It Starts with a Dollar | Ep.03 | Tech in Banking w/Nick

Episode: How Technology Is Transforming the Way We Bank

In this episode of It Starts with a Dollar, host Krista Cooper sits down with Nick Dolph, the Member Resource Center Manager at Dover Federal Credit Union, to explore how technology is reshaping how we manage our money. 

 
🎙️ What It’s About
Technology has completely changed the banking experience over the past decade. We dive into the evolution from in-branch visits to fully integrated digital services that allow members to manage their finances from anywhere. Krista and Nick also discuss the rise of chat-based support, voice banking, and video interactions.

🏘️ What You’ll Learn

•  How chat, voice, and video banking tools work—and when to use each
• Why convenience is driving the shift toward digital financial services
• How banks keep your personal and financial information secure
• The benefits of video banking for complex needs like loans, fraud resolution, and financial advice
• Simple tips to safely navigate digital banking platforms with confidence

👥 Who It’s For
This episode is perfect for anyone curious about digital banking—whether you're a tech-savvy user looking to maximize convenience or someone hesitant to move away from traditional branch visits.

Transcript

0:00

Hey everyone and welcome back to It Starts With a Dollar. Real talk about financial freedom. I'm Krista Cooper, and today we are talking about something that really does affect pretty much all of us. And it's how technology is changing the way we manage our money. You know, we chat with our banks online to hopping on those video calls or using voice assistance. Uh, you know, banking looks very different than it did even just a few years ago. So I'm here with Nick Dolph, he's the member resource center manager at Dover Federal Credit Union. Nick, how are you? I'm great. How are you today? I'm good. So we are gonna dive in and uh pretty much talk about what you deal with every single day, right? Sounds like a plan. And um, we're gonna talk about how this works with Dover Federal Credit Union and how it can make your life easier. So we're gonna start simple, start with the basics here. A lot of people are used to going to the branch, right? Calling their financial institution or logging into their online banking to manage their money. But I know there are some really cool tools out there to make it easier to get in touch with someone when they're doing their banking. And I think there's some fear behind that when it comes to like the virtual worlds, myself included. So let's talk about how has the digital communication changed the way customers interact with their financial services provider like over the past decade? Yeah, Krista, it's really changed over the last 10 years. When we look at what 10 years ago was, we're talking about 2016 and people were still really going into the branches back then. Now in today's world, we have advanced the virtual environment so much so that you can do anything that you could do in the branch from the seat of your couch. Isn't that amazing? It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. So, what role does convenience play then in driving that adoption of chat voice and video banking tools? I think it plays everything into the role of that. Convenience is what drives people to those channels. If it wasn't for convenience or the ease of being able to just get what you wanted right then and there from being able to type to someone again from your couch, people wouldn't use it. They would still go into the branches. Yeah. Well, let's talk about that. Like, are we moving towards like fully digital banking? Because I think like human interaction always has to kind of be there, right? We can't get rid of it all, or I don't know. Yeah, no, that that's a great point. I think that we're in a place where we'll be able to turn 90% of the interactions into a digital space, but that empathy and the human interaction is always going to be needed and it's always gonna be there. Yeah, we really don't want to get rid of human interaction. Yeah, no, we need it. Get it for businesses too, you know what I mean? And for the accessibility to be able to chat with somebody like that. I mean, it's the convenience factor is massive, and that's just the day in the life of what we're living in with now. Let's move over then to the chat-based banking, the AI and the messaging. How about like how are chat bots and live chats improving customer service in banking? I think it's making a huge improvement with banking. You're able to, again, get your instant interactions just from typing. So people that are in a setting, maybe they're at work and they don't want to have a voice conversation and give out their personal information. Maybe their colleagues could uh take that information if they have that fear. Chat gives them that place in the environment to be able to do that controlled and privately. Yeah. So how does Dover Federal then balance automation with the need for that human empathy in financial conversation? It's a fickle balance, right? You're walking on a typerope, so to speak. We look at each interaction and each contact type, uh, chat, audio, video, and place uh interactions within those groupings. So, for instance, with chat, we'll do basic interactions like balances, transfers, payments, things that are grunt work, so to speak. And then on the voice interaction side, we want to make sure that we give the humans that touch that they need to have and allow the virtual agents to do what they need to do. Right. So you're right, it is pretty much a balance. But let's talk about the security measures then, too, that have to play a role in that