With an evolving mixture of millennials and older customers, local banks and credit unions increasingly face a dilemma when it comes to rapidly evolving technology.
“People want the convenience digitally but still want to know they have someone to talk to,” said Amy Martel, executive vice president and chief operating officer at People’s Credit Union, in Middletown, which has $460.9 million in assets. “We want to ensure that the experience you get walking in the branch is the same experience members feel digitally.”
Martel and other Rhode Island banking executives are finding that despite their industry’s projected $20.2 billion spending nationally on technology in 2017, some customers still crave human interaction when completing key financial decisions. But they still demand the convenience of mobile and online banking for more-routine transactions, such as depositing a check.
Finding that balance between touch and tech consumes much of Martel’s time.
When younger members walk into People’s to learn how to establish a line of credit, Martel explained as an example, “They’re not going to get that answer from an app. They need someone to guide them and give them advice.
“Technology can’t replace the knowledge you get from a one-on-one exchange to ask questions,” she said.
A recent J.D. Power report says inconsistent customer service is one reason technology at banks could be hurting overall customer satisfaction. The April report identified digital-only customers, which comprise 28 percent of retail customers, among the least satisfied.
To bolster its customer-satisfaction scores, People’s Credit Union has gone beyond mobile banking, offering enhanced digital services, including P2P payments for friends to reimburse each other for a dinner out in Newport, for example, and online mortgages for digital-only members.
But despite their expanding digital storefront, Martel said the credit union’s brick-and-mortar branches are still in vogue.
“A personal connection is becoming even more important with technology,” she said.
At Westerly based The Washington Trust Co. – the oldest community bank in the country – executives also found that too much technology can have a negative impact on customers.
“The more people who use mobile as their primary experience with [banking], the less satisfied and loyal the customers will be,” said Mark K. W. Gim, president and chief operating officer at Washington Trust Bancorp Inc., parent of The Washington Trust Co., which has $4.5 billion in assets.
Through surveys with new and existing customers, Gim found consumers seek a balance. Fifty-seven percent ranked speaking to real people just as important as technology, and a recent satisfaction survey categorized the ability to talk to a representative as “critical.”
“Customers can lose confidence if those things aren’t delivered as they are promised,” Gim said.
For its youngest customers, aged 19-29, Washington Trust will send an old-fashioned card in the mail when they open an account, in addition to checking in via phone and email to make sure the process is going smoothly.
“It’s important to consider technology as a part of the way banks touch and service customers, not as a replacement,” Gim said. “If you try to substitute multiple points of contact for technology, that is where you begin to lose trust.”
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LEADING EDGE: Lisa G. Dandeneau is the chief operating officer of Navigant Credit Union, which recently partnered with person-to-person payment service PopMoney and digital fraud-protection tool CardValet. She said being on “the leading edge with technology” is an important part of the credit union’s strategy to provide what members need. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
Lisa G. Dandeneau of Navigant Credit Union, based in Smithfield, believes the “rapid adoption” of mobile banking is due to customer demand.
The credit union, with $1.9 billion in assets, has been a “fast follower,” Dandeneau said, citing its recent partnership with PopMoney, a person-to-person payment service marketed as a competitor to the “Venmos of the world,” and CardValet, a digital fraud-protection tool, as being validated by its surveys.
“It’s an important part of our strategy to be on the leading edge with our technology to make sure we’re providing what our members need,” Dandeneau said.
Any gains in customer loyalty built by tech adoption, however, can be lost when mobile apps malfunction or mobile banking fails.
In April, customers of Providence-based Citizens Bank were blocked from accessing their accounts due to what the bank described on Twitter as a “processing delay.”
Citizens Financial Group Inc., parent of the largest Rhode Island-based bank, with $152.3 billion in assets, did not respond to requests for comment on the apparent glitch or how technology has affected their customers.
Gim, of Washington Trust, says local banks need to be vigilant to ensure smooth technology adoption, while also maintaining the personal relationships banks have built their brand on.
“We have yet to see an online-only experience that really works for all customers,” he said.
Correction: A Previous version of this story misidentified the person-to-person payment service PopMoney offered by Navigant Credit Union.
