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Solidus is a Commercial Design
and Construction Company that specializes in custom builds for
community banks and credit unions. We use a unique collaborative method to plan and
execute our projects, and we guarantee project cost and deadline—No change orders, no
wasted time.
We serve all of New England, and have built hundreds of branches across the region.
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Case Study: Savings Institute Bank & Trust
Financial Solutions Center, Tolland, CT.
Opened: January, 2015.
Size: 1,500 sq. ft.
Project: Transition to the dialogue banking model with a new type of branch.
Result: Deposits doubled, loan volume tripled, fee income doubled 24 months since opening.
Savings Institute Bank & Trust opened a new
Financial Solutions Center at a location in Tolland, CT, which incorporated the latest concepts in
retail banking into the branch, including the universal banker staffing model, dialogue towers,
mobile Surface technology, and cash recyclers.
Strategic location experts Accubranch were used to validate the best possible location for the
new branch and, as financial industry design-build specialists, Solidus was selected to develop a
highly efficient and modern platform within a traditional New England exterior that came
complete with shingles, a copper weathervane and cupula.
The Financial Solutions Center opened in January, 2015.
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The stakeholders at Savings Institute were serious about creating
a successful dialogue banking model. They knew it would demand thorough planning and
unrelenting championing of the mission by all concerned. Solidus as designer and builder
constituted one piece of a larger group that each contributed their unique skills. This first-class
array of consultants, vendors, designers, etc., is what guaranteed the project’s success. Solidus
provided architectural services and executed on the construction itself. Others would provide
technology, and still others would guide the branch staff in using that technology.
Staffing and Technology
Executive Vice President of Retail Banking, Jonathan Wood, was our chief point of contact.
Wood states that the new staffing model and its associated technology were the most
important aspects of the new Financial Solutions Center strategy:
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“Adding universal bankers gave the greatest productivity lift,” Wood said. “We were able to
reduce staff from 6 to 4 (a 33% reduction) from the old to the new template. This was primarily
a function of incremental training that built up their skill-set until they could handle far more
complex tasks and responsibilities than they had in the past.
“The second most important aspect was the technology, particularly cash recyclers and mobile
Surface. This also includes the actual layout and design of the Financial Solutions Center.
Technology drives productivity, but the environment itself also increases productivity in terms
of how the space is utilized and how the universal bankers interact with customers. For
instance, it also includes the positioning and type of furniture used in addition to the LED
lighting environment. The universal bankers are the prime enhancers.”
Savings Institute currently provides customers with the ability to track their online banking
across several channels. This automatically promotes mobile banking, and there’s been a
significant increase in browsing sessions on the bank’s website that confirms this adoption. The
branch manager has a wireless Surface tablet, attends business calls as a live service solution,
and is able to open accounts, etc. The universal bankers at the Tolland Financial Solutions
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Center can fulfill a variety of customer needs when giving consultations, including standing up
at the pod, or responding to the customer’s preference to be seated. They can comfortably
segue from the pod to a private space and pick up the same transaction in a private office, not
necessarily on the same device. This is an integrated Omnichannel experience by most
standards, but Wood says they still have some work left until their omnichannel framework is
fully built out. All of these “horizontal connections” occur in a hard-wired environment, which
is one of the bank’s risk mitigation strategies, as hackers tend to access financial institutions’
systems via their wireless connections.
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Recruiting and Training Universal Bankers
New technology, a completely different approach to customer interactions, and the universal
banker staffing model are three interdependent components that together form the most
customer-centric version of the retail banking experience. The recruiting and training process
for universal bankers is radically different from that of the traditional teller model.
We asked Jonathan Wood: Are financial institutions finding the right people for the role, or is
the hiring process more difficult than it used to be?
“Absolutely, it is more difficult now to find the right people,” says Wood. “The skills required to
be a fully functional universal banker are three times that of a traditional teller. They need to
know all about consumer lending, mortgage products, closing loans, and tellers generally are
not trained on these solutions. They also need outstanding customer relationship and service
skills, sales closing skills, and the knowledge of how to involve key business partners. These are
advanced skills that require time to master. It’s something that can take up to five years. The
hiring process has changed; it’s far more difficult to locate skilled individuals, and the pool of
available candidates has shrunk. We have to look at modern retail strategies in other industries
to identify “best in class” people.
