Chairman’s Corner

KBA CHAIRMAN’S CORNER by James A. Hillebrand Chairman & CEO, Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. 2021-2022 KBA Chairman

What Our Customers Need Now

- SOLUTIONS - OPTIONS - STABILITY - ACCESS - CONFIDENCE

Economic uncertainty is taking a toll on our customers.

Mental, physical and financial wellbeing are at risk in difficult times. We are in a much different place today than we were just a year ago.

Everyday life is more expensive. Our customers are feeling the pain of rising gas prices and inflation among other issues that have arisen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now forced to focus on the staples, customers are reducing home energy use, eliminating restaurant meals, canceling large purchases and putting vacations on hold.

It is our job as bankers to support our customers’ changing needs through tough situations. How we realize their expectations and respond can illustrate understanding, earn loyalty and shape how customers interact with us in the future.

Our customers need solutions. Banks know how to help customers save money. We can verify that our customers are signed up for the right types of accounts, proactively investigate refinancing options, provide targeted relief and talk with our customers frankly about how they manage money.

Financial education can be powerful – and this is an area where we’re all experts. Sharing valuable insight now can create smarter and savvier customers of the future.

Through superior customer service and active engagement with our customers, we can ask the right questions and find answers to financial hardships. We need to set ourselves apart by taking a holistic look at what we can provide and how we can connect with our customers.

Our customers need options. The definition of what support looks like for our customers is changing. The modern customer expects speed, efficiency and convenience – at a minimum. We need to go above and beyond to ensure that each customer has several delivery channels to interact with the bank to meet those expectations.

The pandemic has spurred adoption of digital tools – mobile banking, online bill pay, interactive teller machines – and we now have new options and new behaviors from our customers to improve and perfect. We can still provide a high level of service and meet customer needs while allowing them to bank anywhere and anytime.

Our customers need stability. Now is not the time to chase new ideas or change our personalized approach to banking. While others may say that banks need less branches and less staff, I know that the tried-andtrue relationship-based service that our bank has provided for more than 100 years will always have value. Some things never change. We don’t need to reinvent ourselves to stay relevant. You know your customers and your market better than anyone else – so don’t forget what matters!

We have seen tough times in the past and we’ll see them again. The hardships of the recession in 2008-2009 taught us that relationships matter. If we do our homework, dig into how we’ve historically weathered storms, and stay true to what has proven results, we can all make it over this hump.

Our customers need access. Making vital connections in a way that is easy and approachable allows us to provide the support our customers need, as soon as they need it. We must give them a clear path to experts in various lines of business, from wealth management to commercial real estate lending, to answer their questions and overcome challenges.

If we can empower our frontline team members to steer customers directly to a person who is ready and available to help, we all win. This means having staff in call centers and branches at the right levels, making sure everyone on all teams is ready to act swiftly, and having efficient processes that don’t slow down our path to support.

Take a hard look at any barriers in your practices and procedures. Anything that is done day in, and day out should not have any unnecessary hoops to jump through. Pivot your delivery channels and processes to invest in what is optimized to be easy.

And finally, our customers need confidence. In times of uncertainty, our customers rely on their bank and their bankers to be grounded. Trust your teams to make decisions that can help boost our customers’ confidence in the bank and in their own financial wellbeing.

The pandemic has caused so many unknowns making a solid foundation is essential. We can’t predict the future. We can follow economic outlooks and try to guess what’s next, but the most important stories aren’t on the news, they’re inside your bank facilities every day.

Listen to your managers and frontline workers. They are an invaluable sounding board to improve how we do business. Their feedback and front-line experience help us know how our customers are changing and what they’ll need now and in the future.

When we trust our teams and activate them to use their unique talents, our confidence carries on to the customers to boost their wellbeing and create customers for life.