What Are Virtual Branches? A virtual branch is a digital division of your bank that services clients remotely. While it might be centralized (for instance, if you create a digital contact center), you can build it using your existing resources: infrastructure, IT tools, and employees. In most cases, virtual branch workers also operate in physical branches and only take over digital tasks when no clients are in their location.
This makes it relatively easy to set up a virtual branch—you do not need to hire new employees or provide new hardware. However, to do this successfully, you still need a software solution capable of streamlining your digital operations and moving your business into the digital. A platform that can enhance day-to-day operations but also provide your employees with tools for remote authentication, fully digital onboarding, and secure communication channels.
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How Do Virtual Branches Support Remote and Rural Banking?
Virtual branches support remote and rural banking significantly, making it easier and more effective for both you and your clients. They create a win-win scenario—let’s take a look at their direct and indirect impact.
Accessibility & Profitability
We’ve connected accessibility and profitability into a single point for a reason—they are closely tied together. After all, if your banking services aren’t available in a certain area, it’s usually because it would be too expensive to build and maintain a physical branch there.
With virtual branches, this is no longer a problem—they provide not one but two solutions. Namely:
● virtual branches enable you to increase the profitability of your less popular branches by engaging the employees there to work in the digital channels when no clients approach them,
● having set virtual branches, your services are available all over the country since a large majority of cases can be solved online.
Why are both of the above important? While you can carry out most operations through digital channels, there are still some steps on the customer journey that require visiting a physical branch. For instance, our digital mortgage solution for banks reduces the number of required visits to 1, but it’s impossible to make this number 0. That’s why you have to maintain a physical presence and with virtual branches, you can, without worrying about the operating costs.
Access to Talent
Rural banking tends to have one major disadvantage: you can use only as much talent as is available in the region. You won’t convince your expert employees to leave the big cities and join smaller branches, right? This is where virtual branches come to support your rural banking.
Since they utilize employees from different physical locations, virtual branches enable you to enhance your services in rural areas with the best talents available at your organization. They can fill the gaps or solve the most complex problems without the need to visit a larger branch. Simply said, virtual branches make it possible for you to provide complete, high-quality services in any corner of the country.
Offering More & Building Loyalty
Rural clients are typically extremely loyal, mainly because they have no choice. Since they will always need physical branches, you are already at an advantage in regions where you own infrastructure—you just need to keep it up. What does it have to do with virtual branches?
They let you offer more to clients in terms of engagement, convenience, and services. This is crucial because it enables you to counter competitors, who will likely try to poach your clients with their digital services.
You are in the winning position here since you have a physical presence. But, if you let other banks outperform you in the digital realm, you’ll lose the lead. With a virtual branch, you maintain the advantage of owning physical infrastructure and can beat (or equal) the offer of your competitors and boost the loyalty of your clients in rural areas even further.
Centralization and Effective Case Management How do you ensure that your organization operates swiftly, that your financial operations are optimized, and that customer service is excellent? You build a set of procedures and ensure that they are carried out across your organization.
Virtual branches help you achieve that. Since they operate on a centralized platform, often in the cloud, they give you full control over the procedures plus the possibility to automate them for maximum efficiency. In the end, this boosts case management in your whole organization.
Support Your Remote and Rural Banking Services with LiveBank Platform
Remote banking and rural banking receive a lot of support from virtual branches if they are in place. Therefore, you need to implement them if you want to expand your reach to less accessible areas and underdeveloped (but growing!) regions. We can help you with that at LiveBank!
In principle, our customer engagement platform is designed for sales to streamline customer interactions with financial institutions and automate operations. However, it comes with other features that make it an excellent cornerstone of any virtual branch, such as:
● data integration to remove data silos and create a single source of truth for all channels,
● an omni- and opti-channel design that lets you blur the lines between traditional and digital banking,
● extended contact center capabilities that enable you to streamline customer interactions,
● communication and collaboration modules for your employees,
● a developer-friendly design,
● robust cybersecurity.
It’s the single platform that enables you to make your operations digital, provide the environment for your employees to work in, and boost efficiency through high-level automation. Thus, we highly recommend it if you plan to support your remote and rural branches with virtual services.
The Takeaway
The relationship between virtual branches and rural or remote banking is straightforward: the former empowers the latter. Virtual branches will both strengthen your current remote or rural branches and let you reach out to customers who lived in previously inaccessible regions. With the trending digitization and the fierce competition in the financial sector, one thing is certain: you need to invest in virtual branches if you want to stay ahead.
From centralizing and integrating your data to boosting productivity and offering your services in underdeveloped but growing regions—virtual branches open the door to multiple new opportunities for your organization. But you have to remember that opportunities like to become standards, and standards like to become requirements. So, there’s no point in waiting—invest in them now!
Did you like this article? Then you may also read: The Impact of Virtual Branches on Traditional Banking Models
