No longer content with traditional financial services, small and medium size businesses leaders now demand strategic guidance and actionable insights to navigate the complexities of an evolving market. In this era of heightened customer mobility, banks are being called to step up as trusted advisors, leveraging the untapped potential of comprehensive treasury services to cultivate deeper relationships. The responsibility falls upon banks to adopt the role of strategic partners and unlock the transformative power of treasury services to align their offerings with evolving customer expectations and deliver robust solutions.
Expanding the Horizon of Treasury Services
As we enter the second half of 2023, commercial customers continue to place a premium on optimizing cash forecasting activities and operational efficiency. Automation and visualization technologies, such as advanced dashboards and analytics, have become indispensable. This underscores the imperative for banks to develop and expand their treasury service offerings, accordingly, providing a comprehensive suite of solutions that cater to these evolving demands.
Strategic Partnerships: The Path to Differentiation
Commercial customers, especially retailers, are actively seeking banking partners who can deliver exceptional digital experiences, offer valuable guidance and act as strategic allies. In their pursuit of forging stronger relationships and surpassing heightened expectations, banks must explore uncharted territories, stretching the boundaries of their treasury services. This entails granting customers enhanced visibility into payment transactions, extending ancillary services like change order forecasting, secure cash-in-transit SLA management, automating audit and compliance reporting and ensuring flawless Point of Sale (POS) balancing. Treasury Services can pave the way for innovative, revenue-generating solutions tailored to the specific needs of commercial customers, elevating the customer experience.
Efficiently managing cash and checks poses intricate challenges for commercial customers, often stretching their resources and expertise to the limit. Although these obstacles may appear bank-related, they frequently stem from third-party providers. For banks to truly support their customers in resolving these issues, it is essential to obtain comprehensive visibility into the entire process. The need for strategic cash and liquidity management, accentuated by the pandemic, has amplified the urgency to address the persistent challenges faced by commercial customers.
Empowering Commercial Customers
Banks can expand their treasury service offerings to encompass innovative check and cash automation solutions, fostering deeper relationships. Empowering businesses with features like provisional credit, cash-in-transit SLA management, consulting services and precise cash forecasting can optimize operations, mitigate cash losses and drive profitability. Providing comprehensive solutions further positions banks as trusted advisors, offering expertise and support that transcends traditional banking services.
While banks don’t want their digital treasury management and cash management experience to fall short of commercial customers’ expectations, there is an urgent need for banks to enhance their treasury services to bridge the gap between evolving demands and current capabilities. Increasing their offerings and enhancing the digital treasury management experience allows banks to proactively address customer expectations, solidify relationships and capture new opportunities.
Mutual Benefits: Strengthening Bank-Customer Bonds
Robust treasury services bring improved operational efficiency, streamlined employee experiences and enhanced customer relationships. Assuming the role of trusted advisors, banks cement themselves as strategic partners in their customers’ growth journeys. Commercial customers, in turn, benefit from treasury services that offer solutions to critical challenges, resulting in operational improvements, reduced cash losses and increased profitability. The holistic elevation of the customer experience fosters loyalty and satisfaction, strengthening the bond between banks and their commercial clientele.
It is imperative for banks to proactively adapt to the shifting needs of commercial customers. Neglecting to offer comprehensive treasury services and managed solutions risks the erosion of valuable business relationships. By expanding their treasury service offerings, banks not only bolster non-interest revenue but also forge enduring alliances with commercial customers. Embracing the role of trusted advisors and continuously enhancing capabilities becomes crucial for banks to navigate the future successfully and drive the sustained success of their commercial customers.
Shawn Kruger , SVP, Marketing and Strategy for Avivatech
Shawn Kruger is the senior vice president of marketing and strategy atAvivatech, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based technology start-up specializing in check and cash automation solutions. Avivatech was launched in 2021 as a result of the collaborative efforts between Digital Check and Benchmark Technology Group. Kruger, a consultant for Digital Check at the time, worked with the executive team to develop the acquisition plan for Benchmark Technology and the launch strategy for Avivatech.
With more than 35 years of experience in the real estate, payments and fintech industries, Kruger’s knowledge runs deep on topics related to: cash and check payments automation, financial services operations, business development of partner relationships, strategic management consulting, product management, product marketing, user experience design, corporate strategy and sales for new and existing product lines.
Today, Kruger leads product and market strategy, implementation and execution at Avivatech. Primarily, she is responsible for the overall product roadmaps with direct oversight of product management and ownership of all new solutions across banking and retail market segments as well as executing go-to- market strategies, growing strategic relationships across key suppliers, partners, and customers and overseeing market research.