Is your communication with customers on par with your peers?

Excellent customer communication is the pinnacle of community banking. However, a new precedent for speed and digital offerings for your commercial customers has been set since the onset of the Paycheck Protection Program. Will people want to go into a bank branch to apply for a commercial loan when they were able to carry out the entire PPP loan process digitally? Now that these digital expectations have been set, there’s no going back. Bankers can’t revert to doing things the same way they did before the pandemic. It’s just not an option.

Top 9 Questions to Ask When Interviewing Potential Vendors

In the banking industry, innovation and technology are top of mind for community financial institutions who want to stay relevant. As you search for solutions to your CFI’s needs, you will undoubtedly vet many vendors. Give yourself an advantage and be sure to ask the right questions during the discovery process. These are some of the most important questions you should ask when interviewing potential partners to ensure the relationship is going to be a good fit.

5 Reasons to Attend Your Vendor’s User Conference

Conferences are on our mind right now as we’re preparing for the annual Teslar User Conference coming up this September. Navigating conferences in this post-pandemic/lingering pandemic atmosphere poses its own challenges as we seek to meet the needs and preferences of our clients.

Community Banking in 2021

Community banks have always been good at creating lifetime customers, but evolving technology and customer demands can complicate your ability to satisfy customers post-pandemic. There is a running joke in the banking industry that the pandemic took five years of technology growth and pressed it into one. With the additional demands put on bankers by the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), that joke is one hundred percent true. Now that these digital expectations have been set, there’s no going back. Bankers can’t revert to doing things the same way they did before the pandemic. It’s just not an option.

An Affordable Way for Community Banks to Compete in Online Banking

The banking industry is completely changing (and fast!) due to this global pandemic. While banks are typically slow to adopt technological changes, the pandemic has accelerated this process by years. Digital offerings are not just conveniences anymore, but legitimate necessities for customers now. This adaptation can be more difficult for community banks with more limited resources than it is for large banks, but community banks still want to be players in the game.

Refining Your Bank’s Loan Review and Special Assets Processes for the Coming Economic Storm

Experts have been predicting a coming recession long before Coronavirus was on the world’s radar, but nobody was quite expecting the global health pandemic that is currently wreaking havoc on America’s economy. Current economic trends are being compared to those of The Great Recession of 2008. While there are some discrepancies between the two, this still leaves bankers with a little bit of an advantage in knowing what’s suspected to come— many loans are going to become criticized.

A Digital Detox to Prevent Burnout

Summer will be ending in just a few short weeks and perhaps the craziest, scariest, most uncertain school year of our lifetime will begin, affecting not just school-aged children and their families, but employers, coworkers, friends, relatives, everybody. While the whens and hows are still up in the air, it is for certain that school will resume next month one way or another.

Infographic: Keeping Your Digital Life Secure During COVID-19

No matter the year, month, or season, no matter the state of current affairs-- cybersecurity is important! In fact, scams have been on the rise since the COVID-19 pandemic left the world on lockdown (read more on these scams here), so there’s no better time to double check your security measures. Check out our infographic below as we share some wisdom on secure passwords from Teslar’s VP of Support, Chris Whittle.

COVID-19 Causes Financial Scams to Rise

Scams are always abundant in this day and age, but COVID-19 has quickly brought about societal shifts full of financial and economic uncertainty and of scared and vulnerable people, and scammers are already working the cause. Scam artists are always looking for opportunities to steal money and data from people and businesses, especially financial institutions. And this time is no different.

Women in Tech: An Interview with April Wolfe

Jobs in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields have grown faster than the overall growth of employment in the U.S. Since 1990, overall employment has grown 34 percent while STEM jobs have grown 79 percent, according to data from Pew Research Center.

Research by The National Center for Women & Information Technology shows that, as of 2018, 57 percent of professional occupations are held by women, but only 26 percent of the 17.3 million people working in these fields are women. Needless to say, women in tech are the minority. I had the opportunity to chat with April Wolfe, a member of our Install team at Teslar to talk a little bit about what it’s like to be a woman working in the technology field.