Branch Productivity

Let Branch Personnel Service While Technology Sells

Does this sound familiar? "We need to automate manual branch processes to make branch employees more productive so they can spend more time with customers." One of the biggest themes in branch banking is the need to focus branches on sales by eliminating tasks that don't support sales and service goals. (Where Did Branch Productivity Go? Terence Roche - February 2006)

The desire to create a sales culture in the branches has been discussed for years. So, why does the financial industry keep ranking this as one of their major initiatives going forward? Perhaps the efforts to date have simply failed. Practiced sales people understand the products and their applicability to each customer's circumstances and have sufficient experience to recognize the patterns that lead to a successful customer engagement. However, with staff turnover in many front-line positions running as high as 33%, finding seasoned, highly skilled sales people for the branches is increasingly difficult. Additionally, most front-line employees, although encouraged to sell, have limited knowledge and experience in this area, instead preferring to service the customer. The disappointing outcome is lost opportunities. If each sales opportunity was fully realized, the financial institution would experience a dramatic increase in multi-account customers - a proven driver behind customer loyalty and increased profitability.

Opportunity - Gaining Multi-Account Customers

Ignite Financial has built sales and marketing software for the financial industry to connect customers to products and effectively map customer dialogues for successful sales outcomes. Providing the financial institution with Ignite's Customer Relationship Guides helps foster a successful sales interaction in three distinctive areas. First, the front-line employee is provided with a structured decision path so that when a response is provided the following question is dependent on the answers to the previous questions. No longer is the customer subjected to a static Q&A regardless of relevance. Conversely, the employee is guided seamlessly through this complex maze instilling confidence in their selling capabilities. Next, the business rules that reflect both customer and management objectives are incorporated to control the decision making eliminating one of the primary contributors to customer attrition - the wrong product sold. Lastly, using visual representations, engaging interfaces, interactive feedback, and product tutorials presents front-line personnel with an easy to use, results oriented sales solution that works - guaranteed.

Advantage

For years the question from the financial industry has been "how can we create a sales culture?" Ignite has the solution and the good news is financial institutions can incorporate this service virtually overnight. Financial institutions can change their traditional service culture into a confident and productive sales environment simply by implementing Ignite's guided sales process with built-in intuition, product knowledge and segmentations. No longer will branch personnel be limited to reciting the features of the newest product offering in hopes of enticing interest. By giving front-line employees the tools to comfortably and intelligently advise, they are able to quickly engage the customer, naturally reveal their needs, easily navigate through product complexities and ultimately fulfill their financial needs with every interaction.