5 Steps to Boost Deposit Levels on a Budget

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Last year, for the first time since 1948, deposit levels declined. In the wake of these dwindling deposits, financial institutions are scrambling to drive deposit growth without overexerting their marketing budgets. Despite challenges like economic uncertainty and profitability pressures, banks can grow deposit levels on a budget by following these five steps.

1. Center the Standouts
The easiest and most productive way to jump-start deposit growth is to focus on nurturing existing relationships with top customers. Acquiring new customers can cost up to seven times more than retaining current customers, so the smartest banks will concentrate on maximizing retention strategies to boost loyalty and deposits while cutting marketing costs.

Working with established customers can also increase profitability. Banks can achieve returns of over 70% by targeting customers who already trust the institution, according to PwC research.

Banks also have access to a wealth of current customers’ data that they can leverage to determine which segments are the most valuable. For instance, institutions can use this data to extend relevant offers to high-depositing customers.

2. Make Enticing Offers
The secret to captivating and retaining customers is creating irresistible offers with appealing value propositions that drive engagement. Customers new and old are drawn to advantageous deals like industry-leading interest rates, affordable fees or product bundles that seamlessly integrate credit score solutions into their banking experiences. Elevate these offers with extra perks like:

  • Fee waivers.
  • Loyalty programs.
  • Financial education resources.

Though some of these benefits have short-term costs, the long-term gains far outweigh the initial investment.

These offers can be further fortified through the power of personalization. Research from McKinsey & Co. found almost three-quarters of customers expect personalization and 76% get frustrated without it — banks that offer personalized deals can gain a leg up over competitors. Draw on data analysis to ensure the right offers are going to the right customers, using insights to help uncover patterns and predict customer behavior.

3. Employ Economical Marketing Moves
Marketing teams on a limited budget can still accomplish a lot with the plethora of affordable marketing channels available. Digital marketing options, like social media and email marketing, are relatively inexpensive and can help you meet customers where they already are: online.

Once your organization has deployed digital marketing outreach, it’s critical to calculate the return on investment of each channel. Prioritize those channels with the highest value to maximize customer engagement, even if it takes more than one “touch” for customers to engage.

4. Deliver Easy Banking Experiences
The smartest banks will concentrate on making the omnichannel banking experience an effortless one for customers. The following tips will help your organization deliver hassle-free banking interactions.

  • Prevent customers from having to reenter information when switching between devices.
  • Since many customers now use mobile banking first, ensure that your platforms are optimized for mobile use.
  • Improve conversions and user experience by reducing the number of clicks and form fields to fill in your online processes.

Acting on these tips can help improve customer satisfaction and, ultimately, retention: as research shows happy customers are six times more likely to stay with their current bank than dissatisfied customers.

5. Cultivate Customer Relationships Digitally
Since 78% of customers prefer to do their banking digitally, having a digital strategy at your bank is crucial. Digital demand has skyrocketed partly thanks to its always-on functionality that allows users to access banking functions from anywhere, at any time. Importantly, customers who access their bank via a mobile app or website have the highest level of satisfaction. Almost 90% of customers believe their experiences with a company matter as much as the company’s products and services, so prioritizing your digital offerings is critical to customer engagement.

The benefits for your bank don’t stop there. Banks that digitally optimize their customer experience grow 3.2 times faster than those that don’t. Moving forward, strong, lasting customer relationships will increasingly hinge on the efficacy of your digital strategies.

Despite any dips in marketing budgets, teams can still retain customers by ensuring positive experiences that strengthen customer relationships and encourage deposit growth and your bank’s success.

Unlocking the Potential of Small Business Lending

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Community banks have long played a pivotal role in supporting small businesses, providing the necessary capital for local entrepreneurs growing or expanding their ventures. It is estimated that community banks account for approximately 60% of small business loans, according to the Independent Community Bankers of America.

