4 Ways Banks and Credit Unions Can Ensure Digital Transformation Success
Community banks and credit unions were already fighting for market share with a growing pool of competitors, including big banks, challenger banks, and fintechs. Then, as banking moved increasingly online in 2020 and 2021, they found themselves going head-to-head with competitors who boasted streamlined digital properties and no legacy back-office systems to slow them down.
Eager to grow their market share, even in this challenging environment, many banks and credit unions responded by pushing forward digital transformation plans.
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The most successful made the following four critical moves to ensure the success of their transformational projects.
1. ANTICIPATE OBSTACLES AND HAVE A PLAN
Upgrading technology is essential for any bank or credit union that wants to stay relevant in today’s modern, digital banking world. But to succeed in this area, banking leaders must identify obstacles up front and be ready to address them, so digital transformation projects do not stagnate or fail to meet expectations. Leaders must:
- Identify which new digital services should be rolled out first and understand how pieces of the banking back-office work together, and how they may be impacted by changes to customer-facing systems.
- Move at an aggressive pace on bank modernization, while still making space for staff to both train in new technologies and serve customers without disruption.
- Set SMART goals and KPIs for new digital tools up front and close the loop by ensuring these are met on an ongoing basis.
Bank and credit union leaders are challenged to balance these competing priorities while keeping their modernization efforts behind the scenes, so they do not negatively affect the customer experience.
Ideally, customers will not even be aware of the hard work going on, except when it results in an exciting new or improved way for them to engage with their financial institution.
2. KEEP CUSTOMERS ENGAGED DIGITALLY
Keeping customers engaged through your digital channels is the best way for your bank to learn more about them, and understand their financial behaviors, goals, and state of well-being. Providing fast, efficient and easy to use online and mobile tools can increase customer engagement and provide your bank or credit union with a wealth of information about your customers – including their preferred channels for communication, spending and saving patterns, financial needs and goals. Then it is up to your team to close the loop by responding to their actions with timely, relevant product and service offers.
To support these customer-facing channels, banks and credit unions must also address back-end technology to support a true transformation. This can mean adding a middle layer of technology to interface with older systems and provide a better customer experience – like adding automation to the mortgage origination process to accelerate approvals and help process high volumes.
3. MAKE SMART PARTNERSHIPS WITH THE RIGHT VENDORS
Community banks and credit unions are fortunate to have established customers who make up a definite deposit and loan base to drive revenue. By selecting the right vendor partners, they can gain operational efficiencies and provide these existing customers with improved services, while also discovering new customer segments.
Vendor partners can help banks and credit unions address the customer experience gaps that are caused by older back-office systems and siloed data (for example, the inability to open an account and originate a mortgage through a single application).
By leveraging their existing capabilities and partnering with technology vendors to bridge gaps and upgrade customer touchpoints, banks and credit unions can realize their full potential.
4. DO NOT FORGET WHERE YOU CAME FROM
The process of digital modernization can be all consuming, and the competitive landscape expands every year. Community banks and credit unions find themselves caught between giants like Bank of America and Wells Fargo on one side, and tech-savvy challengers on the other. But small and mid-sized financial institutions like yours still have some strong competitive advantages.
For one, many challenger banks and alternative financial institutions have yet to find their footing in actively earning interest income, while your organization has an established customer base. Moreover, as a community bank or credit union, you benefit from having customers or members who support your values. Chances are good you have deep roots in the local community and are starting into your transformation process with high levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Maintaining these advantages means conducting your digital transformation with customer experience as your top priority, so customers receive the same personalized service through your new channels as they do through your traditional channels.
With the right omnichannel strategy and CX tools, it is possible to grow your bank or credit union without forgetting your roots.
How Doxim can help modernize your digital banking strategy
Investing in a modern customer communication management and engagement platform is an essential part modernizing your banking strategy, as it can provide the personalized digital experiences that will keep your bank or credit union ahead of the competition. It helps provide a great customer experience, and builds rich relationships, which in turn results in customers for life and a competitive advantage in the rapidly evolving financial marketplace.
Doxim’s experienced consultants and omnichannel platform can help transform your customer experience in many ways, including:
- Gathering and utilizing customer data to continually improve the personalization of communications.
- Building trust with customers via communication (via print, PDF, HTML, email, text, and online interactive experiences).
- Leveraging interactive video to drive personalized digital customer experiences, such as interactive statements, bills, or reports, that offer visual engagement and real-time interactivity
- Putting customer data, including customer statements, at the fingertips of your service representatives for immediate and personal service.
- Making a meaningful connection with value-added content, like information about philanthropic activities, on customer statements.
