Digital Channels

Like many bankers, Ellie Reineck, wants to make sure customers who interact with her internet bank get the same personal treatment as those who walk into their parent company’s branches.

Where once as boisterous as a superball bouncing in a bank vault, the mergers and acquisitions of community banks are expected to come in flat this year.

With 350 locations across Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada and Idaho, Umpqua Bank is consistently hailed as one of the nation’s most customer-centric banks.

The high-velocity change in financial services is picking up.

Modern consumers expect all services to be as easy and convenient as two-click purchasing on Amazon or hailing a ride with Uber.

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When was the last time you made an impulse purchase? You must have bent the knee once for the $79.

Few customers enjoy speaking with a bank’s interactive voice response system—and when you think about it, why should they? For starters, the systems have limited communication abilities and it can take multiple rounds of queries and responses for customers to get the information they need.

I’m always excited every March when nearly 200,000 people crowd into Austin for South by Southwest, composed of annual interactive/digital, film and music conferences.

Since the proliferation of ATMs and rise of digital banking, many banks have touted their human credentials to win back loyal customers and deepen relationships.