Staff Training Key to Selling Online Banking

The following coverage is from the Bank Administration Institute's Retail Delivery Conference & Expo in New Orleans

What's the best resource financial institutions have to enroll consumers in online banking? Branch staff, says Paul Ayres, senior vice president of online services for KeyBank, Brooklyn, Ohio.

A survey revealed 66% of KeyBank's customers heard about the institution's Internet banking service from a branch employee vs. 15% from "other" sources, 9% by surfing the Internet, 8% from a friend or family member, and 2% from direct mail. Thirty-seven percent of KeyBank customers are enrolled in the bank's Internet banking service--and so are 80% of its employees. "Staff use is essential for cross-selling online banking," Ayres notes.

So is education. KeyBank implemented a day-long employee workshop to help staff sell the online banking product. The workshop covers U.S. Internet trends, an overview of KeyBank's Web site, a guided tour where employees apply for a mock loan online, an online scavenger hunt, and how to overcome customers' objections. "Staff need to know about products and services to be able to sell them," he adds.

Ayres cites 12 best practices for training staff on how to sell online banking:

1. Make training a top priority for senior management.
2. Have employees use the site firsthand.
3. Limit training to retail and small-business-service employees.
4. Conduct hands-on workshops, not presentations where employees are passive learners. Solicit comments from employees to clear up misunderstandings.
5. Gear workshops to intermediate-level users--not too basic and not too difficult.
6. Put two people at each personal computer (PC). Employees benefit from having a training partner.
7. Recognize that it's hard to get a group of people together for several hours, so make it worth their while.
8. Personalize training materials to the audience.
9. Don't turn the workshops over to the training department. Employees will have detailed questions the training department can't answer.
10. Have an online employee feedback form.
11. Issue certificates of achievement following the training's completion.
12. Follow up on employees' unanswered questions.

KeyBank's online lending volume reached $500 million in 2002, Ayres reports. He expects year-end 2003 online lending totals to increase 15%. All KeyBank branches have Internet-enabled PCs for opening accounts and lending, and frontline staff receive incentives based on cross-selling products and services, including online banking.