Bringing hospitality back to banking

Brick and mortar banks aren't always known for offering the most consumer-friendly experiences, but that is changing as some financial institutions are putting programs together to deliver hospitable experiences. A panel at the Bank Customer Experience Summit held in Charlotte, North Carolina from Sept. 12 to 13 took a look at this topic.

Evan Ellis, enterprise account executive at Creatio, moderated the panel with Robyn Breshears, executive director of sales service and support, Arvest Bank, Marbue Brown, founder of The Customer Obsession Advantage, Mike Parisi, EVP, chief banking officer at Ledyard National Bank and William Sullivan IV, VP and senior client experience manager at Cambridge Trust.

This year the event was held jointly with the Interactive Customer Experience Summit, which gathered retailers, restaurants and hospitality organizations, so the panel began with a brief discussion about how they learned from other industries at the event.

Brown pointed to, "some of the very smart usage of AI in other industries. Folks have used it to flag when something is going wrong with an order. That can be translated into a banking environment."

Parisi said that the conversation around Gen Z at a keynote was eye-opening as it revealed a lot about what Gen Z wants with industries.

Next, the panelists looked at how they changed their business during the pandemic.

"It was amazing how quickly we had to pivot," Breshears said. "We had to go crazy with signage to help customers know where to go."

Sullivan said his bank had to adjust to include far more appointments and that hasn't changed post-pandemic.

"Clients still had a desire to come into office," Sullivan said.

Brown said that banks "had to get our folks to have a different mindset. We needed to create an oasis in a calm in the midst of chaos." He also said that banks still need to assume that customers are coming in on negative energy to meet their needs.

When looking at Gen Z more specifically, Breshears said banks need to answer the question if they will be "fast enough to meet their needs."

"We have to deliver a level of digital service on par with big banks if not better," Parisi said. "That's a challenge for a community bank. We go to fintech environment to stay current."

He also pointed out that banks need to deliver app experiences that are as good as not just other banks but also entities like Uber.

Brown agreed, saying that banks should consider using AI assistants on apps to improve accessibility.

"That will make the app more usable to a wider audience, not just Gen Z," Brown said.

Sullivan said that Gen Z's audience cares about a brand's values and banks have failed to communicate those values.

"We failed to tell the story of our brand. We need to do better," he said.

But how do banks deliver those values and a better experience? The panelists gave a variety of answers.

Breshears pointed to data as a key point, but not just raw data.

"You have to use data in a way that is telling a story to know if you are doing it right. It's not one magic bullet, it's a lot of things that have to come together," Breshears said.

Brown and Parisi pointed to hiring and training employees properly as a key component to delivering a hospitable experience.

"It starts with how you hire people and you reinforce that with recognition for demonstrating the principles so you can achieve consistency," Brown said.

Parisi said banks need to "turn managers into coaches" that can train employees to deliver that experience.

When looking at how to hire the right employees, Parisi said it's about the personality.

"Don't hire just bankers. If you're not naturally inquisitve, it's not going to fit. It's all about personality," Parisi said.

Sullivan said that HR managers oversell culture when hiring since people can only speak for the culture of an individual branch. Instead, they should focus more on longer training times, since short training leads to higher turnover.

Breshears pointed out it goes beyond new hires. In a bank like Arvest, they have a lot of long time tellers that need to be trained to be universal/relational bankers.

Lastly, the panelists discussed technology's role in hospitality.

Brown said that "you're only as good as your weakest channel. The one the customer engages with that doesn't work for them, they remember that."

When it comes to AI, Sullivan pointed out that AI will only improve hospitality if you take those data points and use it take care of clients as a person. This especially applies to bank branches that push clients to digital at branches rather than also providing in-person services.

"If we're always looking at numbers, we lose the human element. Is your culture built around taking care of the client as a person?" Sullivan asked.