knows when all questions and objections have been addressed and when the time is right to close the deal..  With this step, it’s essential that Video Banking tools include workflow abilities like E-sign, document exchange, and screen share, to allow for the product purchase to be finalized before the video chat ends.

Introducing POPwelcome

It’s the extra tools and system integrations that make the POPi/o Video Banking app so robust and successful. However, not all customers have downloaded the app onto their mobile devices. For customers that are browsing an FI’s webpage, your representatives can now use POPi/o’s new POPWelcome for online or mobile chat messaging, providing a truly omnichannel experience by seamlessly transitioning the customer from text chat to video banking.

Personalized service sets community financial institutions apart from national and global competitors. However, without sales, no company can prosper and grow. No matter the size of your institution, you must provide your sales team with technology that allows them to provide the best of digital and face-to-face service, without any disruption to the five-step sales process. Video banking can provide that experience. To learn more about how quickly and effectively POPi/o Video Banking can boost your digital sales conversions, request a free demonstration with a video representative.

For more information about video banking, request a free demonstration.

People out of focus at financial institution

Easy Social Distancing Ideas When Branch Lobbies Re-open

By | Blog, Video Banking | No Comments

Digital service providers are reporting explosive increases in user data over the past two months as shelter-in-place orders have forced consumers to go digital. Attitudes toward digital have seemingly changed overnight – what was once a user experience enhancement is now literally an essential service channel.

The term disruption had run its course before COVID-19, but this largely unexpected even is just that, a major disruption for nearly every sector. Now that we’re about three months into this global pandemic, financial institutions are no longer wondering if, but how much COVID-19 will change the way they deliver products and services.

The answer could mean shuttering even more branches and once again rethinking branch strategy. Consider this: increased digital adoption won’t be the only drain on branch traffic. Experts say the stay-at-home environment could be a way of life for a long time. Certain groups of people, including retirees, those with compromised immune systems, and those fearful of infectious disease may forever avoid in-person interactions.

There’s more. Experts say social distancing could be required by authorities well beyond 2020.

As long as someone in the world has COVID-19 and there is no vaccine or herd immunity, breakouts can and will keep recurring without stringent controls, wrote MIT Technology Review Editor-in-Chief Gideon Lichfield. Even if social distancing measures are only put into place every time ICU admissions begin to spike, research models predict that strategy would still require a schedule of roughly two months under quarantine and one-off.

Harvard disease experts agree, saying that some form of intermittent social distancing may need to be in place until 2022 and possibly longer.

Social distancing is beginning to be referred to as physical distancing, which is a more accurate description. Despite being physically separated by quarantine, people have still found ways to be social. Neighbors have entertained each other around the world with balcony musical performances. Friends and family have honored graduates and birthdays with car parades. We’ve turned video conferencing into virtual happy hours that even have their own signature drink, the Quarantini.

Those under COVID-19 quarantine have shown that while they are willing to adhere to physical distancing, they still require face-to-face contact, even if it’s via video. To maintain brand loyalty, financial institutions will need to find ways to provide that level of human service. Many of them will have to find ways to make branching work despite the challenges, which will likely include the need to keep everyone at least six feet away from each other, limiting people in the branch at one time and increased personal hygiene and cleaning standards.

The solution lies in using technology in new, creative ways to provide meaningful social interaction, just as parents have created virtual graduation and birthday parties for their children. We’ve seen credit unions and banks integrate video banking like POPi/o into their branches in creative ways that provide a superior user experience while also supporting the institution’s bottom line.

For example, one financial institution completely centralized its lending operations, even going as far as to restructure branch employee incentives to guarantee their support of video banking in lending. To ensure privacy, an office in each branch was reserved exclusively for video banking sessions. This institution already had a pandemic-friendly branch strategy that minimizes employee exposure and maintains excellent physical distancing between two groups of customers: those completing transactions and borrowers.

Another video banking institution has closed its branches to walk-up traffic, performing only select services for customers by appointment only. However, it had already installed personal video teller machines outside of the lobby, providing an on-demand way to accept check and cash deposits, make cash withdrawals, and, if needed, connect to a live video teller who can perform more robust transactions and problem-solving. Time will tell if this strategy will work long term, but because video tellers had already been integrated into the branch strategy – even if only intended to extend service hours, not perform essential services during a national emergency – this financial institution didn’t skip a beat providing full branch service while being a good corporate citizen.

