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With digital disruptors and fintechs posing an ever-increasing challenge to traditional banking, it’s clear that banks and credit unions need a CRM to keep up and to offer the customized experience that customers expect. But not all CRMs are created equal. Managing customer relationships can be challenging in the increasingly complex banking landscape, and it’s a challenge that all-purpose CRMs often fall short in meeting.

Enter the banking CRM, a powerful tool designed specifically for the unique needs of banks and credit unions. A banking CRM gives an institution an advantage over competitors that a general-purpose CRM often fails to provide: tailored solutions to their very specific challenges.

Upgrade your goals and incentive program with consolidation and automation.

Are you wondering if employee goals and incentive programs make a substantive difference? It’s a fair question. They do, and they do it in a couple of important ways. Forbes explains, “Incentives and recognition programs help employees remain connected and engaged with their workplaces, offering motivation, which in turn, results in enhanced productivity and performance.” It’s not hard to see from there the connection between engaged, productive employees and the bottom line. In a survey of US bankers, 84% of respondents who currently have an employee incentive plan in place said their incentive plan has increased sales within their organization and increased employee engagement by encouraging better profiling, cross-selling, and referrals to other lines of business.

Banks and credit unions set goals and create incentives to reach those goals every year for their institutions; not all of them afford the same focus for employee goals and incentives. If that’s you, it’s time for a change.

Here are four ways to fine tune your employee goals and incentives program.

Deepening an existing customer relationship, especially during uncertain economic times, is often a banker’s best investment.

Cross-selling, or selling products to existing customers, is a smart move for banks and credit unions. And with inflation and possible recession in play, cross-selling makes more sense now than ever.

Knowing you need a CRM is only half the battle. Convincing your institution’s decision makers that they need to make the investment in a CRM is the other half. Here’s how to make the case.

You already know you need a CRM at your financial institution. You have already seen the evidence, either at a different institution or just reading the industry literature. You know the data shows CRM can be a game changer for banks and credit unions: improving staff productivity, generating customer engagement, and increasing wallet share,^[1] to name the top three. Convincing your institution’s decision makers to make the investment and the commitment is the next step, and it can be a challenge. Making a powerful and effective business case for CRM can be an important lynchpin in ensuring your bank or credit union stays competitive when it comes to customer relationships.

CRM: It’s no longer about IF you should, it’s about WHEN you will!

If budgeting for CRM is not in your current plan, it needs to be! The changes wrought by COVID-19 have made CRM the system that ensures “sales are pursued, customers are served, and employees are productive, even when they’re out of the office,” noted Glen Marks at Forbes. With that in mind, here are four tips for budgeting for CRM as you enter this year’s budgeting process.