Despite their essential role, many community banks still operate with traditional, manual processes, missing out on the efficiency-enhancing benefits of technology. Approximately 80% of community banks with assets under $5 billion do not utilize a commercial loan origination system provider. However, embracing technology can be a game-changer for community banks looking to reduce lending costs, enhance efficiency and expedite the delivery of capital to small businesses.

One of the key factors in small business lending is speed. For small and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs, efficient access to capital can often have a dramatic impact on operations. These businesses often manage their cash flow strategically; delays in securing funding can have serious consequences. The time from application to funding is critical for SMBs, meaning community banks must continue finding ways to reduce this end-to-end turn time.

While the traditional relationship-based model of community banking remains invaluable, integrating technology into lending processes can be a win-win for both banks and their customers. Here are three steps that community banks should consider to drive efficiencies in their lending processes, even if they are not yet ready for a full-scale commercial lending platform.

1. Consult Your Team
The first step in any innovation journey is to consult your bank’s internal experts. Engage your lending and credit teams to identify pain points in the lending process and how technology and automation could alleviate these challenges and enhance efficiency. Often, those on the front lines of lending have valuable insights into where improvements can and should be made.

2. Embrace Platforms
While a full-fledged loan origination system may not be immediately necessary for your institution, community banks can benefit from platforms that streamline the financial document collection process and client communication. These solutions can make it easier for customers to securely upload and submit their financial documents and communicate directly with the bank, which can simplify the initial stages of the lending process. These tools can have the added benefit of assisting credit teams in digesting and spreading financial data, reducing the time needed for manual data entry and analysis. This accelerates the lending turnaround time and provides a better overall experience for customers.

3. Augment Your Credit Teams
We often see the main challenge for banks trying to speed up the lending process isn’t the technology but their resource constraints. During periods of staffing shortages or high demand for loans, community banks can consider leveraging external pools of subject matter experts to supplement their in-house teams. These experts can help banks expedite lending decisions, providing the necessary labor around financial spreading and the resulting narratives, which can help ensure that businesses get the capital they need promptly.

Community banks are the lifeblood of many small businesses, offering not only financial support but also personalized service and relationships. While the traditional community banking model remains vital, embracing new technology and innovative solutions is essential to meet the evolving needs of small businesses. By taking these steps to improve lending processes and reduce turnaround times, community banks can continue to serve as crucial partners for small and medium businesses, helping them thrive and contribute to local economies.

2023 Technology Survey: Complete Results

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Bank leaders today must balance the need to meet competitive threats and profitability challenges while operating on what can often feel like a shoestring budget. 

More than 100 senior technology executives, CEOs, chief operating officers and independent directors responded to Bank Director’s 2023 Technology Survey, sponsored by Jack Henry. The survey focuses on U.S. banks below $100 billion in assets, and explores topics including barriers to adoption, emerging technologies and tech expertise on the board. 

The results find that while a majority of banks offer digital capabilities such as deposit account opening and payments to retail customers, their offerings for small business clients tend to be less robust. Additionally, just 18% of respondents say they feel their bank has the tools it needs to effectively serve Gen Z customers. Almost half say the same of millennials, while large majorities feel confident in their ability to serve Gen X and baby boomer clients. 

The survey was conducted in June and July 2023. Members of the Bank Services program have exclusive access to the full results, including breakouts by asset category and ownership structure. 

Click here to view complete results. 

Key Findings

The Rising Neobank Threat
Sixty-one percent of respondents identify local banks or credit unions as their bank’s primary competitive threat, followed by big/superregional banks (56%) and neobanks that compete for consumer deposits (42%), such as Chime — a significant increase compared to last year’s survey. 

Barriers To Adoption
Almost three-quarters cite integrating with the bank’s core as a chief obstacle to planned upgrades or implementations, followed by adoption or acceptance by bank staff (53%) and customer adoption (51%). 

