Banks today have a great number of customer experience pain points. There's the trust factor to consider, on whether customers feel their bank actually care about them and their financial struggles. But there's also the fact that customers expect a seamless experience across multiple channels, whether that's in the branch, mobile or at the branch.

In today's episode of the Bank Customer Experience podcast, Brian McEvoy, chief retail banking officer at Webster Five, joined Bradley Cooper to discuss how banks can navigate these customer pain points.

He said during the podcast that "people process technology in unison." In other words, the various platforms have to work together. It's not enough to have a fancy mobile app that doesn't integrate well with your other bank platforms or doesn't integrate with third party apps.

McEvoy added that the hardest part for banks is: "How do you make a frictionless experience for the customer?" This is a particularly big problem as customers have far less patience for any frustration in the experience.

"If there's any pain point in the experience, our tolerance and patience is less than it used to be."

So how do banks address this? McEvoy pointed to a few important elements:

• Refocus branches to have a custom experience for guests.
• Use AI to automate simpler tasks.
• Use a mobile-first strategy to ensure all your bank's features are accessible.

During the discussion, McEvoy addressed several subtopics such as:

• Identifying pain points.
• Making a good branch experience.
• Keeping the personal touch while also using AI.

Listen to the full discussion above.

Banks are embracing AI for several different purposes. Some are using it for fraud detection, loan origination and handling basic customer interactions. While big banks have a great deal of resources for AI, community banks can also take advantage of AI tools; however, there's a danger here that banks will over-rely on AI, or not give bankers the ability to override AI decisions and in turn lose that personal touch.

Mack Turner, marketing and insights analyst at Mack Turner Marketing Consulting and Insights LLC joined Bradley Cooper to discuss how banks are using and how they should be using AI in today's episode of the Bank Customer Experience podcast.

For larger banks, Turner said that "banks increasingly use AI to forecast customer behavior in the credit decisioning and predictive modeling space. Large banks use AI to scale what humans can do, especially where data is voluminous and patterns subtle."

On the community banking side, he discussed how can use AI for fraud or check detection, as well as screening small business lending.

On the banker side, this has led to bankers increasingly moving away from routine transactions to high emotion, stressful conversations with customers such as fraud events or mortgages. Turner said that due to this shift banks need to make sure employees are well supported to avoid burnout.

Other topics discussed during the podcast included:

• The importance of empathy for the customer and the employee.
• Enabling employees to override AI decisions.
• Using AI to support rather than replace humans.

Listen to the podcast in its entirety above.

It's not easy installing and maintaining an ATM or ITM. It takes a large team to handle the installation, software configuration, security and many other factors. As a result, many financial institutions are outsourcing these tasks to other vendors who provide professional ATM services.

In today's episode of the Bank Customer Experience podcast, Jeshua Buchanan, director of fintech solutions at Cook Solutions Group and Wade Fieber, director of strategic verticals at Cook Solutions Group joined Bradley Cooper, editor of ATM Marketplace, to discuss what professional services entail for banks.

During the podcast, Fieber and Buchanan discussed how professional services can help with both initial and ongoing ATM services including:

• ITM deployment.
• Server migrations.
• Check-imaging solutions.
• Testing software and products.

Fieber and Buchanan also spoke on how Cook Solutions Group provides ongoing marketing support for ATMs through its Professional Services Team, such as crafting digital signage content to be used on the machines.

Check out the full conversation above.