Brian Stone 0:02
Hello, and welcome to the buzz of bank automation news podcast. My name is Brian stone, and I’m the Associate Editor at Bank automation news. Joining me today is Dean Jenkins, Vice President at q2. Dean discusses the way small banks can get the most out of their FinTech partnerships, how banks self service tools can attract and onboard small business clients, and how financial institutions can use data to optimize their client relationships.Dean Jenkins 0:30
Yeah, I think the what banks really need to focus on is figuring out what their data is telling them about those relationships. banks, credit unions have a ton of data about their customers, whether that’s transaction data, we’re adding digital data to that, like, what do they do when they get online, they collect some of the firmographic data about the business as part of like the account opening process or the onboarding process. So how do we pull all that together and really understand what it’s telling us about each individual business. And then, based on that data, really building experiences that are tailored to that particular business and who they are. So rather than just provide a one size fits all, business banking solution, really thinking about how do you offer the right solutions, in the right experience for that business at that particular point in time, because as you know, all businesses, you know, they go, they go through a journey of their own and where they’re at in their journey, and what they know and what they don’t know. And so that that experience that that the financial solutions are offering can’t be static, it literally has to evolve as the businesses change themselves. And in the best way to understand that is to really understand the data, understand their transaction behaviors under understand their digital behaviors and, and really create the experience that makes sense for them at that particular point in time.Brian Stone 2:10
How can banks deploy self service tools to attract and onboard small business clients?Dean Jenkins 2:16
I think the the easy answer is figure out how to enable loan applications, account opening applications, digitally, right, rather than required for them to come into the branch or to meet with the relationship manager, make it really easy for them to start a loan application make it really easy for them to start an application to open up a new business account. And that can be either a brand new customer, to the financial institution or an existing customer that’s looking to expand their services. And so most small business owners don’t have a ton of time to figure out what’s going on with my bank and relationships are probably doing it at 10 o’clock at night after they finally close their business. And they get that squared away, and they start thinking about wow, I should probably think about how I get a loan to better support my business and where I want to go. And it’s at that point in time that you wanted to give it make it really easy and convenient for them to start that process. And that it doesn’t mean that the process has to go from end to end with no interruption, right? It can. And that would be optimal. But even if it can’t, at least starting the process, and getting them down the path when it makes sense for them, and they have time in their day is really super important to them. And then from there, you may have a relationship manager, you may have a lender, you may have a branch manager reach out to them to have a further discussion. And so the one thing I would say is that don’t necessarily say it’s got to be completely self service from end to end on everything. I think really thinking through what is the process and how can we help them get started with it and and then bringing in and connecting to the in person capabilities as they go through that process maybe perfectly appropriate and, and actually help the business to get it into the right products and solutions,

Brian Stone 4:23
having financial institutions or how are they able to digitize the Treasury onboarding process? And what does that kind of look like?

Dean Jenkins 4:31
I think I think it all starts from making sure that the data that’s being collected along the way is fed into a solution that allows you to digitize that setup process. So So in other words, if some if a relationship manager is talking to a business about adding ACH or wire or merchant services, whatever it may be, that data has to flow directly into it. rule that the bat the financial institutions back office team can use to really go through the setup process. Because it’s, it’s more than just saying, I’d like to sign up for Ach, there are limits and restrictions and agreements. And in all of the setup within the systems, that’s fairly complex, and if you don’t have a tool to do that, you’re left with manual processes that are paper based, that are prone to error that take time to go back and forth with the, with the customer to get right. And quite honestly just delays offering those products to the new customer to the existing customer, which frustrates them, they have a terrible experience to start, and really delays the time to revenue or time to value for both the new business customer and the financial institution. And so how do you take all that data that’s collected, get it into a tool that enables multiple departments sometimes at a financial institution to collaborate and get all these new products and services set up appropriately and get the agreement signed and in and really get the the business up and running on these new products that are really get them drive value for them as quickly as possible. And with as least amount of pain as possible, which, in today’s world, there’s a, there’s a lot of pain and delay associated with actually getting these products stood up and, and ready to go. So I think that it all comes down to data flow, making sure when it’s captured, it flows to the back office. And then ultimately, that flows to the setup and whether that’s either automated or even manual to actually do the setup. But making sure you you basically digitize that end to end processing the workflow associated with getting the right information to the right person and getting those products set

Brian Stone 6:52
up. What can banks do to make the most of their FinTech partnerships? With regards to like product offerings?

