Pub. 6 2015 Issue 4

26 C ommunity banks have a dilemma. Under significant market pressure to boost profitability, they need growth. To grow, they must increase their wallet share with existing customers while also attracting new customers, all in an envi- ronment of increasing competition and decreasing resources. That problem is old news—but fortunately, there’s an answer that’s anything but. The financial industry’s latest customer relationship management (CRM) solutions instinctively pinpoint individual custom- ers’ channel preferences and proactively anticipate their product and service needs. They do so by capturing and analyzing each customer relationship and its behav- ioral patterns, in real-time, by integrating with a bank’s core processing platform. That way, everyone within the bank can see the data and use it to create a truly ex- ceptional customer experience, leading to higher wallet share, increased loan growth, greater customer acquisition and healthier deposits. The core integration vastly improves CRM adoption rates among bank employees, because the solutions are easy to use and eliminate duplication of effort. Most importantly, an innovative, inte- grated CRM vastly improves the overall customer experience. Blind spots are removed, allowing any employee within the bank to speak intelligently about the customer’s accounts, assist them with questions, refer them to the appropriate party or present them with a personalized offer—all in real-time through the channel of their choice. This boosts profitability because: Integrated CRMs Boost Profitability Through Innova- tion, Agility, Collaboration By Shanda Purcell , Customer Relationship Management, CSI