Survival of Retail Banking

I recently came accross the below article and was fascinated by some of the industry trends and the emphasis put on the strategy towards the ”survival” of retail banking.

“When retail distribution specialists are looking at the positioning of branch real-estate there are a number of considerations, but the foremost consideration is where physically to put a branch to enable the most visits – essentially, how convenient it is to get to a branch. But these days, the branch simply isn’t the most convenient channel to use – Internet, Mobile and ATMs are far more ‘convenient’.

Key segments like Mass Affluent, and key product areas like mortgages, wealth management and loans are just too easy to position and service through direct channels. Branches better start figuring out how they’re going to make money over the next 5 years, and they better do it fast.” – From the Branch Networks: Where do we go from here? article in www.Banking4tomorrow.com See the full article here (Branch Network Industry Trends)

A key area of the equation is controlling the staffing cost element. Teller transaction volumes are down while salary & benefit costs are way up. The time is now for financial institutions to take measurable action. FMSI’s Teller Management System™ (TMS) finds the right balance for a teller line by scheduling tellers based on forecasted transaction volumes, leading to significant labor cost savings while balancing the desired service levels.

NEW Bank and Credit Union Contact Center Scheduling System

(PRWEB) June, 2010 — “The ContactCenter Management System™ (CMS) enables community banks and credit unions to take advantage of a tool that for the most part has only been utilized by much larger financial institutions – an automated scheduling solution based on forecasted call volumes,” says W. Michael Scott, CEO of Financial Management Solutions, Inc., “By automatically scheduling agents based on forecasted call volumes and agent work preference, CMS allows for an optimized contact center staff, resulting in significant labor cost savings.”

The automated web-based scheduling engine for CMS takes volume forecasts by contact center and matches it to agent work preferences – creating detailed monthly work schedules. You can easily “tweak” schedules, remove or add an employee to the schedule, or override any of the basic parameters you originally set up.

In addition to the automated scheduling feature, CMS also offers unique to the financial institution industry, an array of monthly contact center management reports (CMS Reports) that analyze key productivity metrics including:

Agent Productivity
Actual Staffing Effectiveness
Banking Industry Peer-to-Peer Comparisons
Plus Many More Reports from a Management Perspective

12 Months Balances of Four-year CDs Have Increased

Consumers gravitatie towards the product with the greatest return. Lately this product has been four-year CDs, according to data tracking firm Market Rates Insight. "Over the past 12 months, balances of four-year CDs have increased by $17 billion from $149 to $166 billion. During the same time period, balances of all other CDs declined from $264 billion to $225 billion. Credit union data was not tracked by MRI," States Michelle Samaad from her recent CUTIMES article (click here).

How have your four-year CD sales been? Are they in-line with this industry trend? Tracking sales per institution, branch and individual lobby employee is something that every successful organization does well. Simply knowing your numbers is not enough. You have to monitor, forecast and improve them with a dedicated process. You may not have dedicated resources to keep up to this level of detail with your platform side of your business. With the Lobby Tracking System (LTS) from FMSI, this time will be drastically reduced allowing you to keep up with monitoring, forecasting and improving your lobby performance.



Financial Management Solutions, Inc. (FMSI) LTS system will ultimately help you improve your sales and staffing performance.

Soaring to New Heights with the FMSI Lobby Tracking System™

The Story of a Credit Union’s Pursuit of a Quality Lobby Experience

Located in Dayton, Ohio home of the Wright Brothers, the Wright-Patt Credit Union (WPCU) over the last year has soared to new performance management heights with the Financial Management Solutions, Inc. (FMSI) Lobby Tracking System™ (LTS). Much like Orville and Wilbur’s dedication towards historic innovation, Wright-Patt Credit Union has a serious commitment in having a balanced support for all three stakeholders of their organization including: the credit union itself, their employees and their members. An area that plays a major role in all three interests is the lobby experience. LTS armed WPCU with the credit union business intelligence they required to greatly surpass their ideal lobby experience ambitions.

Improvements to the Sign-in and Service Tracking Process

Historically, WPCU and its 22 locations had a sign-in clipboard for tracking members waiting in the lobby. This process was chaotic and could likely result in poor service. For example, they had trouble tracking wait times. Members would sign the clipboard and could potentially wait 30 minutes without a manager being aware of the situation. Another example was the inability to know which product(s) the members were there to discuss, which many times had a negative impact on service - due to a discrepancy in Member Service Representative (MSR) product selling clearance levels not matching the member’s product. To top it off, the clipboard caused some members to have major concerns over privacy. Needless to say, WPCU’s management team recognized that there was some room for improvement.

When WPCU implemented the LTS solution, it immediately allowed for real-time tracking of all members – from the minute they walked in the door - to the minute they left. It was the perfect solution for identifying and limiting WPCU’s wait time issues, product assignment service issues and member privacy concerns. So how does LTS work? Essentially, when a member arrives in the lobby they enter their information into a secure computer or a greeter types in their information. Immediately, all MSRs and management can see the member through the LTS queue management tool. If a member is waiting for longer than a designated amount of time, “alert” boxes will pop up on each MSR’s and management’s screen immediately notifying them of the situation. Furthermore, displayed next to each member name in the queue is what product(s) they are there to discuss. With these LTS enhancements, WPCU was able to dramatically improve their lobby sign-in and service tracking process.

