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Digital Communications Archives - Page 7 of 11 - POPi/o

Nov 05
1
Educators Credit Union Branch

Careful and Steady Wins the Tech Urgency Race

By | Blog, Video Banking | No Comments

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.

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May 06
1
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.

Dec 11
6
Blue holiday infographic of staff saying thank you to customers with gift

We’re Grateful for Video Banking’s Unexpected Gifts

By | Benefits, Blog, Video Banking | No Comments

The Holidays are a time to reflect upon the past year and focus on gratitude and service. Gratitude can take many forms, such as feeling grateful for financial success, heartwarming gifts, the important people in your life, and even the wisdom you’ve gained from life’s ups and downs of the past year.  As we dig even deeper into gratitude we begin to feel grateful for the things we take for granted, like our health, mobility, food, clean drinking water and even our freedom.

Freedom isn’t just political; it means different things to different people.

Blue holiday infographic of staff saying thank you to customers with gift

According to the Center for Disease Control, more than one in four adults in the United States live with some type of disability. The most common disability is a lack of mobility, which makes the freedom of being able to walk severely difficult or impossible for nearly 14% of Americans.

Many of us take for granted the freedom of being able to handle day-to-day tasks on our own without relying on help from someone else.

When we first started exploring video banking and the impact it would have on people’s lives, we always focused on convenience and how to get services directly to a consumer without friction. Never once did we think it could help so many gain freedom in the way they banked.

But we are incredibly grateful it did.

For example, Idaho Central Credit Union a $4.8 billion credit union headquartered in Chubbuck, Idaho, was able to use video banking to serve a quadriplegic member face-to-face that was an hour away from any branch location. The ability to see and talk to his loan officer allowed him to feel like a piece of independence was given back to him. Service provides assistance to those in need, even when you’re not aware of it, and we are grateful video banking was able to help this happen.

Cobalt Credit Union, a $1 billion institution in Council Bluffs, Iowa, shared a different kind of assistance success story. This member, who is deaf, wasn’t able to access the credit union’s call center and if they needed assistance beyond what was available online or through the mobile banking app, they had to visit a branch in person. With Cobalt’s new video banking channel, however, the member was able to both see the representative on screen and use the app’s chat feature to clarify their banking needs. Now, this member can enjoy full service, at-home banking. We are grateful video banking was able to change how this member interacted and accomplished their banking needs.

Pioneer Federal Credit Union, a $500 million institution located in Mountain Home, Idaho, was able to serve a member who was severely injured in a rodeo accident and had to adjust to depending upon others to assist with their financial transactions and business. We hear a lot about accessibility when it comes to your financial institution’s digital channels, but providing accessibility to your people can mean the world to those in need. We are grateful Pioneer was able to go above and beyond with video to help serve this member and countless others who have let Pioneer know that this engagement channel “has given them their freedom back.”

There are countless more stories of how video banking has supported financial freedom and accessibility. We’ve heard about pilots making video banking calls from the tarmac, consumers accessing financial assistance via video from overseas, parents receiving face-to-face service without having to drag kids along to the branch, and working class Americans who were finally able to connect and accomplish their financial needs.

We didn’t anticipate video banking would change lives. But this Holiday season, as we reflect upon the past year, we are beyond grateful that it did.