Jared Jones
It’s no secret that increasing customer engagement is one of the most important concerns on a banker’s mind today. Financial institutions want deeper relationships and more meaningful transactions.
While changing the physical look and feel of a branch is a step in the right direction for a better branch experience, it’s also about the training, resources, and storytelling within your employees that completes a true branch transformation project.
Here is one simple thing most branches overlook and a technique that everyone can implement today to help foster relationships and increase sales.
Use the Products You Sell
Most of your staff is (hopefully) aware of all the different products and services your branch offers and the basic features of each. But how many of your staff have actually tried or are using your branch services they are selling?
People sell what they know, and the best way to build knowledge of a product is to actually use it.
Simple right?
In a recent “Delivery Defined” program DBSI did with a large credit union, we posed that same question to several members of their team. We had them fill out a survey that listed all of the products this particular credit union offered, and asked which of them they were using.
The answers? Most staff members had very few or even none of the products the credit union offered.
So, we actually took the staff members through the exercise of trying one of their products – the mobile app -and you would be surprised with the level of engagement in the room!
Someone found a new feature they didn’t know about, another had an issue downloading it, someone else found out you needed to change a setting on the phone to get it to work properly. The point is – they now had actually gone through the exercise of completing the action, had a better understanding of the process, and had a personal story they could share with a customer/member about the product.
Personal Stories = Powerful Engagement Tool
By actually going through the process and using the app, the staff members became experts and as a result, more comfortable sharing information with others. What does this mean? They are probably more willing to ask a customer if they know about the mobile app and offer to show them how to use it. They can say with confidence… “Let me show you how to do it”, or even “Oh, when I downloaded the app, I had the same question too!”
People connect with stories and this gives your staff the ability to share your branch story with customers and truly connect and engage with them on a more personal level.
Survey Your Own Staff
Now it’s your turn – take the time to survey your staff and see what branch products and services they are using themselves. Once you have that information, use that as a stepping stone to encourage or host a training session where every staff member goes through the process of downloading the app, depositing a mobile check, taking the steps to open a checking out, etc.
This simple process will reap huge rewards in terms of increased sales and customer engagement.
If you’re institution has recently gone through a Branch Transformation project and your employees are struggling to grasp new concepts, contact DBSI today to learn more about our “Delivery Defined” program. These workshops help your branch staff deliver a better customer experience by developing new talk tracks, introducing new techniques, and discovering what is not currently effective in your branch processes today.