Emerging Opportunities
More than half (56%) say their board has discussed allocating budgets or resources to artificial intelligence, while 47% say the same about banking as a service. Smaller percentages have had similar discussions about blockchain (15%) or cryptocurrency and digital assets (24%). 

More Dollars For Tech
A large majority (83%) of survey respondents say their bank’s technology budget increased over the past year, at a median increase of 10%. A median 15% of the technology budget is devoted to new initiatives, bank leaders report. 

Seeking Board Expertise
Fifty-one percent say their board has at least one member they would consider to be a technology expert. Among those who do not, 38% say they are actively seeking a director with technology expertise. 

Emphasizing Digital
This year, 44% of respondents say that digital channels are more critical to their bank’s strategy, compared with 33% who said the same last year. The percentage that rank digital channels and the branch as equally important also dropped, from 57% to 48%.

These topics will be explored at Bank Director’s Acquire or Be Acquired Conference, Jan. 28-30, 2024, in Phoenix, and Experience FinXTech, May 14-15, 2024, in Tampa.

2023 Technology Survey: Get in the Game

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Bank leaders are reevaluating their strategic priorities in an increasingly digital landscape, but they may be missing an opportunity to better serve small businesses. 

A majority of the senior executives and board members responding  to Bank Director’s 2023 Technology Survey, sponsored by Jack Henry & Associates, say their bank offers small business clients digital capabilities including mobile deposit (93%) and payments (84%). But less than half offer deposit account opening (41%), loan applications (37%) or treasury management capabilities (36%) via the digital channel. And far fewer offer payroll services (37%), accounts payable/receivable (19%) or cash flow monitoring (11%) as part of their digital banking suite.

Banks that neglect the small business segment could risk losing those customers, especially the very smallest of them, to fintech competitors, says Lee Wetherington, senior director of corporate strategy at Jack Henry. And too often, banks can’t truly identify their small business clients.

“When it comes to small businesses, [banks are] operating with huge blinders on, because they don’t realize that somewhere between 13 and 35% of their retail DDA [demand deposit account] base are being used to run micro and small businesses,” he says. “Eighty-plus percent of all small businesses are a single person.” 

The survey also finds rising concern about the threat of digital neobanks such as Chime that have demonstrated success in growing deposits from a younger client base. While more than half of respondents still point to traditional competitors — small, local financial institutions and big/superregional banks — as their top threats, 42% say they’re concerned about neobanks that attract consumer deposits.

Just 18% of bank leaders believe their organization has the tools it needs to effectively serve Gen Z customers, between 16 and 26 years old. 

“Banks can capture Gen Z customers with mobile-only account opening that doesn’t require funding upfront, early paycheck access and automated savings options,” says Jennifer Geis, senior analyst, corporate strategy at Jack Henry. 

In anonymous comments, bank leaders say it’s challenging to meet the needs of this digitally-savvy generation, especially with the limited resources available to community banks. Some worry it may already be too late for their bank to win over Gen Z. 

“Are we too late to the game in the technology they want?” says one chief operating officer responding to the survey. “Have they already immersed themselves with other fintechs instead of banks?” 

Key Findings

The Rising Neobank Threat
Sixty-one percent of respondents identify local banks or credit unions as their bank’s primary competitive threat, followed by big/superregional banks (56%) and neobanks that compete for consumer deposits (42%), such as Chime — a significant increase compared to last year’s survey. 

Barriers To Adoption
Almost three-quarters cite integrating with the bank’s core as a chief obstacle to planned upgrades or implementations, followed by adoption or acceptance by bank staff (53%) and customer adoption (51%). 

Emerging Opportunities
More than half (56%) say their board has discussed allocating budgets or resources to artificial intelligence, while 47% say the same about banking as a service. Smaller percentages have had similar discussions about blockchain (15%) or cryptocurrency and digital assets (24%). 