Dean Jenkins 7:00
I get this question a lot. Where I have bank executives that would say, Boy, there’s so many fintechs there’s literally 10s of 1000s of fintechs. Out there. Where do I start? Right, I get that question. Where do I start? Who’s the who’s the right one? My immediate question back is who’s your target market? Right? What types of businesses are you going after, if you just tried to take an approach of while these look like really super interesting fintechs. And I just want to throw them out there and see if anybody buys those solutions, it’s probably not going to work as well as you would help. And so I think you need to really turn it around and think about it from outside in. And think about if I’m going after dentists offices, or I’m going after manufacturing businesses, or I’m going after property management businesses, what is most important to them? What are the solutions that they’re looking for? What their because these fintechs solutions have done a really good job of solving specific problems for a specific user, or business or consumer, right. So they, that’s really where they specialize, they see pain, they see an opportunity, they solve that problem. Well, inherently, what that means is that most of their solutions are very targeted at a specific type of business. And so if you have a strategic market, vertical market, that you’re going after healthcare, legal entities, doctors, offices, whatever it may be, really think about it from that perspective, and what are the solutions I need to bring together to really effectively support those types of businesses in a digital world? And, and so it really comes down to understanding where your target markets are, where do you want to compete and win? And then going out from there and saying, Okay, what are the FinTech solutions that are needed for that particular type of customer?

Brian Stone 9:01
What can banks do to tailor the their digital channels to, you know, their specific business clients?

Dean Jenkins 9:08
Yeah, again, it’s, it’s really eliminating the one size fits all right? Traditionally, especially small and medium sized business customers have been given one of two options. It’s either use the retail solution, which is easy to understand, but doesn’t have the business capabilities that you may need as a business, or go to this foreign world known as cash management, or the commercial banking solution, where it is filled with acronyms and jargon. And you have to really be a banker sometimes to really understand it. In fact, we, as an industry, we took the top, let’s say top 250,000 businesses over that are over 10 million in annual revenue, and we send them to class on how to be a banker and we teach them what an ACH is, and we teach them what an agenda is an a CCD plus and a PPD plus are all the different terminology extended remittance for wire. That doesn’t work in the small and medium sized business world. First of all, they have no time, they’re not going to go to a conference and go get a certification to be a certified Treasury professional, professional to just not going to do it, they don’t have that much time, they don’t have any interest in doing that. So they expect that everything is built for them. And it’s really easy for them to, to understand. And so having configurability within your digital platform that allows you to create different experiences based on who they are, what vertical industry, are they in? What size are they what’s their sophistication, potentially what geographic location they’re in, and building and configuring solutions that are really targeted at that segment, right, or that group of businesses. That’s how you can compete and win through digital. You know, you hear all the time. I hear all the time from financial institutions, they say we we have a relationship based approach into the market. And then you say, Okay, well tell me about your digital solution. They said, Well, we have commercial cash management, we have retail banking. That’s it? Well, how do you have a relationship based approach to the market, if you’re not leveraging data to understand who that businesses and if you’re not delivering experiences that are in line with who they are, then there’s a real disconnect between, hey, I want to be your have a relationship with you. And I understand you to how you’re delivering that with a one size fits all solution that really doesn’t fit anybody because it’s not tailored to that that individual. So you know, I think it’s, it’s all about understanding your target market, again, thinking about things from from outside in. For decades, banks, credit unions, providers have been building digital solutions from inside out. In the early 2000s. We were just at a mad rush to say, how do we digitize every financial transaction that’s out there didn’t matter about the experience, just get it out there so that it’s a self service model? Well, quite honestly, we created a bit of a mess. And so how do we now think about that differently? Flip it, think about it from outside and think about it from the end user experience, what they’re trying to do, and then build the solutions and digital solutions that are in line with what their needs are. It’s really, it’s simple to say it’s harder to do. Because every says, Well, what’s different between a dentist’s office and a manufacturing company? It could just be context. It could just be what how you’re positioning ACH in both of those contexts, so that they believe that oh, this is why I should use it because my business has that particular challenge. And so really building the context and the experience, so that it encourages them to use some of these advanced capabilities can go a long way in the industry.

