Waiting in lines may be a thing of the past. That’s one silver lining of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Although lines, aka queues, have always been considered a necessary evil, there’s hope for them to be non-existent in our near future. The need to avoid them has been expedited due to the concern over social distancing. The benefits not only include improved safety and customer experience but also increased revenue potential for organizations of all types, such as banks and credit unions. How so, you might ask? It is possible through branch-tracking systems and data that empower executives and managers to make important decisions to improve activities in the lobby.
With real-time dashboards that include data on average lobby wait times and customer assist times, plus sales and service interactions, managers can reduce or eliminate queues while improving customer safety, satisfaction, and overall profitability.
It has always been an enormous challenge for financial institutions to understand overall performance in their branches and credit unions, due to the complexity of customer needs and interactions. Solving this challenge is incredibly beneficial to everyone involved. An investment in computer software to get financial institutions to this position is no longer a commodity or “nice to have,” it is now a necessity.
Consumers have a multitude of financial institutions to choose from. Ensuring that everything is easy, seamless, and comfortable will help guarantee that you not only survive, but thrive.
Customers expect an experience tailored to their specific needs, thus financial institutions need to work with customers the way they want to be worked with, for a frictionless experience. This is where advanced banking solution software comes in.
One critically important area for improving the quality of the account holder experience is the ability to let them schedule branch appointments through their digital and mobile devices. Account holders want to interact with branches efficiently, avoiding wait times, ensuring their safety, and speaking to the right employee to fulfill their needs the first time. The beauty of this need is that it leads to improved profits for banks and credit unions as appointments can be better managed, created to fit the specific need of each account holder.
Three Key Benefits of Branch-Tracking Systems:
1. Improved Customer Experience
- Automatically match account holders’ needs with the most qualified employee based on their specific talents, abilities, and availability. Schedules can be created to ensure banks and credit unions have correctly trained and knowledgeable staff on hand to serve specific account holders that have appointments set up. Read more here.
- Automated calendar invites and periodic email and text appointment reminders to account holders, so they can plan ahead.
- Stop poor service occurrences through electronic alerts to management when time thresholds are surpassed.
- One visit resolution – By sending out a virtual checklist to customers after an appointment has been set, financial institutions can set the proper expectation for customers to know what documentation to bring in for their upcoming appointment.
- Wait Smarter – Allowing customers to use their mobile device to see the wait times for the specific branches within their geographical region. Now customers can sign in and hold their spot in line before arriving to the branch, ensuring immediate assistance upon entering the branch and a quick interaction.
2. Improved Safety
- The elimination of lines helps keep customers and employers safe. This reduces the idle time, which increases the potential to catch an illness.
- Digital technologies like interactive teller machines (ITMs), ATMs, and in-branch robots also help keep customers and employers safe by reducing in-person conversations.
3. Improved Cost Savings and Profitability
- Employees have time to prepare for future meetings, allowing them to review details about the customer and prepare the most relevant bank and credit union offerings that will match the customer’s needs. For example, by understanding the customer’s historical banking products, as well as products purchased from competing banks, the employer can make a tailored recommendation.
- Utilize a data-driven approach to identify time-of-day segments (busy and slow periods) to create optimal schedules that are staffed appropriately, reducing employee costs and ensuring adequate coverage to keep lines to a minimum.
- Reduce lobby abandons, as customers are not needlessly waiting in line.
Moving Forward
Financial institutions need to identify, predict, and manage opportunities for cost savings and increased sales — all while improving the quality and safety of the account holder’s experience. This helps financial institutions build customer loyalty, creates revenue opportunities, and equips customers with services that improve their safety.
UKG Banking Solutions can help transform your customer experience, improving sales and service while helping to reduce and even eliminate lines in financial institutions. Through streamlined processes, UKG Banking Solutions enhances the conversations between representatives and account holders by providing the critical data executives and managers need for targeted, proactive improvements.
