About Arvest Bank
With more than $26 billion in assets, Arvest Bank is a community-based financial institution serving more than 110 communities in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Established in 1961, Arvest Bank is committed to meeting the needs of its more than 830,000 retail and business customer households by continually investing in the digital tools and services customers expect.
Arvest was recently recognized by J.D. Power for its outstanding mobile banking experience. Its extensive network of more than 200 banking locations provides loans, deposits, treasury management, credit cards, mortgage loans and mortgage servicing as a part of its growing list of digital services. Arvest is known for its commitment to the communities it serves and to attracting, hiring and retaining a diverse group of talented people. Arvest is an Equal Housing Lender and Member FDIC. To learn more please visit www.arvest.com
The Goal:
Create a Convenient, Frictionless Customer Experience
Arvest Bank’s mission is “People helping people find financial solutions for life.” To fulfill this mission, Arvest wanted to make it easier for customers to quickly connect with the right staff and services.
Before 2020, Arvest focused on in-person banking. Branches didn’t take appointments and helped customers on a first-come, first-served basis. This meant customers may wait in line only to find out the associate who could help them wasn’t available. Then, they’d have to come back another day or drive to a different location to do their transaction. So, Arvest planned to launch an online appointment scheduling solution that would give its customers a convenient, self-service option for scheduling meetings.
Arvest also wanted a solution that would provide visibility into the services completed, staff productivity, and appointments booked at each branch. It didn’t have this data readily available, which made it hard to know how to improve the customer experience and equip branches with the right resources.
“We had no reliable way to track meetings between customers and branch staff,” says Michelle Fittro, Director of Retail Product Development at Arvest. “Without these metrics, our branch managers couldn’t effectively plan for service requests or ensure they had the proper staff on hand.”
The Solution:
Digital, Self-Serve Appointment Scheduling
After looking into several solutions, Arvest chose Coconut Software’s Appointment Scheduling and Lobby Management platform for the following reasons:
- Deeper customer insights. By rolling out Coconut, Arvest can capture more information about what customers want and then provide them with more convenient, streamlined interactions that keep them coming back.
- Fast implementation. Because Coconut required minimal integrations, Arvest could launch quickly. The software is also easy and intuitive for staff and customers to use, which helped Arvest see immediate value from its investment.
- Strong customer support and focus. Coconut would be a partner to Arvest well beyond implementation. Arvest appreciated how Coconut listens to user feedback and makes improvements based on customer needs. “Because Coconut provided us with an amazing experience, we were confident that they would go above and beyond to elevate our customer experience,” says Michelle.
The Results:
Shorter Appointments, Faster Completion Rates, and Higher Customer Satisfaction
Arvest Bank rolled out Coconut’s appointment scheduling solution to all branch locations and 3,000 associates in late 2020. The success of the initial rollout prompted Arvest to implement Coconut’s lobby management tools in early 2021 to better manage walk-in traffic.
In 2021, Arvest logged 47,500 pre-booked appointments and 137,600 walk-ins. It also achieved the following results:
- Shortened appointment times—from one hour to just 15-20 minutes. With Coconut, Arvest’s associates have customer information at their fingertips and don’t need to ask as many questions during meetings. Fast access to data has shortened appointment times by as much as 40 minutes. “Because associates have much of their paperwork complete before the appointment, they are less hurried and can spend more time listening to customers,” says Michelle.
- Achieved a 69% completion rate for appointments. Associates resolve issues faster because they have better access to customer data. As a result, they don’t require as many meetings to complete transactions.
- Optimized branch operations and staffing levels. Arvest has better insights into branch traffic and appointments. This data helps branch managers to staff up when it’s busy and decrease wait times.
- Increased customer satisfaction. Coconut makes it easy for customers to book appointments, whether they want to chat over the phone or drop by a branch. This convenience gives customers a better experience—which has led to higher satisfaction, based on the positive comments customers left in post-appointment surveys.
- Improved efficiencies in other departments. The Treasury Management Onboarding Department requested Coconut to help book training sessions with new customers. Now, they don’t need to go through the arduous process of trying to reach customers via phone or email and can schedule appointments faster.