More Dollars For Tech
A large majority (83%) of survey respondents say their bank’s technology budget increased over the past year, at a median increase of 10%. A median 15% of the technology budget is devoted to new initiatives, bank leaders report. 

Seeking Board Expertise
Fifty-one percent say their board has at least one member they would consider to be a technology expert. Among those who do not,  38% say they are actively seeking a director with technology expertise. 

Emphasizing Digital
This year, 44% of respondents say that digital channels are more critical to their bank’s strategy, compared with 33% who said the same last year. The percentage that rank digital channels and the branch as equally important also dropped, from 57% to 48%.

To view the high-level findings, click here.

Bank Services members can access a deeper exploration of the survey results. Members can click here to view the complete results, broken out by asset category and other relevant attributes. To find out how your bank can gain access to this exclusive report, contact [email protected].

These topics will be explored at Bank Director’s Acquire or Be Acquired Conference, Jan. 28-30, 2024, in Phoenix, and Experience FinXTech, May 14-15, 2024, in Tampa.

10 Steps That Banks Can Take to Drive Their Digital Future

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More than a dozen years ago, I managed digital banking at a community bank.

Back then, keeping up with available digital solutions for customers meant attending our core system and digital banking provider’s user meetings and conferences. The major limitation we experienced was that we could only deploy technology readily integrated into our core and digital banking systems. If we brought in technology that wasn’t already integrated, we would be paying for the integration — paving the way for our competitors. In at least one situation, the rollout failed because our provider could not get the technology to scale.

Due to high costs and technical expertise, most community-based banking organizations have had to settle with being mostly buyers of technology. In contrast, many larger banks are viewed as builders of technology, despite the fact, that many of the larger financial institutions that have developed digital banking technologies in-house were net buyers as well.

With the growing adoption of application programming interfaces (APIs), banks are no longer limited to the binary choice of being a buyer or a builder of technology. Organizations that were previously constrained by integration limitations can finally own their own digital experiences — not by buying technology outright, but by building relationships with fintech firms. Increasingly, fintechs have shifted from wanting to disintermediate banks to partnering with them to provide the digital products, services and experiences that retail banking customers demand.

The biggest hurdle to taking advantage of these opportunities to partner with fintech firms as a way to manage your institution’s digital future is changing legacy mindsets in the community bank space. How do bank executives move from thinking of themselves as a “buyer of technology” to focusing on orchestrating and building partnerships?

Here are ten general steps to start this journey:

  1. Define explicit business objectives: Program goals, metrics of success, etc.
  2. Assign the person(s) responsible: Ideally, this should be driven by the CEO as the ultimate strategist for the bank, but day-to-day can be managed by a chief information or marketing officer, head of digital or another executive.
  3. Identify addressable gaps: Stay away from shining objects by identifying real gaps in the bank’s capabilities and addressing customers’ needs that the bank can close with a partner’s technology.
  4. Create a program to identify possible partners for each gap: This can be done through literature reviews, participating in conferences, innovation hubs, research firms or consulting partners, among others.
  5. Decide between build, invest or partner: Executives should categorize each partner into three options — build/customize a solution with them, invest in them for more strategic control and oversight or partner in the traditional contractual sense for the use of their product/service. A partner may fit more than one of these categories.
  6. Evolve resource allocation: Partnerships require organizational commitment, such as funding, networking opportunities and ongoing support.
  7. Build required technology and infrastructure: Develop the capabilities required to support your bank’s growing ecosystem, including APIs, cloud infrastructure, sandboxes and agile practices.
  8. Adjust planning practices: Fintech speed is counted in days or weeks, not months or years as banks tend to use. Apply agile thinking to planning, budgeting and testing.
  9. Iterate processes: Internal processes, such as vendor management, should support continuous iteration based on results. Additionally, banks should remain open to working with fintech firms to mature their processes.
  10. Revisit metrics: Make sure your bank is measuring successes and making appropriate adjustments.