sensitive information. Yeah. So with the security measures, it's basically baked into the program or the platform that you're using. So with chat, in most situations, like Dover Federal's uh site, we have a secured platform with chat. So your information isn't going to get lost. People can't obtain that information. It's not like an SMS text message that's not secured. So we have those things in place, and we also have verification protocols to make sure that we are talking to the right person. That's great information to put out there for sure. Let's talk about maybe complex financial advice. Is that something someone can do over chat or are they better suited for simple tasks? I think that uh every platform has its uh specific use case. And I think that for chats, they're best suited for the simple tasks like balance checks, transfers, payments, things of that nature. And when we talk about the more complex things like wires, credit score analysis, disputes, fraud, those are the things that we should upgrade into voice and really have those conversations. And with Dover Federal, we have the omni channel environment. So you can actually go from chatting with someone like myself and we can upgrade it right into audio. So you're still talking to me. Oh, okay. Good to know. Good to know. Cause then you're like, I'm not having to go through this whole process all over again. Or explain my situation again. Yeah, well, that's true too. So that kind of leads us into the audio banking, right? Phone and voice assistance. So, how is voice technology evolving in the financial sector? It's evolving every day. What we had a year ago is completely different than what we're gonna have tomorrow and the next day. It's making it so much so that you can call in and deal with an AI agent and almost feel like you're talking to a human being and get that same interaction outside of the empathy factor, a human is always going to create the empathy and the digital agents won't be able to replicate that. But as far as getting your interactions like your transfers, your payments, your you know, balance checks, whatever you need, those virtual agents will be able to create that environment and so much so that it invites you to want to participate in in working with them. Yeah. So what are the advantages then of voice interactions compared to chats or even in-person service? With voice interactions, you know, it's just the different need. We talked about before with chats. I would say that it's more for grunt works, the the minor tasks, the things that are emotionless, so to speak. With the voice conversations, whether you use an AI agent or an actual person, that's gonna be something that's gonna be a little bit more of a complex situation and where you want that human interaction, that human emotion to tie into it. Yeah. And then how do banks authenticate users then securely during these voice calls? I'm sure a lot of people wonder that too. Yeah, absolutely. So there's a series of ways that people verify it's different across the board. Most people have a standard. With Dover Federal, we'll do something like verifying your account number and then we'll ask a series of questions about your personal information. If it gets to the point where the situation is a little bit more high risk or we want to make sure that we know for sure who we're talking to, because on the voice side, we can't see them like we can in a branch. Right. We have the ability to send a two-factor message to their phone that's been verified, of course. And in extreme cases, we can upgrade to video to compare you to what we have on file. Yeah. So speaking of video, that leads us right into this virtual face-to-face and video banking. So, what are the benefits then of video banking compared to your traditional stopping in the bank for a visit? Well, first, in today's economy, gas is really high. So you don't have to drive to the branch and you can have those same interactions right from your couch. If I wanted to open up an application or open up a loan and maybe I am disabled and I actually can't go to the branch, we've created this environment where you can just open up a video call with us and you feel like you're working with someone at the branch to fill out your application. That is amazing. All right, and what scenarios then is video banking most effective? We're talking loans, financial advice. Is it all, you know, even fraud resolution? I think all three of those categories would be the top categories that we're talking about. We want to create that same feel for someone as if they're in the branch and they're dealing with someone face to face. So that video environment can do that. That can help them with their loan application, it can help them with their member application. When we turn into the fraud resolution side, that's when we get into the real game changer for my world when it comes to fraud resolution. If we feel like we're dealing with a fraudster, all we have to do is upgrade to video and then we can compare to what we have on file with an ID. And it's really easy to dispatch that you're not who you're saying that you are. That's right. Because I mean, even trying to get them in the branch at that point could be tricky, but you're like, hey, we could see them on the screen. It's not you. And with most cases, when we have a fraudster on the phone, as soon as we say, hey, let's upgrade to video chat, they'll instantly end the phone call because they know they can't replicate what that person looks like. They're gone. All right, how do customers then respond to seeing a real person versus interacting through the chat or voice in general? I I think that the real person gives them that human element. It