4 Ways a Bank Can Use CRM as a Sales Tool - CRM Software Blog

The right CRM system for your bank should allow you to see a complete view of the customer across all departments. This could include bank, residential mortgage, commercial, and wealth management relationships.

While a CRM system is great at giving you quick access to data and analytics, it can also be used to drive sales.

Here are a few ways we have seen banks use their CRM system as a sales tool:

Existing Customer Check-ins

One bank we work with has a rule that any customer with a $50,000 balance or higher, primarily deposit accounts, are contacted once per quarter. Lists of those customer accounts are generated in the CRM system as leads and assigned to specific branch employees as a follow-up task. Each quarter they are required to contact all those customers to check in on them, ask how they are doing and if there is anything additional the bank can do to assist them. The employees record the call notes to leverage for future reference and are measured on those actions. Sometimes just asking an existing customer how they are doing is enough to uncover an opportunity you would otherwise have missed.

New Customer Onboarding

When a bank onboards a new customer, each product type has a specific group of codes associated with it. For example, if they open a certain type of checking account, they get a task assigned to them through the CRM system that reminds them, "Hey, in three days, you need to send out a handwritten thank you note for this account." Fifteen days after, you need to make a phone call to make sure they received their checks and their first statement. There are many small tasks through that first year that are assigned to the employee and tracked through the CRM system.

Each contact with the customer strengthens their satisfaction and opens up an opportunity to expand the relationship with additional services. And keeping your onboarding process consistent allows anyone in the bank to provide the same level of service in each customer journey. This ensures continuity in service and reduces the risk of customer frustration.

Prospective Customers

Some banks will import lists of contacts, such as small business leads that are affiliated with a local newspaper they are partnering with. Those lists of businesses are imported into the CRM system and distributed to the branch managers. The branch managers will review the list and select the ones he or she will personally contact and mark those as leads. Having an organized lead pipeline allows you to segment potential sales opportunities by where a prospect is in the sales funnel and how and by whom they were last touched. Personalization in your outreach or re-marketing efforts can also establish a connection you can continue to nurture.

Referrals

Having complete information in the CRM system helps employees to make referrals within the bank. For example, a branch assistant manager sees a large balance in a client's savings account earning 0.01% interest or knows they need to make a SEP IRA contribution. They can make the referral through the CRM system to the bank's investment department.

If there is already a referral submitted, this will show up in the CRM system, so it is not added twice. Some banks have a rule set that after six months of no activity, which means no notes or updates, it will automatically drop off in the system, and someone else can try again to make the referral.

The person in the bank receiving that referral gets an email that lets them know they have a new prospect to contact. Even an employee working remote can receive that alert on their phone to know there is a lead they need to contact. When the lead is accepted, the original person who referred it also receives a notification.

This type of visibility and communication encourages bank employees to be on the lookout for referral opportunities that will drive revenue for the bank as a whole.