Available technologies — such as APIs and cloud platforms — allow banks to step away from the shadow of their core providers. Banks now have an opportunity to own their digital futures and, more importantly, the digital experiences they offer their customers. Strategic partnerships allow financial services organizations of all sizes to compete and serve the needs of consumers by successfully leveraging the latest technology.

Regardless of a Recession, Banking Technology Makes Sense

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No bank wants to be Southwest Airlines Co.

Investing in technology with recession clouds brewing might seem counterintuitive. But as Southwest’s crisis over the 2022 winter holidays showed, technology shortcomings can incur enormous costs in the short-term and in the future.

The company has estimated that its scheduling system meltdown will cost it as much as $825 million. Customers disparaged the airline and executives received a pay cut. Southwest had been investing in customer-facing technology. But the back-end limitations of its operations technology hampered the company’s ability to handle the most basic customer service for airlines: safely getting customers where they needed to be in the wake of a winter storm.

Community banks face downside risks from inflation, rising interest rates and continued geopolitical uncertainty. As a result, bank executives may be inclined to delay or cut spending on technology that can help their institutions grow or be more efficient. Southwest’s experience shows that would be a mistake. According to Forrester data, firms pursuing technology-driven innovation grow three to four times faster than industry averages. Institutions that undertake multi-year efforts to make digital technology a priority recognize digital acceleration is a way to:

  • Permanently reduce the cost of doing business.
  • Improve customer and employee experience.
  • Outperform competitors ahead of a looming downturn.

Bank executives facing pressure to downshift their digital efforts in the name of cost reduction should remember the following lessons from Southwest’s experience:

  1. Back-office failures directly affect customer experiences. Southwest prioritized technology spending on customer experience gains over back-end improvements, such as a digital way for flight crews to report their locations and availability. As a result, crews spent time manually calling in to report their locations, rather than helping solve customers’ problems. Delays or cuts in spending on technology that would make bank lending more efficient, for example, could mean longer loan turnaround times for customers.
  2. Systems fail at the worst time. Systems usually buckle under stress, rather than when it’s convenient — whether the system is a complex staffing solution or basic spreadsheets tracking loans in the pipeline. On the other hand, the Paycheck Protection Program demonstrated how institutions that had invested in technology earlier could capitalize on that opportunity faster than those that did not. If the economy downshifts, banks may be too busy putting out figurative fires to assess vendors and initiate technology that would help them manage lending and credit at scale during and after any recession.
  3. Viewing technology as a near-term cost, instead of a long-running investment that drives growth, ultimately hurts the organization. Forrester notes that Southwest apparently “budgeted for technology on an ‘allocative efficiency’ basis, focusing on optimally allocating costs to meet current demand. In doing so, it appears to have largely neglected ‘productive efficiency,’ or focusing on maximizing future outcomes given current cost constraints.”

What to Do Instead of Cutting
As bank boards and leaders consider their technology budget and expenditures, remembering Southwest’s lessons can help guide their investments. They should narrow their focus to vendors set up to meet their needs and provide the appropriate return on investment. For example, a bank looking to purchase software to process and analyze loans may encounter systems designed for larger banks. In their evaluations of lending software, they should consider:

  1. How long will implementation take? Smaller financial institutions often have small staffs, so implementing new technology quickly is critical.
  2. Does the loan system foster cross-functionality to support staff with more generalized roles who wear multiple hats?
  3. Does the bank need to make adjustments to the technology before using it, or can it use “out-of-the-box” standard templates and reports to get them up and running?
  4. Is the technology capable of processing the various loan types offered by the community financial institution?
  5. Can the lender maintain control of the relationship throughout the process? For example, many community banks want the flexibility to either have a lender start a loan request in the branch, or let the customer enter key information and documentation at their convenience.
  6. Does the software provide straightforward summaries of individual deals and portfolio-wide summaries for greater collective visibility into the pipeline?
  7. Will the community financial institution have to switch vendors if it grows substantially, or can the software partner handle the transition?

