Unmasking work friction: Hidden hurdles cost banks millions

Banks are always looking to attract and retain deposits regardless of market conditions. Assuring they can keep and grow a customer’s accounts, and at an attractive cost of doing business, depends on a productive workforce that’s set up for success. That extends from the tech available to the processes in place.

But far too often, bank employees run into moments of “work friction,” or daily speed bumps. The time they waste as a result can cost banks as much as $78 million a year for every 10,000 employees, by some measures.

The good news is there’s a proven way to tackle work friction. But first, it’s important to understand what work friction looks like at banks – and how the costs can quickly snowball.

What work friction looks like at banks

Think of work friction as the people, processes and technology that make it hard for workers to do their jobs. At a bank, this might look like…

• Siloed customer data. Without access to a customer’s mobile banking data, for instance, branch staff may have to ask for information that already exists in the bank’s system. What’s more, they’ll likely struggle to deliver the personalized experience customers expect.
• Frustrating call center software. Maybe it takes forever for call records to load. Or data entry fields never autopopulate. No matter the problem, hiccups like these can slow customer service to a glacial pace.
• Multi-step approval processes. If a customer support agent needs multiple approvals to overnight a new credit card or issue a statement credit, that can take time away from other customers – and frustrate the one on the line.

To be clear, some work friction is unavoidable in banking. Thorough compliance practices are necessary to protect customers’ financial data. And banks need rigorous anti-fraud measures to mitigate risk.

But there are moments of friction that banks can avoid. We’ll dive into these in the next section.

Work friction wastes time and money

Work friction primarily costs banks by tanking productivity. The more time employees sink into each task, the less time they spend generating revenue – which adds up to millions of dollars in wasted work.

But customers can also feel the effect of work friction. If a branch employee or customer support agent takes forever to deliver support, customers will likely grow frustrated. That’s a recipe for losing – not retaining – deposits. Let’s look at a scenario to illustrate.

Picture a customer who’s called their bank after their debit card got declined. They’re stressed from the moment they hop on the line.

An agent picks up, but their call center software takes a full minute to load. The customer grows more stressed: they were picking up a gift for their partner on the way to their anniversary dinner and they’re already running late.

Once the agent has a sense of the situation, they put the customer on hold while they flag down their manager to understand why the card was declined and identify support actions to take. Except the manager is overstretched helping other agents. So the customer waits on hold for minutes. At this point, they’re not just anxious, but agitated. And in the meantime, the agent’s call queue grows longer.

Moments like this are bad for employees and customers alike. The employee can’t deliver efficient support. And instead of getting instant financial relief, the customer walks away with a bad experience on top of an already emotional one. That alone could drive them to another bank. The overall result: a huge hit to banks’ bottom line.

Discover work friction with great data

It’s clear that work friction is expensive when left unmanaged. So what’s the best way to keep it from spiraling into a full-blown crisis?

The key is to ask employees where they experience the most friction every day. Their answers can help you prioritize which problems to solve and guide you toward the most effective solutions.

In order to gather those answers, here’s what I recommend:

• Start small. Instead of sending a massive, company-wide survey, send a handful of questions to a specific team.
• Identify your highest-friction moments. Work friction software can help you pinpoint and prioritize the worst moments of work friction (like onboarding a new customer or pulling credit risk data). It’ll also let you see each friction point within those moments, whether it’s related to technology, people, or processes.
• Triage your efforts based on impact. Focus on easing friction where it costs your bank the most.

As you design and test out solutions, make sure to keep employees in the loop. They’ll let you know if your solutions lead to less friction or if things feel like more of the same.

Don’t miss the trees for the forest

Most bank leaders recognize the effects of work friction. But the causes are often invisible. It’s like missing the trees for the forest: you can see a canopy of problems, but not where they stem from.

Work friction data can help you see the full picture. The sooner you can start solving work friction, the easier it will be for employees to do their best work – and bring in the deposits your bank needs.

Christophe Martel is Co-Founder and CEO of FOUNT Global, Inc.