I asked 16 payments executives to draw a vase. Let me explain… I have been facilitating strategic planning for 20 years for one organization, PaymentsFirst. P1st is a nonprofit payments association headquartered in Atlanta, and serves financial institutions and corporations in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. Their executives are some of the most well-respected in their industry. The board is made up of banking executives from across all four states. And they are pretty sharp too. Which makes planning for strategic planning all the more difficult. In order to liven the planning session and to stimulate innovative thinking, I do thinking exercises. These elements break the monotony of talking about mission, vision, goals, and strategic objectives. But if you have …
Innovation ThinkTime
Being Strategic by Improving the Customer Experience
The issue of how you can improve the customer experience cannot be adequately covered in a few hundred words. Let me give two examples, one dealing with the digital / online experience and one dealing with the physical branch. If you are like most FIs, you have multiple online banking systems. Typically, you would have a consumer login, separate cash management login, and perhaps, even a separate Small to Medium Business (SMB) system. If a consumer starts a small business on the side, they are likely running that out of their consumer online access. But as they grow, they need to access features that are not available in the consumer online banking package. Such as the need to originate ACH or do a periodic wire transfer. No problem, you say, they can upgrade to the cash management …
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Being Strategic by Reducing Operating Costs
What are the activities that a typical business customer of yours engages in that mostly manually and cost-intensive? Don’t know? It’s likely that, as bankers, we don’t spend much time thinking about the internal cost of our business customers. But there are areas in which an FI has a direct opportunity to reduce costs for a business, regardless of what type. And in the process, becomes very strategic. Here is an example: reducing the manual effort of posting to accounts receivable. Supposed your CEO is speaking with a local mid-sized business customer. Do you think that accounts receivable will be a part of that conversation? Unlikely. Neither the company CEO nor your CEO will think it worthy of their time. But in fact, it is likely that the company has significantly increased its …
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Being Strategic by Increasing Revenue / Customers
Let’s say you were interested in assisting your business customers in getting more clients, more sales, how would you go about achieving that? Consider that you have a significant online community, individuals and businesses that are connecting to your online banking platforms. While they are online, there are opportunities to make an appeal to them on behalf of existing business customers. Let me give you an example. Say you have a local insurance company AllStar Insurance, as a business customer. AllStar creates a profile of individual or business customers that they would like to pitch a new service that insures against online fraud. Based on the information that you have access to, you can identify those online users that meet the profile and present an online banner ad to the …
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“What are you doing” – A Continued View on Perspective
It may be a coincidence, but I seem to be on a bit of a perspective kick. While in church on Mother’s Day Sunday, our associate pastor told a story about Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. One day, as Christopher was making his rounds examining the work he had laid out for the day, he encountered three laborers working on cutting and shaping stones. He asked all of them the same question—”What are you doing?” The first man explained he was shaping block to fit in a specific place on the wall. Christopher thanked him and moved on. The second man explained he was there to earn a living wage and provide for his family. Christopher thanked him and moved on. The third man said, “I am helping Christopher Wren build St. Paul’s Cathedral.” There was …
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