Community financial institutions are vital to the communities they serve and need to be able to respond quickly to meet borrowing and other demands of their customers. Continuing or pursuing technology investments regardless of the economy will help the community and the bank thrive.

Reimagining A2A Transfers in a World of Real-Time Payments

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In today’s world of payments, speed matters.

Consumers increasingly expect faster everything, demands that are driven by the proliferation of peer-to-peer (P2P) payments enabling individuals to quickly send money to a friend or pay for products and services. The access, speed and convenience of faster or real-time payments are becoming the norm — that means greater opportunity for financial institutions to differentiate the money movement experiences they deliver to their customers. One area slower to initiate real-time speed is in traditional account-to-account, or A2A, transfers.

A2A transfers happen when a customer transfers funds between their own accounts (brokerage, crypto, savings and checking) held at two different financial institutions: for example, transferring funds from a savings or brokerage account to a separate checking account. Too often, consumers must rely on outdated processes such as traditional Automated Clearing House methods that can take days to complete, ultimately impacting time-sensitive investment opportunities and on-time bill payments.

“Today, consumers are accustomed to being able to quickly send money to friends and family using various P2P payment platforms. But moving money between your own accounts is still a lengthy and inefficient process,” says Yanilsa Gonzalez-Ore, senior vice president, North America head of Visa Direct.

Surveyed U.S. consumers own, on average, 8 financial accounts and conduct 15 transactions between them a year, accounting for $3 trillion in annual money movement via A2A transfers, according to a survey by Visa and Aite Group. This diffusion of their financial picture can result in the subsequent need to optimize finances and investments across those accounts — compounded by the desire and expectation that they can do it with ease anytime, anywhere.

We also found that 90% of surveyed U.S. consumers want the flexibility of real-time transfers between their financial accounts. And 70% of surveyed U.S. consumers said they prefer card-based real-time payments for transfers.

“Two factors that are driving customer demand today are user interface simplicity and real-time money movement,” says Gonzalez-Ore. “Disrupting the A2A space and delivering real-time payments can be a win-win for any financial institution. You may receive deposits faster, and in turn, you’ll potentially see higher retention from those clients by meeting their demand. There are potential benefits for everyone in the ecosystem.”

Younger demographics tend to be a step ahead when it comes to technology adoption and digital experiences. Quick gratification is the expectation for millennial and Generation Z customers. This matters now because there will likely be an overall demographic shift in the U.S., propelled by a transfer of wealth across generations. Banks should think about how they can expand their own money movement offerings in the ever-changing payments landscape.

“We will likely see more and more demand for faster, more seamless transfers and transactions,” says Gonzalez-Ore.

Driving Profits in Digital Banking

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In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, it can be tricky for financial institutions to figure out how to best generate profit from their digital initiatives. According to Stephen Bohanon, co-founder and chief strategy and product officer at Alkami Technology, a good starting point is also one of the most overlooked sources of revenue growth: existing customers. Bank leaders can also look at their competition to understand where to invest in technology.

  • Investing in the Front End
  • Evaluating Transaction Data
  • Expanding Wallet Share

Digital Banking: Being Best in Class and Driving Profit

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Forward-thinking financial institutions have been focused on digital transformation to compete with megabanks and fintechs. They’re funding development to actively shaping user expectations for what a digital banking experience can offer. By 2028, the global digital banking market size is estimated to surpass $10.3 trillion.

Yet, many banks without deep pockets or partners and limited technology resources are relying on their core technology provider for a turnkey platform — a “bank-in-a-box” that includes bundled services like payments, loan origination and digital banking. The biggest threat remains for those institutions that decide to maintain the status quo with a less-than-impressive digital banking platform or ineffective home-brewed solution.

