Branch Payments: A Secret Weapon in
the War for Customers

"Our goal is to remain competitive and retain customers by providing them with the industry's most innovative products and services." Sound familiar? Chances are if you're a banking professional, you've heard this more than once lately. That's not to say it's cliché. In fact, that sentiment remains the foundation of successful banking in the 21st century.

But before you get too caught up in thinking about new services to provide, stop and take a minute to re-consider your existing ones. Just as much as customers love new products and services that make corporate and retail banking faster and easier, they will also gravitate toward services that lower their costs and mitigate risk.

These benefits can come in the form of reduced charges because certain functions are more streamlined, require less processing and ensure that private information is properly safeguarded. Now more than ever, bank processes are being scrutinized to minimize risk, maintain regulatory compliance and control costs traditionally passed back to customers. And for most banks, the branch is the convergence point.

So, what exactly are we talking about when we refer to inefficient branch payment processes? Here are just a few:

• Relying on typewriters to create on-demand checks at branch locations.
• Using in-branch phone lines to initiate front- to back-office wires.
• Initiating wires by communicating PIN numbers and sensitive account information verbally.

None of the above processes can be considered rare or infrequent. Each is widely considered common practice in branch locations. Take the processes surrounding wire initiation for example. Without automation, this process is largely dependent on verbal communication in which PIN numbers are spoken aloud two to three times. Under these conditions, the information can no longer be considered secure.

A secure, Web-based payments automation and information reporting platform, such as WebSeries® from Bottomline Technologies, can allow banks to reduce the risk, inefficiencies and high costs inherent in current payment processes. At the branch level, authorized users can quickly print money orders, various types of cashier checks and other official items when and where they are needed, as well as process electronic payments and initiate wires securely from the same system.

The very nature of branch operations is changing rapidly as banks, large and small, push themselves to provide customers with incentives for maintaining and extending business relationships. While some of these products and services may not be considered "cutting-edge," they have a great impact on defining outstanding customer service. In the end, that may be sufficient enough reason to make branch payments your secret weapon in the war for customers.

Click here for more information on WebSeries and how payments automation can transform your branch operations.