“If we learn Verizon has laid off workers we’ll go after them, because we’ve had good
experiences with Verizon people who are experienced in selling bundled packages, which
translates into delivering more value to customers. Some modern retail stores like Apple are
configured in a similar way to our Financial Solutions Center. The staff roams the floor, and it
makes customers feel more welcome. This is the same behavior we desire in the universal
banker.
“You can’t have the introverted, operationally
oriented, control and process-governed
person at a bank anymore. They have to do a
lot more than simply guard the vault today.
Those who are facing the customer in the
Financial Solutions Center are a very different
animal.” —Jonathan Wood
EVP, Retail Banking
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“The universal banker template allows us to recruit and train to a much higher skill set. It takes
about 18 months to train someone to provide a universal banker experience, but longer to
develop the complete set of behavioral skills. It’s actually better to hire people with no
financial experience. You have to have a mix of employees, an age range, because we need the
Millennial as well as the Boomer. A full range of experience means we’re able to relate to a
diverse customer base. For those customers who do embrace technology and the online
experience, we have to teach them how to do that. There’s a lot of hand holding, a lot of
explaining how this stuff works, like how to bank online on a mobile device, or apply for a home
equity line of credit online. It’s very different from what people have been used to.”
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Evolving Roles & Priorities
“Having opened the Financial Solutions Center in Tolland,” says Wood, “the Savings Institute
leadership placed great emphasis on growing the loan portfolio in this new marketplace. We
made a priority of investing in equipment and training that enables the universal bankers to
discover customer needs. We also transformed the branch manager into a relationship
manager, free to make business calls to hunt for new opportunities. Achieving loan portfolio
growth was extremely important, and implementing the universal banker model allowed the
branch manager to deliver many business services and resources to our financial clients.
Leading the Changes in Branch Banking
Jonathan Wood exemplifies the type of thought leader that is driving the revolution in retail
banking. When asked about setting the transition process in motion, he said, “Progressive
executives leave a legacy of having brought the future to their bank, having secured the bank’s
future with their vision. They’re making a statement to the world that their organization gets it.
Whether they’ve been there for 30 years or 3 years doesn’t matter. It’s about having the
courage to embrace change.
“More than half the branches in New England will be gone in 10-15 years because the existing
delivery system does not match the needs and behaviors of our customer base.”
Wood has learned from first-hand experience the all-important relationship between staffing
models, branch design, and banking equipment. “It’s imperative that banks migrate to the
technology and embrace new forms of customer interaction,” he says. “One of the hardest
things to do right now is hire qualified people. Millennials won’t work for a teller’s wage; they
expect $50k per year. Teller positions have to evolve into the universal banker role, so they can
take on more responsibilities, be valuable and be paid more. Automating the cash transaction
piece is one way of tackling that problem, because it leads to bringing people on board with
greater talent and gifts in learning the industry. You can then start paying someone a universal
banker’s wage, and create great career opportunities, which is more attractive to millennials.
The most important aspect of all this is that if a financial institution fails to migrate to this new
way of delivering services over the next few years they won’t attract new talent or customers,
and will eventually become obsolete.”
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The Results
Dialogue banking works, as the results from the Saving Institute’s Financial Solutions Center
show. “The endgame was our vision of being able to achieve significant growth and we’re on
that track,” says Wood. “Statistically speaking, compared to our nearby older branch template,
we have doubled our deposits since January 2015, tripled the loan volume and the fee income
has more than doubled. Looking at those metrics, an amazing transformation has occurred in
just 24 months.
“Innovations like the Financial Solution Center concept, the universal banker, redefining the
jobs of our employees and what activities take place have all made a large difference.
Interactions within the branch are much more solution-oriented because of the size and egg-
like shape of the branch; as a customer you’re going to be so close to the employees you’re
definitely going to interact.”
Increased interaction, convenience, and improved customer experience have driven real
growth at the Saving Institute’s Financial Solutions Center. Solidus was one part of that, but to
achieve the kind of results you have learned about here, all the puzzle pieces must be
considered:
—Strategic Location Experts to Determine Best Possible Site
—Financial Industry Consultants, Designers and Builders
—Vendors who Understand and Supply the Recommended Technology
—Incorporating and Training Universal Bankers
—Producing the Omnichannel Experience in the Long Term
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Contact Solidus today and discover strategic options that will enable you to
save money and boost profits across your network. Whatever your definition of success is,
Solidus can transform it into a solution. We design and construct convenient and efficient
branches your customers will love:
t: 860. 257. 4900
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