![How to Go Digital: The Ultimate Guide for Financial Institutions [PILLAR]](https://www.smartvault.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/fin-pillar-page.jpg)
Best Practices
How to Modernize Your Financial Institution: Build a Digital Workflow with a Document Management System
Table of Contents
- Why should credit unions and community banks go digital?
- Why should credit unions and community banks have a document management system?
- What are client portals for community banks and credit unions?
- How can credit unions and community banks choose the right DMS?
- Tips to Create Modern Workflows
- Save hours of time, keep data protected, and provide next-level service.
Why should financial institutions have a document management system?
Here are six reasons financial institutions should have a document management system and client portal.
1. Builds Community
DMS and client portals allow smaller financial institutions to provide personalized service – and it’s this great service that keeps customers happy and encourages them to recommend you to their friends and neighbors.
2. Simplifies Customer Collaboration
Client portals give customers access to their own documents, so they can securely log in to access, share, review, complete, and eSign documents 24/7. This is more convenient than calling or visiting a branch during business hours, increasing customer satisfaction and referrals. Portals enable staff to share documents and access historical information with customers instantly.
3. Makes Employees Happier (and More Efficient)
Digitizing processes eliminates the need for physical files, helps staff save time on admin tasks, and makes it easy for employees across branches to collaborate. Having a central repository for files also makes it faster to retrieve information and provide excellent service. The ability to work remotely also gives staff flexibility.
4. Creates User-Friendly Processes
DMS and client portals are user-friendly and intuitive, regardless of how tech-savvy a person is. Not only will you be able to come up to speed on the features quickly, but you can rest assured your customers and employees, regardless of their skill level when it comes to tech, will also have an easier time.
By implementing an intuitive DMS with robust security protections, financial organizations can meet customer demands for digital experiences while continuing to provide the personalized service that builds loyalty.
5. Secures Your Data
You’ll benefit from advanced security measures like automatic data backup, file versioning, activity tracking, bank-level encryption, and multi-factor authentication (MFA). And granular access controls let you be in 100% control of who accesses what folders and documents. These security standards create peace of mind for your team and customers and can help you easily meet the most stringent industry regulations.
6. Keeps You Up and Running
Using a cloud DMS reduces your vulnerability to disasters. Storing your information on the cloud rather than on-premise servers means that you won’t lose everything even if a flood or other weather event impacts your home or office. And if you do lose data, you’ll be able to restore it and get up and running quickly.
Here are 6 ways a client portal saves time and increases success.
Access files anytime, anywhere.
Don’t lose valuable time because a file exists only on one machine that might be temporarily inaccessible, or worse, destroyed.
Automate notifications.
You and your customers know right away when a file is uploaded, downloaded, or signed thanks to automatic notifications.
Organize files automatically.
Documents are filed automatically to the correct folder.
Backup files with version history.
Document version history provides a backup of your files in case of deletion or errors in recent versions.
Sign documents instantly.
No longer do you need to spend hours or even days printing, scanning, or mailing documents. Built-in tracking lets you see who has opened or signed a document.
Never lose an email or file.
A client portal allows both you and your customers to send, receive, and access documents from one, easy-to-view location.
Tips to Create Modern Workflows
Before you start thinking about a new way to work with tech, you should take inventory of your existing document workflows first. Then, consider the feedback as you determine how to improve.
Evaluate and Improve Existing Workflows
When considering what and how to improve, one of the first things you must do is determine what’s working (and not working) today. A key step in this process is gathering feedback across multiple departments and customers, so you can comprehensively understand pain points and how to address them.
Team Feedback
Let’s start with yourself and your team. Surveys and suggestion boxes are popular channels for bottom-up feedback. If you want to go a step further, create a small focus group that brings together staff from different roles to discuss pain points and ideas for improvement. You can also schedule 1-on-1 sessions to walk through specific workflows in detail and identify areas of inefficiency.
Customer Feedback
There are many ways to gather customer feedback. To encourage open discussion and collaboration, invite a small group of customers to meet in person. This will allow you to build community, show your commitment to better serving them, and help you gather critical feedback about pain points. Customer surveys are another common option. Ask questions about – or have customers rate on a scale – how easy or difficult it is to complete workflows like account opening, loan applications, completing and eSigning forms, sharing documents, and more. You should keep a tab on online reviews for customer feedback. And, of course, monitor customer churn by reviewing data on account closures. Look for patterns tied to certain workflows that may be causing attrition.
Create Automated, Repeatable Workflows
Start highlighting common themes. What frustrations, roadblocks, or ideas from your team members and customers keep bubbling up? These likely indicate opportunities with high impact. Map out which fixes and enhancements can provide the most impact versus the work required. Keep in mind those quick wins, too! Something simple, like digitizing a manual form, can vastly improve your team and customers’ experience.
Think about how you’d like to automate tasks and how your tech stack will support it. For example, instead of using emails to exchange documents, you can use a DMS with secure file sharing capabilities and a private client portal. And what about the common struggle of requesting clients to send you the same documents over and over again or having to chase down clients who missed the deadline? Well, that entire process can be automated too.
Simplify How You Request and Track Customer Documents
Create Your Request Lists:
Create unlimited document request lists for services like new accounts, loan applications, and more.
Select Your Clients:
Customers receive an email with a link to their client portal to review, complete, eSign, and upload the documents. They can leave comments, mark files as inapplicable, and simply drag and drop files for quick uploading.
Track and Manage:
Track progress in one dashboard. Review uploads, mark projects as done, and send reminders quickly. You’ll also receive a notification when a customer submits their documents.
Save hours of time, keep data protected, and provide next-level service.
Learn how SmartVault’s document management and client portal platform can empower your teams and customers to work better together.
Increase Accuracy, Speed, and Alignment
Manage documents, digitize processes, and streamline collaboration in an access-controlled system, accessible 24/7.
Modernize Customer Collaboration
Create a frictionless and secure experience, letting customers self-serve and efficiently collaborate with you online.
Secure Data and Simplify Compliance
Protect your data with SmartVault’s bank-grade security and make compliance with regulations a breeze.
