A New Standard For Community Involvement

There is no doubt your inbox is flooded with emails on how the businesses you subscribe to and visit are planning on handling the COVID-19 crisis. Including what they will be doing to keep your needs/desires met, how they are aiding their staff, and what they are doing to support the community they serve and even the economy as a whole.

If they are in your inbox, they are definitely in your client’s. And because of this, more than ever before, clients are recognizing the impact businesses can have on not only the economy but also on the personal lives of those in the communities around them. The expectations for your financial institution to be involved in the community have never been higher and they will remain there until long after COVID-19 passes.

Here are 10 ideas for how to get (and stay) involved:

1. Continue to make it as easy as possible for your clients to satisfy their banking needs with technologies like video banking, Financial Healthcheck, Expert Nearby, and self-service machines like ATMs, ITMs, and NEXT.
2. Keep the economy moving by engaging with and supporting other businesses through new and continued projects and partnerships.
3. Shift your advertisements and promotions away from sales-focused messaging and toward educational, inspirational, and relevant messaging.
4. Provide the best, safest, cleanest working environments for staff and offer remote environments when possible.
5. Train your associates to be more aware of their behaviors if they are still seeing clients, or when they start to again. For example, they should not shake someone’s hand as they walk in but instead welcoming them from a comfortable distance.
6. Get involved in community events and movements. Sponsor them, host them, and be an active member of the community, both local and worldwide.
7. Continue to educate clients with resources like blogs, Financial HealthCheck, on social media, or even virtual webinars on relevant topics, like financial planning in an emergency.
8. Find a few local and national (or even worldwide) charities with efforts to stop the spread of Coronavirus, help those affected by it, etc. Or you establish a COVID-19 fund of your own.
9. Consider making some changes for when your branches open again, such as making the floor plan more open and spacious, removing germ-ridden components like brochure racks, and establishing a new cleaning routine.
10. Be transparent about everything your financial institution is doing during this time to support the community and stay active in these times. This will build trust in your institution and establish yourself as a company that cares for its employees, clients, communities, not just profits.

And clients are not only relying on businesses to help the community; they are also joining together and finding a new sense of wholeness in this trying time. Especially when it comes to supporting the economy. People are now actively getting involved: ‘Shop local’ is becoming viral, some are encouraging others to order out from their favorite restaurants to keep the doors open, and almost all are consciously making decisions on who they do (and don’t) business with.

Be a business they choose. Do good for your community and this world—especially right now.

For some inspiration, check out this list of other businesses currently doing good put together by Forbes: “50 Ways Companies Are Giving Back During The Coronavirus Pandemic”. 

This is the third blog in an 8-part series. 

• Read part 1 here:  "How Financial Institutions Can Survive (& Thrive) During COVID-19"
  
• Read part 2 here:  "When Social-Distancing Becomes Distance Banking."
  
• Read part 4 here: "How To Take Maximum Advantage of Empty Branches."
• Read part 5 here: "A Quick and Easy Way Banks and Credit Unions Can Cut Costs."
• Read part 6 here: "Ideas for Communicating with Clients."
• Part 7 will be released 04/30/20!