A personal banker must juggle new business opportunity while minimizing risk challenges. With a new paradigm of regulation and growing schemes of
fraud along with high demand to cross-sell the customer, the new accounts desk
presents a blurry line of both risk and opportunity. A
personal banker spends their day completing an entire menu of tasks such as onboarding
new customers, changing addresses for existing customers while weaving through
the maze of procedures, best practices, policies, disclosures, and product
knowledge.
Some banks shy away from calling the personal banker a
sales representative. However many community banks take the position of Texas Bank &
Trust, Longview, a $1.9 billion dollar community bank with 19 locations in east
Texas. Connie Milligan, Senior Vice President,
Director of Human Resources explains her bank’s approach, “Our lobby
representatives are expected to act as trusted advisors and identify what our customers
need. They assist in matching the right bank products with the right customer. They are all cross-trained to assist as a
teller when needed. They achieve incentives based on a
variety of criteria, including cross-selling.”
Milligan stated her bank hires those with a strong customer service mindset. When they find the right candidate they guide them on a course towards success. They start down a
learning path the bank has in place. The
new hire or an employee that moves into this position is expected to be
basically up and running after 4-6 weeks. A mentor provides intensive, position-targeted
training on the various legal and key issues. Then the employee is given a desk and charged to work
independently relying on the mentor for guidance.
“No question the proper documentation and procedures present
the greatest challenges in this position because of all the variations that
come with complex, volatile new account issues”, said Milligan.
The personal banker is typically the go-to person for answering
questions, ordering checks or replacing debit cards and must excel at
friendliness. Always on the lookout for potential
fraud, personal bankers spend time evaluating every aspect of a transaction for
risk while respecting a laundry list of regulations. The master-level personal banker knows that
scrutiny is required in every situation.
Still learning,
Honey
No comments:
Post a Comment