Amazon has totally transformed the retail landscape, including the supply chain and expectations of customers who want things immediately. Bankers trying to differentiate in a crowded marketplace are increasingly committing themselves to a service standard that clears the Amazon baseline. [Continue]
Hopefully this peace time will continue. However, in case it does not last, it is wise to consider steps that can be taken now to avoid (or at least mitigate) financial stress, which could lead to the need to sell your institution or take on partners. [Continue]
There is a distinction being made now between customer service and customer experience, or CX. The former involves interactions with your people while the latter refers to customers’ holistic encounters with your brand. Some companies spend big money and years of study to create a brand designed to deliver memorable CX. Yet investments meant to deliver on CX are destined to fail without a highly-trained workforce. Everything hinges on those people skills! [Continue]
It’s a big deal when any small business lands a big customer. Business owners dream of landing a Fortune 500 customer that will assure sales and boost profits. But of course, that’s not the end of the challenge. No small business owner wants to become dependent upon one big customer, so the ultimate goal is to land several big customers. [Continue]
Dan Brown, author of the bestseller “The DaVinci Code,” states that “History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated and the winner writes the history books — books that glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, ‘What is history, but a fable agreed upon?’” [Continue]
It used to be that the banking regulatory community gave you a pass on having a formalized and documented ERM program within your organization, but the tide, as they say, has turned. [Continue]
Bankers often think of strategic planning in the fall, sometimes in conjunction with the annual budgeting process, but I want to encourage you to think about strategic planning now. If you want to conduct strategic planning successfully this fall, you really need to begin preparing now. [Continue]
Banks these days offer some payment transactions in real time, others in simulated real time, and still others in a day or two. But the pressure is on. In a culture where people “want it now,” faster payments is a resolute rallying cry for most financial services professionals. [Continue]
For a long time, it seemed as if the deck was stacked against community banks. But now, some of that imbalance has shifted in favor of community banks. In May 2018, President Trump signed into law the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. One of many bank-friendly aspects of the new law is a change in treatment of most reciprocal deposits. [Continue]
Making sure you have the best technology solutions in place for your community bank is tough enough. Making a change in order to save your bank money or to obtain better service should be an option open to every bank. For this reason, you want to make sure you never accept a vendor contract which imposes a large “deconversion fee” on your bank. [Continue]