Are you frustrated with what seems like no-win options to adjust your branching strategy to physical distancing and other measures that will keep your employees and customers safe? Let POPi/o help you brainstorm ways your financial institution can use video banking to quickly and effectively meet the needs of your customers and your bottom line.

Full service banking branch

How COVID-19 Could Change Banking Forever

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Throughout history, major events have created permanent, unexpected shifts in human behavior. People have been forced into lockdown to stop the spread of disease before; the long-term psychological effects of those quarantines have been studied, so we have some idea of what to expect. However, the length and global reach of this isolation are unmatched, and there is no doubt this traumatic event will produce permanent changes. 

Here are three impacts of COVID-19 and their respective long-term outcome for community banks and credit unions.

Fear of public gatherings

After this pandemic has long passed, a generational shift will produce new preferences when it comes to public gatherings and face-to-face interactions.  Following previous outbreaks in Asia, face masks became a normal and expected day-to-day accessory. With the fear of contagions and mandatory stay-at-home orders, people are becoming more comfortable replacing physical interactions with digital visits.  The long-term shift will come as many start preferring it as a way to manage lingering fears of contracting a fatal disease. Perhaps you’ve already seen this fear play out on social media in emotional debates about whether or not a COVID-19 vaccine is required before reinstating sporting events, concerts, and other large public gatherings. In particular, subsets of the general population who are concerned about germs will be more sensitive to the risks involved. 

The effect on FIs: Traffic at branches has been decreasing for years; however, fear combined with increased digital channel adoption will send this trend into overdrive. After all, it’s mostly older consumers who still use branches, and this age group will be understandably shaken by losing friends to COVID-19. However, older generations also value face-to-face service and prefer doing business with specific employees. Not only will video banking fill that service gap for this market, but adoption will also be easier than ever because so many grandparents have been using video to communicate with family during the quarantine. 

We’ve said for years that consumers want to choose how they engage with their FI. If they can do it all digitally, more power to them. But in tumultuous times like now, people need more help from real people. Maybe they can’t pay their existing monthly loan payment due to reduced hours. Do they refinance the existing loan? Roll it into a HELOC? Find another solution? To solve this problem, they need a financial counselor, and that’s something credit unions and community banks can and should offer. Video banking supports that consultative relationship while still protecting the consumer and employees.

Economic shifts

I’m confident that the stock market and U.S. economy will survive and continue to lead the world; however, segments of the economy already affected by quarantine orders may not completely recover. Small restaurants, travel industries, commercial real estate, and auto industries are all likely to face a protracted slowdown. 

The effect on FIs: Financial institutions that serve these industries will suffer resultant impacts on their businesses as well.  Although markets shift and change every day, this change is so drastic and unexpected, we may see some financial institutions fail or merge for survival similar to the mortgage meltdown in the late 2000s.  Those looking to thrive must find ways to economically provide their services. Again, we see video banking as a possible solution for cost-conscious service delivery. 

Work from home

Now that a majority of U.S. workers are gaining remote work experience, a return to the office will be a tough sell. Let’s start with the dress code: sales figures from Walmart that report the chain selling out of tops but not pants. Americans have happily embraced new workplace standards that only require professionalism from the waist up and allow for interruptions from children during meetings.

The effect on FIs: Like everyone else in America, financial services employees will want to continue to work from home. Working from home and the schedule flexibility it will bring could create the need for, and ability to offer, longer service hours. While that might be possible from a technology standpoint, security will be an issue for FIs, because video conferencing apps like Zoom they weren’t built to handle secure financial information and workflows. We’ve helped our customers use the POPi/o platform to not only serve customers securely but also support employees who must now work from home and handle sensitive consumer information. 

Change isn’t easy for anyone.  Big external events (like a global pandemic) create new circumstances and could be the stimulus for permanent change.  Good luck to you and your financial institution as you navigate the new normal post-Covid-19.