BBVA USA Retail Banking Best Practices: Digital Customer Experiences
In this installment on how BBVA USA’s Head of Retail Banking Murat Çağri Süzer helped BBVA USA achieve notable branch productivity over the course of two years, we take a look at the importance of digitizing products for increased convenience and efficiency for both customers and branch employees.
Action
Build fully digital customer experiences
Result
In just two years, share of digital in total origination has increased substantially.
Strategy
Digitize credit card and personal loan products to complete transactions in a more efficient manner:
In 2017, BBVA USA began to implement a strategy that called for digital at the forefront for profitable growth. As a result of this push toward using digital as a tool for a superior customer experience and increased customer acquisition, the bank experienced a doubling of its digital unit sales from 2016 to 2017, and digital sales of the bank’s credit card products showed steady increases over the course of 2017, from a paper application process in the first quarter of the year to digital applications overtaking paper to finish the year.
Since that time, multiple products have been digitized for customer application, whether in branch or via the bank’s digital channels, which has led to substantial increases in the share of digital in total origination.
Beyond the obvious convenience benefit, customers also see efficiency gains from a fully digital process. In the case of credit cards, customers who are approved are immediately informed of the approval and that their credit card is being sent, and with some of the bank’s loans, like Express Personal Loan, customers often know if they are approved within minutes, with the funding ready to be transferred to any account they prefer.
Süzer: "Our digital efforts allow us to focus more time and effort on the most important part of our business - the people we serve."
“Branch employees and customers appreciate the increased efficiency that comes with digitization of products, as well as the ability to conduct their business in the channel they most prefer,” said Süzer. “Beyond that, making product application and fulfillment digital makes sense from an efficiency point of view for both parties - specifically, for our branches, it frees up their time, which allows them to develop a relationship and understanding of our customers and their needs.”
“Our digital efforts allow us to focus more time and effort on the most important part of our business - the people we serve.”
To read the first story in the series which reviews the ways in which digital transformation adoption became a strategic imperative for each of the bank’s 642 branches and its more than 3,700 branch employees, click here.
To reach more about Süzer’s work in transforming the bank’s branch network, read BBVA USA Retail Banking: Blending the best in branches and digital.