Challenges
When seasonal visitors flood Cape Cod from June through August, Cape Cod 5 sees a significant increase in customer traffic and banking transactions, making appropriate scheduling of staff critically important. Spreadsheets were used to schedule employees each week across the bank’s 22 locations, which was “a best guess” in aligning staff to demand, said Kim Howes, VP of Retail Services at Cape Cod 5. This complex task was even more challenging when factoring in the schedules of the ferries that staff use to reach the bank’s two island banking centers.
The bank had moved from a traditional to a universal banking model in which employees are cross-trained to provide a wide range of financial services to best meet customer needs. In making this shift, the bank wanted to be a digital workplace that invested in technology to optimize the customer experience. The value of a digital transformation was magnified when the pandemic hit, and the bank needed to rely on technology to connect with and serve customers.
Cape Cod 5 implemented an online appointment booking solution, and within a month, discovered it was not robust enough to handle the bank’s many banking centers and 175 retail employees. And with members of the bank’s 15-person float team working at multiple locations, they needed multiple schedules, which the solution also couldn’t handle.
Solutions
Some of the bank’s goals in moving to the universal banker model and endorsing a digital transformation helped create trusted financial advisors, enabling customers to be served by the first available associate when visiting a banking center and providing a better customer and employee experience through technology.
“We wanted to provide all the product and service support needed to create a positive customer experience, including having the right people in the banking center and an awareness of the volume and what’s going on,” said Howes.
To achieve these goals, Cape Cod 5 implemented UKG Banking Solutions, including the appointment setting, lobby management, scheduling, and analytics modules. The bank conducted a pilot of three banking centers before rolling out the solution at the remaining locations soon after.
“The UKG Banking Scheduler solution takes into consideration the past transaction activity and the volume in the banking center, and it forecasts the appropriate staffing levels to support our customers while maintaining efficiencies.”
Kim Howes
VP of Retail Services
Results
Using the appointment setting module’s online functionality or mobile app, Cape Cod 5 customers can make appointments at a banking center at their convenience. They select the date, time, location, and purpose of the meeting. An automated appointment confirmation message is sent to the customer, as well as a reminder of the documents they need to bring with them to complete their business.
“Having appointments allows us to reach out to the customer to prepare them for their visit to Cape Cod 5, working with them to ensure everything is in place,” said Howes. “It also allows us to strategize with the team we have present for the day, making sure we have the subject matter expert available to sit down with the customer, especially for more complex transactions.”
All employees looking to expand their cross-training skills can check upcoming appointments in the solution by location to see the types of services that customers are seeking and then take advantage of these learning opportunities by shadowing the associate helping the customer.
The lobby management solution helps monitor lobby wait times as well as track customer visits. “It allows us to get a real picture of what they were there for, what they were actually served with, and where the conversation went,” Howes explained.
The bank plans to add solution kiosks in banking center lobbies, so customers can check in on their own and remotely check-in as they’re getting ready to arrive.
During the busy summer season, Cape Cod 5 adds approximately 25 interns to its staff to help the float team meet the added demands of increased customer traffic and transaction volume and to cover for associates taking vacation. Banking center schedules are created a month in advance with ease.
“The UKG Banking Scheduler solution takes into consideration the past transaction activity and the volume in the banking center, and it forecasts out what you’ll need in terms of staff,” said Howes. As an example, she noted that the annual Barnstable County Fair during the third week of July quadruples the local banking center’s volume of transactions and the amount of on-hand cash needed.
When scheduling staff, the solution also knows that two associates with specific skills are required to open and close each banking center and ensures that only associates with these skills are scheduled. In addition, Howes said, the solution is configured to add staff when Social Security payments are made and when the first of the month falls on a Monday or Tuesday following a holiday weekend.
“When creating schedules, we try to get an 80% fit,” she added. “So, if a banking center has less than what they call ‘a fit’ in the UKG scheduling solution, we know they need a float. That’s our first line of defense when we’re determining who goes where.”
When associates call out, she likes being able to access the solution from anywhere and at any time to assign a float team member to the open shift, rather than having to wait until the next morning to fill the shift.
Howes relies on the banking analytics solution for a number of reasons. When associates book summer vacations and managers request float coverage, or when managers request additional full-time staff, Howes said, “I let the data do the talking. They are encouraged to start looking at their own UKG data and build a case for adding staff. It provides me with the data to know the quantity of FTEs I need for sales activity or transactional activities.”
The data also shows the transactions and sales types by banking center, helping Cape Cod 5 ensure that associates with the right skills are scheduled to work at the right times and locations.
Howes said she reminds associates that “if it’s not in UKG, it didn’t happen. You may have opened a business account, but if it’s not in UKG, it’s going to impact the metrics of your banking center. You have to build that habit to show the accurate productivity of the banking center.”
Tracking their activities in the solution also helps associates demonstrate their areas of expertise and proficiency, key information as they work to advance their careers at Cape Cod 5.
Howes noted that one of her favorite functions in the UKG® solution is the heat map. When someone recommends shortening a banking center’s hours or closing early on Saturdays, she reviews heat map data on customer traffic for the answers.
The technology that has supported Cape Cod 5’s digital transformation enables the bank’s associates to be better prepared to meet customer needs, be better trusted financial advisors, and optimizes the customer experience and engagement ― and creates a better experience for all.
As Howes reflects on Cape Cod 5’s digital transformation using UKG technology, she said, “What we were looking for was a partner, and UKG has been a partner for us.”