Brian Stone 13:01
Youth been listening to the buzz, a bank automation news podcast, please follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. And as a reminder, you can rate this podcast on your platform of choice, be sure to visit us at Bank automation news.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Brian Stone 0:02
Hello, and welcome to the buzz of bank automation news podcast. My name is Brian stone, and I’m the Associate Editor at Bank automation news. Joining me today is Dean Jenkins, Vice President at q2. Dean discusses the way small banks can get the most out of their FinTech partnerships, how banks self service tools can attract and onboard small business clients, and how financial institutions can use data to optimize their client relationships.Dean Jenkins 0:30
Yeah, I think the what banks really need to focus on is figuring out what their data is telling them about those relationships. banks, credit unions have a ton of data about their customers, whether that’s transaction data, we’re adding digital data to that, like, what do they do when they get online, they collect some of the firmographic data about the business as part of like the account opening process or the onboarding process. So how do we pull all that together and really understand what it’s telling us about each individual business. And then, based on that data, really building experiences that are tailored to that particular business and who they are. So rather than just provide a one size fits all, business banking solution, really thinking about how do you offer the right solutions, in the right experience for that business at that particular point in time, because as you know, all businesses, you know, they go, they go through a journey of their own and where they’re at in their journey, and what they know and what they don’t know. And so that that experience that that the financial solutions are offering can’t be static, it literally has to evolve as the businesses change themselves. And in the best way to understand that is to really understand the data, understand their transaction behaviors under understand their digital behaviors and, and really create the experience that makes sense for them at that particular point in time.Brian Stone 2:10
How can banks deploy self service tools to attract and onboard small business clients?Dean Jenkins 2:16
I think the the easy answer is figure out how to enable loan applications, account opening applications, digitally, right, rather than required for them to come into the branch or to meet with the relationship manager, make it really easy for them to start a loan application make it really easy for them to start an application to open up a new business account. And that can be either a brand new customer, to the financial institution or an existing customer that’s looking to expand their services. And so most small business owners don’t have a ton of time to figure out what’s going on with my bank and relationships are probably doing it at 10 o’clock at night after they finally close their business. And they get that squared away, and they start thinking about wow, I should probably think about how I get a loan to better support my business and where I want to go. And it’s at that point in time that you wanted to give it make it really easy and convenient for them to start that process. And that it doesn’t mean that the process has to go from end to end with no interruption, right? It can. And that would be optimal. But even if it can’t, at least starting the process, and getting them down the path when it makes sense for them, and they have time in their day is really super important to them. And then from there, you may have a relationship manager, you may have a lender, you may have a branch manager reach out to them to have a further discussion. And so the one thing I would say is that don’t necessarily say it’s got to be completely self service from end to end on everything. I think really thinking through what is the process and how can we help them get started with it and and then bringing in and connecting to the in person capabilities as they go through that process maybe perfectly appropriate and, and actually help the business to get it into the right products and solutions,

Brian Stone 4:23
having financial institutions or how are they able to digitize the Treasury onboarding process? And what does that kind of look like?

Dean Jenkins 4:31
I think I think it all starts from making sure that the data that’s being collected along the way is fed into a solution that allows you to digitize that setup process. So So in other words, if some if a relationship manager is talking to a business about adding ACH or wire or merchant services, whatever it may be, that data has to flow directly into it. rule that the bat the financial institutions back office team can use to really go through the setup process. Because it’s, it’s more than just saying, I’d like to sign up for Ach, there are limits and restrictions and agreements. And in all of the setup within the systems, that’s fairly complex, and if you don’t have a tool to do that, you’re left with manual processes that are paper based, that are prone to error that take time to go back and forth with the, with the customer to get right. And quite honestly just delays offering those products to the new customer to the existing customer, which frustrates them, they have a terrible experience to start, and really delays the time to revenue or time to value for both the new business customer and the financial institution. And so how do you take all that data that’s collected, get it into a tool that enables multiple departments sometimes at a financial institution to collaborate and get all these new products and services set up appropriately and get the agreement signed and in and really get the the business up and running on these new products that are really get them drive value for them as quickly as possible. And with as least amount of pain as possible, which, in today’s world, there’s a, there’s a lot of pain and delay associated with actually getting these products stood up and, and ready to go. So I think that it all comes down to data flow, making sure when it’s captured, it flows to the back office. And then ultimately, that flows to the setup and whether that’s either automated or even manual to actually do the setup. But making sure you you basically digitize that end to end processing the workflow associated with getting the right information to the right person and getting those products set

Brian Stone 6:52
up. What can banks do to make the most of their FinTech partnerships? With regards to like product offerings?

