2021 CSBS Community Bank Case Study Competition Journal

2021 COMMUNITY BANK CASE STUDY COMPETITION

phones. In the summer of 2020, TriStar set up a call center named the Client Care Center (CCC) in response to the high volume of calls coming to each branch. The creation of this center was accomplished by one call from Bank President Harvey Church to the IT department. Moreover, with the creation of the CCC, TriStar was able to expand its business hours, giving customers improved access to the Bank (H. Church, Zoom, February 24, 2021). To further increase accessibility to bank services, TriStar currently has plans to install interactive teller machines (ITMs) in the fourth quarter of 2021. ITMs are similar to Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) but involve video web conferencing with a bank employee. These machines will increase the hours TriStar can serve its customers without increasing employees’ work hours. The Bank will have one employee service several ITMs in different areas. ITMs also have the benefit of added safety during the pandemic while preserving a more personable experience. The customer can still see and interact with a TriStar employee, but that customer does not risk exposure to illness from contact with another person or high contact surfaces when using an ITM (H. Church, Zoom, February 24, 2021). Considering past actions taken by TriStar to meet the needs of its customers and employees, the Bank continues to focus on providing quality services to communities. The next section of this paper will focus on describing several communities that TriStar serves and the challenges it has overcome to reach and serve those clients.

Considering past actions taken by TriStar to meet the needs of its customers and employees, the Bank continues to focus on providing quality services to communities.

issued by the U. S. Department of Labor to provide up to 80 hours of paid sick leave for quarantined employees and continued providing the same amount of paid sick leave mandated by the FFCRA beyond the required effective date of December 31, 2020. TriStar set priorities to keep its employees and customers safe, which in turn kept the Bank’s lobbies operating after it reopened its doors on May 4, 2020, when the pandemic lockdown ended. New Programs and Products Help Meet Customers’ Needs TriStar faced problems, but fortunately its small, adaptable nature allowed it to change rapidly. When the Bank did not have a complete staff each day and lobbies were closed, phone calls were more abundant than before as customers continued to need assistance provided by a bank staff member. The few staff working in a branch had to focus almost all attention to drive-through service; therefore, in-person staff could not adequately attend to

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