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MY TWO CENTS by Debra Stamper KBA Executive Vice-President & General Counsel dstamper@kybanks.com
Rather than business as usual, don’t we really want business better than usual?
Banks are Community Cornerstones It seems that all I have thought about, written about and talked about in the last 2 months is PPP. I have become a one-trick pony!! But, in this article, I am going to try to talk about something else—related but different.
Banks are the cornerstone of their communities. And, nothing emphasizes that more than a crisis. Even before banks were officially labeled as “essential businesses” you guys had already figured out that banking services were essential. Lobbies were restricted, in order to protect your customers -- who love to hang around and talk to each other in the lobby -- as well as the tellers. But banking business did not, could not, stop. Bankers continued assisting customers with everything they needed by setting appointments, using the drive thru in ways you never thought of before, and encouraging the increased use of online and electronic resources. Bankers also were there to assure and assist customers who were afraid that things were changing too much and too fast. And, now we all want to get back to business as usual. But, do we really?
And, now we have to figure out what is needed to stay in that position. Once things settle down and the emergency of COVID-19 has passed, you will be faced with an uncertain future. You must start preparing for that uncertainty now. Look at some of the changes that you made during the last two months and see if those can be continued and marketed as additional customer conveniences. You should also look at some of the problems that were never quite resolved when doing business during these times and see if those can’t be resolved now, in preparation for another crisis that we hope won’t come. You might want to realign personnel or cross-train more, in anticipation of maximizing services and efficiencies. Maybe opportunities will arise for your bank to move into new communities. Another thing we have to figure out is how we can market our efforts already taken. When things go back to whatever normal will become, customers and communities will forget what you did. Market that, use it to your benefit—you deserve it!
Rather than business as usual, don’t we really want business BETTER than usual? We need to learn from this crisis. The COVID-19 crisis had nothing to do with banking, but banking changed. We need to market that. Banks need to take advantage of this opportunity to remind their communities that they were strong and ready for anything that came their way—including COVID-19. Not only were you able to continue regular business, but you were able to start new services and offer them to numbers of customers never imagined. Loans were modified and credit lines increased to help customers in times of need. You stepped up to make PPP loans in an unprecedented volume at a time when you were digging into COVID-19 restrictions just like everyone else. You need to remind your community that you were there working hard, getting it done…even when the regulators in charge of PPP were making it so hard. Banks are the cornerstone of their communities. KENTUCKY BANKER | 11
