With the recent referendum decision to leave the EU, further afield banking suppliers are now scouting the UK as their next big venture.
Primarily, more US businesses are weighing up their options for moving into the UK banking sector, to take on the existing home-grown suppliers and offer competitive service and rates.
In rebuttal, UK banks will need to ensure they maintain a competitive edge to stay ahead of their current competition and introduce new and enticing offers and services to the public.
UK retail banks have to ensure they maintain a head on the market through the development of; introductory and ongoing offers, access banking in line with technological developments and optimising their customer service through ongoing personal and retail banking training.
What are the responsibilities of a retail banker?
Banks need to maintain a clear idea of the industry standard, set for retail bankers. Not only will this ensure compliance with stringent regulations, but also ensure their standard of customer service can rise above the average expectancy.
Customer services
With the majority of retail banking roles entailing a large amount of contact with customers, we understand that it is imperative that your employees are properly trained in excellent customer service as well as remaining commercially aware.
Personal and retail banking training ensures that both management and their teams, maintain the ability to deal with customer complaints, with extra emphasis on ensuring they are prepared to deal with queries that often cause issues for frontline staff.
Implementing change
Many retail banking managers will find that they will frequently need to implement the launch of new products, services, and process that have been devised by head office. Personal and retail banking training will ensure that your line management teams are clear on the most effective way to implement these new changes.
Representation in the community
Diversity awareness, humility, and authenticity are core constructs that are implemented via the personal and retail banking training system, which aims to build employee skills that ensure a positive representation of the bank within the community. Trust and the ability to re-engage and rebuild this with customers is a vital ability that needs to be prevalent in every customer-facing banking employee.
Recent changes and new entrants into the UK banking sector
With US companies eyeing the UK markets in line with the expectant exit of a number of prevalent EU businesses from the nation, it’s no wonder that the banking sector would follow suit.
The news recently broke of Goldman Sachs diversifying into a UK banking sector, following the launch of their online lending platform, Marcus, just 18 months ago. The movement into a UK retail banking arm means that UK retail banks will need to ensure they can improve and maintain their overall service offerings, which should be managed through personal and retail banking training for staff across the board.
Technology and banking
With numerous data breaches over the past few years, customers are now more cautious than ever, particularly when it comes to dealing with a trustworthy and knowledgeable bank. The slightest discrepancy can lose customers en mass, and equally, if your online banking system does not operate in a way that organically makes sense to them, customers are less likely to trust it, and your business, to manage their finances securely.
Equally, your staff should understand the benefits of these online banking programmes. Personal and retail banking training should reinforce the ways in which the integration of technology are used to remain commercially viable and appeal to a broader demographic of customers.
Blockchain technology has been recognised as a system that can streamline the banking process, offering an alternative to current, time-consuming processes.
This system will aim to decrease the number of participants that are involved during the transaction process, with banks the world over testing this method, either through investing in start-up companies building the technology or partnering with Fintech companies that already use blockchain.
The incorporation of blockchain technology has proved to be efficient and economically friendly, as well as allowing banks to use systems based in these processes to develop new business models that remove, outdated legacy processes
How can frequent training offer a competitive edge to your business?
Innovation is heralded as the key driver for the future success of the banking sector. The integration of digital technology across both back office and customer-facing banking systems were originally considered disruptive, but are now driving transformational change.
Strategic change has been brought about through the overall changing landscape of how we use technology in our day-to-day lives, but also the expectancy of customers have of their service providers. Despite the role of banking not changing all too much, the way that banking is delivered has evolved dramatically.
Personal and retail banking training will allow financial institutions the ability to meet the high expectations that their customers maintain and also allow them to more effectively compete in the saturated markets, with an increased threat brought about by new financial technology players.