gives them humanity, right? So in most cases, we've heard the horror stories of being on chat or on a phone call and someone just being frustrated and taking that out on you. I feel like when we're in person in a branch face to face, because we can see that person, we've already made somewhat of a connection and it makes me less likely to, as they call it today, crashing out, right? So I'm less likely to do that. And I have that human element, that empathy because I can see you, Krista, and now I know you're an actual person and not just some fake robot that's over the phone that's going to help me out. Right. And it always comes back to that human interaction for sure. So the video chat kind of brings that back right face to face. All right, let's talk about the big one here when it comes to security and trust and the benefits of all of the technology that uh you use at Dover Federal. How can financial institutions ensure that secure communication across chat, audio, and video platforms? I think that it's how you bake in uh the technology that you're using. It's the intentionality of it. If you just throw it in to maybe put a band-aid on things or hope that you're gonna fix things, then the intent might not be there and it may not be the secure environment that you're looking for. I think that as users or consumers of anything, we should take normal safety protocols and just know what we're dealing with or who we're dealing with and make sure that the websites that we're going on are safe. Absolutely. Uh with Dover Federal, we make sure that our chat environment is secure and then our phone channels, because of the work that we put through our IT team and the infrastructure that we use, it's leak proof. And it needs to be. And that's good for everyone to know. How can customers protect themselves when using these types of technologies then? Yeah, so as I just tapped into just uh briefly, using the same tools that you would use on your everyday internet searches, don't go onto websites that seem risky or seem weird. Make sure that there's the little lock on the website that shows that it's an actual secure website, and then just know who you're dealing with. You know, with Dover Federal, we've been here for quite some time. We've got great reviews online. You know, make sure that you check us out. But uh, that's what creates that trust and that security. And we've made sure to put that as a priority because we're dealing with people's money, which is super important. Absolutely. All right, does this increase digital interaction increase or decrease uh customer trust? I think that it goes back to that balance, right? If you put it in intentionally, then we can create that trust because we're inviting people in. And sometimes with the technology you use, I can ask you or introduce your issue before you've even asked for it. And once we use that technology to do that, you're more likely to use it and want to work with it than if we just threw it in without intention and it's asking the same questions over and over and over. You know, you've probably dealt with calling into places and uh having to scream live representative because it's just that difficult to use. I'm one of those people. Right. You're the guy. Yeah, I'm the guy. All right. What would you suggest then is the number one benefit then to using the digital banking tools that we're talking about? The number one benefit is just the easability, self-service, and empowerment. All of those really tie together and being able to do whatever it is that you want from the seat of your couch, not having to move, and trusting that there's not going to be an error because you're doing it, I think that that gives people the power or the want to really invest their time into learning these things. Absolutely. And just with everybody's busy and crazy lives, I mean, like you're mentioning, you can do it from your couch, get it all done, and know that it's safe and secure is great information to put out there. If someone is nervous on how it all works, though, what's the best advice you have to help them get started? Yeah, if someone's nervous, then I would just have them ease into it. A good experience for them to start with is our chat environment. And most chat environments, they do start out with an AI. So if they're comfortable with that, they can try to, you know, explore that adventure. And if the AI can't assist, it will transfer them to a live agent. Otherwise, if they don't want to take that adventure yet and work with the digital agent, they can ask for a live agent and it'll transfer them over to us. I don't know about other financial institutions, but at least with Dover Federal Credit Union, we have 10 agents that man our chat lines. So when it transfers to a live agent, you are truly talking to someone from our local offices. Yeah, and that's really good information to know because people want to be able to know who's on the other end of that conversation. So you can ask for a live agent. Absolutely. And there you have it. Someone from Dover Federal is on the other side of that screen. We're gonna take care of you. That's awesome. But to your point, ease into it. Well, this has been great information. If anybody wants more information, of course, they can check out Doverfcu.com. Nick Dolph, member resource center manager at Dover Federal Credit Union. Thank you so much for sharing all this information and uh making everyone feel a little bit more secure when they're chatting with somebody online uh through their through your services to make sure that everything is uh keep safe. Yeah, thanks for having me, Krista. It's been a pleasure. It starts with a dollar, a real talk about financial freedom.