Digital Firms and The Personal Meaning

The Digital Firms and the Personal Meaning

Working at a bank you run into a lot of customers, and a lot of situations that must be handled to make an experience effortless, and as faultless as possible. My teller, Michelle, once told me that in order to understand the art of selling, and customer service, you have to understand how they did it back in the day, before there was email, and cell phones. To me, that just sounds like a big headache. Do you mean that I have to sit there with a pen and write a letter to each one of my customers? I’ll pass. Technology today has made us not lazy, but more efficient, and time useful, of what we do, and how we do it.

To sit at my desk and write a letter to potential clients about new products or services that we now offer can take all day. Seriously, the use of email and text messages has made that part of the day something easy to complete within minutes. Back in April 2011, I sent out a mass email to numerous plastic surgeons, and home improvement business owners. I wanted to offer them financing for all of their customers’ purchases. Instead of hand writing letters that are exactly the same, which is very tedious, I was able to type the email of each doctor and business owner, and send them the exact email. What a convenience! Not only did it save time, but it also quickly generated new clients for the bank, that we did not have before. Email, that is now considered something that has been out for years, is a convenient service that everybody has!

I’ve always been a technology buff. Once I got my iPhone, and my iPad, my life has been changed. My wife says that I married my iPad, but realistically, I spend less time on my computer, and at the library because of the access that I have on the iPad. Both pieces of technology have given me the opportunity to manage email, communicate with clients, add appointments to my calendar that syncs with my computer at work, get reminded to pick up milk on the way home, and of course, do all of this while listening to my favorite Red Hot Chili Peppers album. Talk about the art of multi tasking.

Today, multi tasking is almost a necessity in the workplace. While I open a new checking account for a customer, I am also able to take messages for my coworkers, take a training class, send a text message and remind my tellers to go to lunch. I work at a slow bank, and the day still does go by fast, with the amount of things that needs to be done. I never complain, really. There just isn’t enough time in the day to handle all of the needs that must be completed.

Banking hours aren’t even convenient for every body. Again, there is not enough time in the day. Believe it or not, banks are actually starting to understand that! One thing that I’ve noticed is that convenience is now a big factor that separates one bank from the other. So it’s important for us to stay ahead of the technological curve. Our ATM’s are now like visiting a teller in the lobby, it just doesn’t have the eyes and nose. Customer’s now have the ability to be able to deposit checks and cash into their accounts, after hours. That is great for all the people that get off work too late. Instead of waiters having to carry around all of that cash till the next business day, they are able to go straight to the ATM and deposit it immediately. One of the best parts is that once you put money in, or take money out of the ATM, it is updated in all the systems immediately.

To me, that’s the best part of technology being added into the banking world: the ability to have information updated immediately. Working at a bank, we see a lot of fraud and identity theft. It’s sad to say, but times are tough these days, and especially when it gets close to Christmas, you see an increased amount of robberies, and fraud. For instance, I had a client that had her purse stolen just a couple of weeks ago. It had all of her account information in her purse. She immediately called me, had me place holds on every single debit and credit card that she had, and place alerts on all of her accounts. Once I did that, it not only updated her profile everywhere in Central Florida, but also across the nation. To me, that’s amazing! Because of the alerts placed on her account in a timely manner, I was able to save her $3,500, the next day! Imagine if this were back in the 1970’s when the only way to contact someone was over the phone, and that would require me to call every single branch (well over 500) to let them know of the fraud that is going on. It would either be a phone call or snail mail, and we all know how fast that is. All in all, technology has also helped improve the security of customers’ information and funds in the bank, in a very timely manner.

Technology in the workplace has been vital to helping any business operate on a daily basis. Every day, technology is used, whether it’s a phone call, an email, processing a deposit, setting the alarms on the bank, checking your account balances or even protecting a customers information. To me, without technology, things would be more time consuming, and there would also be a larger margin of error. I feel that every business can be considered a virtual business, since they are somehow using technology. You don’t have to operate your business online to be considered a virtual business, but it matters on how you use technological services. Call me lazy, call me indolent, but I’d much rather type an email than write a letter to every potential client. Every minute matters now a days, and we need to make sure it is used in the best manner.