Dean Jenkins 7:00
I get this question a lot. Where I have bank executives that would say, Boy, there’s so many fintechs there’s literally 10s of 1000s of fintechs. Out there. Where do I start? Right, I get that question. Where do I start? Who’s the who’s the right one? My immediate question back is who’s your target market? Right? What types of businesses are you going after, if you just tried to take an approach of while these look like really super interesting fintechs. And I just want to throw them out there and see if anybody buys those solutions, it’s probably not going to work as well as you would help. And so I think you need to really turn it around and think about it from outside in. And think about if I’m going after dentists offices, or I’m going after manufacturing businesses, or I’m going after property management businesses, what is most important to them? What are the solutions that they’re looking for? What their because these fintechs solutions have done a really good job of solving specific problems for a specific user, or business or consumer, right. So they, that’s really where they specialize, they see pain, they see an opportunity, they solve that problem. Well, inherently, what that means is that most of their solutions are very targeted at a specific type of business. And so if you have a strategic market, vertical market, that you’re going after healthcare, legal entities, doctors, offices, whatever it may be, really think about it from that perspective, and what are the solutions I need to bring together to really effectively support those types of businesses in a digital world? And, and so it really comes down to understanding where your target markets are, where do you want to compete and win? And then going out from there and saying, Okay, what are the FinTech solutions that are needed for that particular type of customer?

Brian Stone 9:01
What can banks do to tailor the their digital channels to, you know, their specific business clients?

Dean Jenkins 9:08
Yeah, again, it’s, it’s really eliminating the one size fits all right? Traditionally, especially small and medium sized business customers have been given one of two options. It’s either use the retail solution, which is easy to understand, but doesn’t have the business capabilities that you may need as a business, or go to this foreign world known as cash management, or the commercial banking solution, where it is filled with acronyms and jargon. And you have to really be a banker sometimes to really understand it. In fact, we, as an industry, we took the top, let’s say top 250,000 businesses over that are over 10 million in annual revenue, and we send them to class on how to be a banker and we teach them what an ACH is, and we teach them what an agenda is an a CCD plus and a PPD plus are all the different terminology extended remittance for wire. That doesn’t work in the small and medium sized business world. First of all, they have no time, they’re not going to go to a conference and go get a certification to be a certified Treasury professional, professional to just not going to do it, they don’t have that much time, they don’t have any interest in doing that. So they expect that everything is built for them. And it’s really easy for them to, to understand. And so having configurability within your digital platform that allows you to create different experiences based on who they are, what vertical industry, are they in? What size are they what’s their sophistication, potentially what geographic location they’re in, and building and configuring solutions that are really targeted at that segment, right, or that group of businesses. That’s how you can compete and win through digital. You know, you hear all the time. I hear all the time from financial institutions, they say we we have a relationship based approach into the market. And then you say, Okay, well tell me about your digital solution. They said, Well, we have commercial cash management, we have retail banking. That’s it? Well, how do you have a relationship based approach to the market, if you’re not leveraging data to understand who that businesses and if you’re not delivering experiences that are in line with who they are, then there’s a real disconnect between, hey, I want to be your have a relationship with you. And I understand you to how you’re delivering that with a one size fits all solution that really doesn’t fit anybody because it’s not tailored to that that individual. So you know, I think it’s, it’s all about understanding your target market, again, thinking about things from from outside in. For decades, banks, credit unions, providers have been building digital solutions from inside out. In the early 2000s. We were just at a mad rush to say, how do we digitize every financial transaction that’s out there didn’t matter about the experience, just get it out there so that it’s a self service model? Well, quite honestly, we created a bit of a mess. And so how do we now think about that differently? Flip it, think about it from outside and think about it from the end user experience, what they’re trying to do, and then build the solutions and digital solutions that are in line with what their needs are. It’s really, it’s simple to say it’s harder to do. Because every says, Well, what’s different between a dentist’s office and a manufacturing company? It could just be context. It could just be what how you’re positioning ACH in both of those contexts, so that they believe that oh, this is why I should use it because my business has that particular challenge. And so really building the context and the experience, so that it encourages them to use some of these advanced capabilities can go a long way in the industry.

Brian Stone 13:01
Youth been listening to the buzz, a bank automation news podcast, please follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. And as a reminder, you can rate this podcast on your platform of choice, be sure to visit us at Bank automation news.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai