According to a report in The Financial Brand, Seacoast Bank’s digital strategy is not limited, as with some other financial institutions, to mobile banking or self-service channels. Instead the Florida based bank has spent considerable energies on fashioning a go-to-market strategy.
Interviewed on the website, the bank’s CEO Denny Hudson said: “banking is no longer defined by the place you go but by something you do. Banking processes were designed for a paper- and cash-based world… and for the benefit of the bank. They were driven by the bank’s goals and priorities. We’d tell customers what line to stand in, what forms to fill out, and how long they had to wait.”
He adds purposefully: “Those days are gone. We must now redesign every business process from the customer’s perspective, which has huge impacts on every aspect of the entire business model.”
The bank’s own report indicates how this is very much part of its developing strategy, in that it sets out to be a “leader in organic customer acquisition, deepening customer relationships and shifting routine transactions out of the branch by capitalizing on digital technology.”
There’s an imperative to this, the report notes sending a signal to other financial institutions: “Banks have three to five years at most to become digitally proficient. If they fail to take action, they risk entering a spiral of decline similar to laggards in other industries.”
The strategy that the bank is embarking on includes the wider use of mobile banking; offering mobile check deposit; providing different channels for online banking; and allowing customers to make applications using online application forms.
The most aggressive part of the strategy, however, is the adoption of a go-to-market approach whereby internal and external resources (like sales force and distributors) are utilized to deliver the services available to customers and potential customers. This approach is regarded as many as central to achieving a competitive advantage.
For this approach to be successful it is important that an accurate definition of the target market is formed. Next agreement must be reached with respect to pricing and distribution. Following this there needs to be a redesign every business process from the customer’s perspective. Customers are certainly less interested in the traditional bank model that was built upon the premise of face-to-face and paper transactions; instead they want 24/7 convenience and service access.
