When Rockland Trust synced up with an ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator grad to launch a virtual digital banking platform, it took relationships between the community bank and its customers to a whole new level.
By Colleen Morrison
For Rockland Trust, a $20 billion-asset community bank in Rockland, Mass., strengthening digital bank interactions has been a priority, but how to do it while supporting the customer relationship proved to be a challenge. The bank connected with ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator alum Agent IQ, and that collaboration opened the door to a custom solution, fittingly named YourBanker.
YourBanker: Pilot numbers
64,000+
logins and counting (with no marketing)
* * *
70%
scored YourBanker with a perfect 7 out of 7 rating
* * *
1,000+
new logins per week
* * *
500–600
conversations per week
* * *
33
bankers (and climbing) included in the product
“The biggest challenge for customers is the ability to have that single point of contact who’s there to help with whatever they need,” says Patrick Myron, senior vice president of retail network strategy and sales analytics at Rockland Trust. “With YourBanker, they can select that banker and either start a new relationship or extend the one they already have.”
YourBanker is housed within the community bank’s online and mobile platforms, allowing customers to connect directly with a Rockland Trust team member from a carousel of “cards.” Customers can also choose from a series of cards containing a banker’s name, title, areas of expertise and a fun fact to start up a new relationship.
The connection happens via a digital approach not dissimilar to text messaging. Time-sensitive matters are directed to the most appropriate next action. “When their banker is not available, but they have an option to talk to someone else on a non-urgent issue, customers select to wait for their primary banker,” says Slaven Bilac, CEO and co-founder of Agent IQ. “In fact, 75% to 85% value talking to a person they know and have an ongoing relationship with.”
With a desire for personal connections in mind, Rockland Trust and Agent IQ see YourBanker as a means to facilitate virtual relationship banking.
Patrick Myron: Community bankers are really good at face-to-face relationships, but even pre-COVID, customers were not coming in [to branches] as much as they used to. We wanted a way to create that same type of relationship, but digitally … and this is the tool to bridge the gap between the physical branch and the digital.
Slaven Bilac: We believe community banks really differentiate on the quality of service and the high-touch personal relationship. Collaborating with us, they can take those key services into the digital space.
The Rockland Trust team wanted to leverage the familiarity, safety and security of their online and mobile banking solutions.
Myron: We wanted to integrate with our existing infrastructure. That way, the user is authenticated, logged in and validated in a secure environment. Plus, the customer is already familiar with the interface. So, our mobile app provider worked with Agent IQ and its software development kit to make it happen, and we were the first bank in the country to integrate this product into our online banking and mobile app.
Bilac: Lynq by Agent IQ is the product behind YourBanker, and it’s configurable to allow Rockland Trust to provide its tone of voice and customer journeys. YourBanker is now a menu option in the bank’s online banking and mobile app. When the customer clicks on the icon, they are connected to code that we host, but they receive service from Rockland Trust employees.
Forty percent of all digital banking customers now use YourBanker and, with the help of Agent IQ, continues to transform the way customers engage with the bank.
Bilac: Early on, we agreed to an agile approach to make sure Rockland Trust’s customers have the best experience. We have continued providing biweekly releases, new code, improvements and features that Rockland Trust can apply at its discretion. For example, we’ve added video calling, co-browsing and inline translation into more than 100 languages.
Myron: We have video on our product roadmap. It would be great to have a YourBanker discussion and say, “I have the ability to implement video; would you like to talk face to face?” Innovation has to continuously add value. So, we monitor what is working and not and how to change as we move forward. The whole goal is to make our customers’ lives easier.
Colleen Morrison is a writer in Maryland.