Consumers expect a seamless digital experience to help them manage their finances and achieve their financial goals. A recent study found that consumers’ trust in digital banking is shifting away from their preferred financial institution. If account holders aren’t convinced that their preferred bank provides the best digital security and privacy, reliability, feature breadth, and ease of use, they’re willing to leave. It’s clear that digital banking can make or break a bank’s future.

What is the ideal digital banking experience that account holders want? Banks should keep these best-in-class components in mind as they search for the right partners and technology for their digital banking transformation.

  1. Data-driven insights. Bank executives must find ways to execute on internal transaction data to deepen user relationships and build profitability and institutional loyalty.
  2. Seamless user experience. Now more than ever, it’s important that banks understand what attractive features will improve digital banking experiences for their users.
  3. Continuous software delivery. Best practices for continuous software delivery is to find a partner offering a single code source, rather than multiple.
  4. Investments in API and SDKs. Vendors that can seamlessly integrate application programming interfaces, or APIs, into digital banking help banks leverage the latest industry leading technology and maintain a competitive advantage.
  5. Cloud-forward thinking. Banks can leverage the cloud to enhance features, security and user experiences while improving uptime, performance and quality.
  6. Modern security strategies. When financial institutions and digital banking providers band together and treat cybersecurity as a shared responsibility, security issues can pose less of a threat.

Financial institutions may need to consider replacing legacy technologies and embracing artificial intelligence tools. This means taking advantage of transaction data flowing through the core to uncover important insights about account holders’ needs based on their behaviors and spending patterns, and using it to optimize the digital experience. This kind of thinking results in transforming digital banking — moving from a cost center into a revenue center, all rooted in data.

In the past, marketing campaigns focused on products that just needed to be sold. They were delivered from the top down, funneling to all users regardless of their personal needs. That strategy changed when big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning gave marketers the ability to target tailored messages to the ideal recipient. Aligning data insights and marketing automation means banks can deliver experiences that are compelling, timely and relevant to account holders.

Pairing insights and marketing automation with a digital banking platform allows banks to target their account holders with personalized engagements and cross-sell marketing offers that appear within the banking platform and other digital channels. Banks can generate a 70% return on initiatives targeting existing customers, versus 10% when targeting new customers, according to PwC. “In a time where every bank is focused on revenue growth in a constrained and competitive environment, making smart choices with limited resources can provide a fast track to higher-margin growth,” PwC states.

Banks can use data to drive revenue through the digital banking channel through a number of real-world, practical applications, including:

  • Onboarding programs.
  • Self-service account opening.
  • Product cross-sell and upsell.
  • Competitive takeaway.
  • Communications and servicing opportunities.
  • Product utilization.
  • Transitioning retail accounts into business accounts.

Digital banking is mission critical to banks. Catalyzing this platform with data insights and marketing automation creates an engaging channel for deeper customer relations, ultimately transforming the digital banking investment into a profit center.

Finding Your Customer’s Moment of Need

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A banker may think the quote, “You’ve got to take on growth tactics and a growth mindset that’s different than the way you did in the past,” had come from the main stage at Bank Director’s annual Acquire or Be Acquired Conference, an event that focuses primarily on financial institution growth. Instead, it came from a tiny studio six floors up, in a recorded conversation between two non-bankers.

Derik Sutton, chief marketing officer of Autobooks, a payments technology company that provides banks invoicing, accounts receivable and accounts payable solutions for their business customers, owns those words. He believes that community banks are positioned to earn and retain business customer relationships by finding and acting on their customers’ moments of need.

In this episode of Reinventing Banking, a special podcast series brought to you by Bank Director and Microsoft Corp., Sutton describes traditional banking practices that can be reimagined for digital, why convenience is king in the payments space and how asking hard questions could be key to getting ahead.

Instead of discerning what their business customers need from digital reports, it may be time for bankers to lace up their boots and get back on Main Street to find out for themselves.

This episode, and all past episodes of Reinventing Banking, are available on FinXTech.com, Spotify and Apple Music.