4 Signs of ‘Core Fatigue’ in Banking (And What to Do About It)

Common symptoms of this malady are often overlooked in the pressures of day-to-day business. One example: Your call centers are disconnected from your retail branches.The remedy doesn't have to be worse the problem.

When you describe your institution’s core technology, what words or phrases come to mind?

If “easy-to-use,” “easy-to-learn,” “user-friendly,” “efficient” and “consumer-focused” are first on your list, the following information might not be the most helpful for you.

On the flip side, if “tedious,” “hard-to-use and learn,” “slow,” “siloed” and “frustrated customers or members” are your initial thoughts — you’re in the right place.

Welcome. We’re about to rock your world.

The Bigger Problem:

‘Core fatigue’ is an often overlooked or unrecognized problem. This hidden affliction has infiltrated the banking industry for decades. Perhaps you’ve felt it yourself but never had the vocabulary to describe it.

Customer relationship management that uses outdated, manual processes has been accepted as the norm by banks and credit unions. But, do they have to? And if there’s a better way, why isn’t anyone talking about it?

Spoiler alert: We do have a solution but don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. First, we need to deep-dive into the signs of core fatigue to truly understand what’s going on below the surface. Then, we can demonstrate the transformation we see daily with our bank and credit union partners.

4 Symptoms of Core Fatigue

1. Training: We’ve been hearing that, on average, onboarding a new hire can take six months or more — and the learning ends up being a never-ending cycle.

  • How long does it take to train new hires within your organization?
  • Do new hires typically complete the entire onboarding process?
  • What does turnover look like for recent hires in your financial institution?

2. Documents, documents, documents: We’ve seen user manuals that have grown to hundreds of pages, detailing every step and selection that must be made for routine banking functions.

  • How many pages is your documentation for tasks such as account opening, maintenance, credit card opening, etc.?
  • Have you gotten faster at navigating dozens of windows out of necessity, but it’s still a painful process to ensure you don’t make a mistake?

3. Customer service: With a high level of service comes the responsibility of knowing the preferences of consumers when it comes to banking.

  • When someone walks into a branch, how are they quickly identified?
  • If an individual prefers to work exclusively with a certain team member, how is that information shared amongst employees?

4. Call center disconnect: Oftentimes, we see a gap or time-lapse with information being shared between call centers and retail branches — if information is shared at all.

  • If someone calls a contact center with an account maintenance request and a case is opened, what happens if they then decide to visit a physical branch?
  • Do your call centers have visibility into activity at retail branches and vice versa in near real-time?

If one or more of these situations is part of your day-to-day then you’re likely familiar with core fatigue. However, just because you’ve been doing things a certain way, doesn’t mean you have to continue on that path. Don’t worry. We’re not all talk. We can help.

How Financial Institutions Can Beat the ‘Fatigue’

Shorten Training Timeline: CRMNEXT is a platform that connects your siloed banking applications to your core with one, easy-to-use interface. Learning a single platform versus dozens cuts down on training time significantly. Over a third of bank and credit union employees quit within the first year due to lack of training. CRMNEXT supports increased employee retention with a condensed ramp time for new hires as well as empowering frontline employees with the information they need to be successful — right at their fingertips.

Less Documentation: Each CRMNEXT instance has built-in guardrails and only shows the fields necessary to complete each task. This way, you don’t run the risk of forgetting a step when setting up a complicated business account or changing a social security number when you actually meant to change a phone number. CRMNEXT remembers, so you don’t have to — helping to eliminate the need for endless paperwork and empowering your frontline bankers to help resolve cases efficiently.

Personalized Customer Service: CRMNEXT can help your customers and members have the best experience possible when you have a 360-degree view of their information, right at your fingertips. Notes can be easily viewed by any team member. For example, a person can swipe their debit card upon entering a branch and have their profile pop up, including any special accommodations they might need. This personalized experience helps CRMNEXT users achieve up to a 90% reduction in service interaction times, leading to a 60% increase in net promoter score. Happier customers and members lead to happier and more efficient employees.

Call Center Connection: Within a typical financial institution, call centers and retail banking operate on completely separate systems so cases and notes from one are not shared with the other. This can lead to a lot of phone tag and transfers as well as customer confusion. CRMNEXT is a customer relationship management software that focuses on transforming the financial institution as a whole versus staying limited to a single department. Case statuses and notes are updated in near real-time so employees can provide nearly all of the answers a customer is looking for. Want to see if a lead has been followed up on? Easy. Need to check the status of an audit? You got it!

After reading this article, perhaps you’ve come to the realization that you do, in fact, have core fatigue. Never fear — we’re here to support you.

Additional Resources:
How CRMNEXT Addresses Core Issues – One Pager
Hear from a real customer – SSSCU Case Study
Date a CRM – Get to know us better with the Banklorette

This article was originally published on . All content © 2024 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced by any means without permission.