Video expands face-to-face meetings

WORD TRAVELS: In a conference room at Savings Institute Bank & Trust in Newport, Cristina Feden and Tom Olivier videoconference with Jason White, IT director at the institution’s training center in North Windham, Conn. / PBN PHOTO/KATE WHITNEY LUCEY
WORD TRAVELS: In a conference room at Savings Institute Bank & Trust in Newport, Cristina Feden and Tom Olivier videoconference with Jason White, IT director at the institution’s training center in North Windham, Conn. / PBN PHOTO/KATE WHITNEY LUCEY

Meeting face to face is a critical element in building relationships, so some banks, including Bank of America and Savings Institute Bank & Trust, are expanding the use of videoconferencing to maintain one-on-one conversations among employees in different locations and to offer customers an opportunity to meet with specialists, such as mortgage loan officers.
Webster Bank maintains its balance between videoconferencing for training and town hall-style events for employees and the personal interaction of actual face-to-face meetings.
At least one financial institution, Bank Rhode Island, sees videoconferencing as potentially detrimental to the relationships it develops through personal meetings, which are easily manageable in the nation’s smallest state.
Large national institutions such as Bank of America embrace videoconferencing. The banking giant plans to add videoconferencing capabilities at 500 branches across the country during the next couple of years, said Bank of America spokeswoman Tara Burke.
“It’s really about providing convenience and flexibility for our customers,” said Burke. “The videoconferencing is for consumers and small businesses.
“When they come in, they’ll have the convenience to connect with someone, so they won’t have to come back another time,” she said. “They might want to meet with a financial adviser or a small-business specialist or a mortgage specialist.”
Bank of America currently has videoconferencing capabilities in 80 locations, including one in Boston. None are in Rhode Island.
At branches of Savings Institute Bank & Trust, which acquired NewportFed in September 2013, an upgrade is in progress for phones and the overall communications system, said President and CEO Rheo Brouillard.
“We’ve already been using videoconferencing internally for the past year or so,” said Brouillard. “The acquisition of NewportFed really prompted us to use that technology more.”
Willimantic, Conn.-based Savings Institute Bank & Trust has 26 offices in its two-state footprint, with five in Rhode Island. The Newport and Westerly offices have videoconferencing capabilities, said Brouillard.
“We probably use videoconferencing several times a month,” said Brouillard. “For instance, our lenders in Rhode Island don’t have to drive to Connecticut to meet with the lending department there.” A common use of videoconferencing is for a loan review.
While videoconferencing capabilities require a financial outlay, that’s just one more piece of continuing technology upgrades, he said.
“We’ll probably implement more videoconferencing in December,” said Brouillard. “We have a new branch opening then in Tolland, Conn. It’s across the street from a branch that’s being relocated. The new branch will have much more of an electronic arrangement. Customers will have a tech bar where they can conduct many of their transactions.
“At some point in time, a customer will be able to sit in one of our branches and be connected visually to a staff person – perhaps a life-insurance person or someone who’s an expert in stock and bond purchases,” he said.
Waterbury, Conn.-based Webster Bank uses videoconferencing for one of its traditional employee events, said Bob Twomey, regional vice president for Massachusetts and Rhode Island, whose office is in Providence.
“When our CEO, Jim Smith, wants to have a town hall meeting for all our employees, they have a mega-conference room in New Britain, Conn., and they stream the video out to all the regions,” said Twomey. In addition to New Britain, videoconferencing facilities are in the bank’s Connecticut offices in Waterbury, Hartford and New Haven, as well as in White Plains, N.Y., Boston and Providence. “I’m encouraging our management to use videoconferencing more frequently, because I’m one of the farthest away and it saves time and money,” said Twomey. “I’m looking at two hours each way to go back-and-forth to Connecticut.”
Videoconferencing isn’t even in the plans at BankRI – as a matter of fact, it’s purposely avoided, said Steven Parente, senior vice president and director of retail banking.
“We don’t do videoconferencing. It’s not a direction we would go in,” said Parente. “Our whole model is about developing a continuous relationship. That’s how we differentiate ourselves.
“We really focus on relationship-building with face-to-face interactions, especially with new customers,” said Parente.
“We want to provide the customer with the best products and services at the original meeting and expand our relationship for other services,” he said. “We believe it would be more difficult for a customer looking for a small business or a commercial loan or a mortgage to meet by videoconference instead of face to face.”
Another deterrent from adding videoconferencing for BankRI is that there’s not an economy of scale, he said.
“It makes more sense for larger banks with decentralized call centers away from your branches,” said Parente.
BankRI’s strategy is to make the most of Rhode Island’s small scale.
“We’re pretty comfortable that our branches are staffed with people we need. We have mortgage representatives in all our territories,” said Parente.
“If a customer wants to meet with a mortgage originator, they can set an appointment at one of our branches,” said Parente. “Even if they don’t have an appointment, our staff in the branch could contact a mortgage originator and we’d have one at that location in 15 minutes.” •

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