Management Reporting

For years, Jeff Carpenter the VP of Membership and Development at WPCU, had to rely on what he described as a “gut feel” when comparing the performances of different MSRs and branches. He simply did not have the concrete data to support his decisions and described this experience by stating, “I would hear stories from one branch about how great their lobby experience was and I would also hear different stories from another branch about how poor their lobby experience was. One branch was contempt with the number of MSRs they had and the other was asking to hire more MSRs. Without regular and precise performance data such as the number of products sold and how long the average wait times were, it was very difficult to discern the discrepancies between the two branches. FMSI’s Lobby Tracking System™ gave me the data I needed to better analyze the branch comparisons and make more informed and confident decisions. Over the past year I have utilized the LTS management report on a weekly basis.”

LTS Best Practices from the VP of Membership and Development at WPCU

• Have a weekly conference call with your management team to review the LTS data. With all the emails they receive in a week, this call highlights the most important topics.
• During the sign-in process, train your MSRs to avoid clicking “accept” before they actually have a member in their office. A potential issue can occur when two MSRs go to service the same member, which can result with the member ending up in the system with the wrong MSR.
• Pick up the phone and call FMSI’s Client Services team. They not only were extremely helpful during the roll-out of the LTS product, but their general expertise and specific insights into the credit union world have been invaluable.

With an improved sign-in and service tracking process combined with detailed monthly management reports, Wright-Patt Credit Union has truly soared to new heights. Just as Orville and Wilbur’s commitment to flying perfection revolutionized the world, Wright-Patt Credit Union’s balanced dedication to all 3 stakeholders, blended with the powerful FMSI LTS solution, fundamentally refocused how they managed their lobby experience.

The Teller Management System™ - “It’s Not Science Fiction”

A Closer Look at a Credit Union’s Productivity and Scheduling Efficiency Improvements

“It’s Not Science Fiction,” is the latest marketing campaign for the United States Air Force (USAF) highlighting its futuristic technologies, such as remotely piloted aircrafts and their space command network. Much like the USAF, Tyndall Federal Credit Union (TFCU) - which had its first office established on a Florida USAF base in 1956 - has been winning battles of their own with technological solutions from Financial Management Solutions, Inc. (FMSI). TFCU and its 9 locations, has benefited greatly from utilizing FMSI’s Teller Management System™ (TMS). They reduced turnover of their best tellers and enhanced their scheduling process, which led to an improvement in productivity and an optimization of their staffing.

Retaining and Rewarding Top Performing Tellers

Mario Luppino - Branch Operations Executive at TFCU - was aware of some staffing issues in his branch network. He was losing his best tellers due to an inequality in wages. Specifically, his top performers were not being rewarded for their exceptional service and they were leaving the organization. Mario needed a solution that would help him resolve his costly turnover problem.

Mario found FMSI and was excited to learn that the “technological” TMS solution was exactly what he was looking for. The monthly TMS report in essence collects and reports trends in critical areas of the teller area at the institution, branch and individual performer levels.

Having this information allowed Mario to determine exactly who his top talent was and he established a comprehensive incentive program that rewarded them based on key TMS performance indicators - such as transactions per hour (TPH). Mario described this experience by stating, “The implementation of The Teller Management System™ and specifically its incentive program was a huge success. I was able to retain my best tellers and we saw a favorable boost in our productivity numbers as a direct result.”

The following is a TFCU incentive plan related excerpt from “Talented Team Is Behind Tyndall FCU’s Growth and Success, Says CEO” - Credit Union Time April 14th, 2010 Edition

“One unexpected spinoff from the (incentive) plan has been enhanced communication among participants, HR and senior executives. Employees ask, "How can I get from a level 3 to a level 4?" That opens conversations offering performance feedback and new ideas.”

An Enhanced Scheduling Process

TFCU historically scheduled their tellers the best that they could. Without the “technological” TMS solution, they did not have a monthly report quantifying historic traffic patterns for each branch and they had to manually fill out the branch schedule, which was an arduous process. The TMS automated branch scheduling tool called the Online Scheduling™ (OLS) system significantly improved their scheduling process. OLS utilizes monthly transaction data to create an optimal full-time or part-time staff mix that best meets transaction volume forecast and productivity goals.
Along with expediting the arduous schedule creation process the OLS solution significantly improved account holder service. For example, longer wait times would sometimes result during peak lunch periods, due to many of the tellers being on their breaks. The automated scheduling tool immediately corrected this situation by scheduling the proper amount of tellers based on historic transaction volumes.

Best Practices from the Branch Operations Executive at TFCU

• Incorporate comparative benchmarking (where they rank in their peer groups) as part of your incentive program. Our top 5 get payouts based on placement. We have had all but 2 of our tellers achieve this goal over the past year!
• Hold regular meeting with Teller Supervisors to review TMS reports.
• Once a year hold a refresher class on TMS for your staff.
• Include managers and supervisors in the TMS incentive program. Have them receive a certain percentage based on their teller’s monthly performance.

Just like the USAF remotely piloted aircrafts and space command network, improving member service levels and optimizing staffing levels with TMS “Is Not Science Fiction.” Equipped with FMSI’s Teller Management System, Tyndall Federal Credit Union was able to retain and reward their best tellers and substantially enhance their scheduling process.