Guaranty Bank & Trust uses account-switching tool to promote new branches

Guaranty Bank & Trust is using new technology to make it easier for potential new customers to switch bank accounts as it expands its branch network. The Mount Pleasant, Texas-based bank has added six new locations over the past two years in locations like Fort Worth, Austin and Houston. The digital tool , called ClickSwitch, helps Guaranty encourage customers to switch from their legacy bank accounts by simply clicking on the direct deposits and automatic withdrawals they would like to transfer over. A bank employee starts the switch for the customer, but the customer can finish the process at home online. ClickSwitch asks customers which bank they used to bank with, as well as their old online banking username and password. All the customer has to do is add the direct deposits and auto-payments they would like to switch over and hit submit. On the back end, the tool works with merchants and employers to start drawing from and depositing to the new account. Michele Barber, vice president at Guaranty, said the switch usually takes seven to 10 business days, but it is sometimes faster than that. If a customer has an employer or merchant that isn’t already in the bank’s system, that adds an extra day. ClickSwitch comes as a standalone tool or integrated into a financial institution’s existing app. Cale Johnston, founder and CEO at ClickSwitch, said banks can use ClickSwitch to target stagnant account holders with a mass email to convince them to switch. ClickSwitch doesn’t yet allow customers to switch funds, but Johnston said that capability should be ready by third quarter of this year. According to Barber, about a dozen executives tested a demo of the tool in September 2017, and the bank signed the agreement with ClickSwitch that October. From then until February 2018, a launch team of about eight people from different departments made sure the tool was ready to use. The IT department connected ClickSwitch to the processor, the marketing department prepared graphics, the accounting department projected costs and the ACH department built the database of merchants and employers for withdrawals and deposits. Although the tool was ready to launch in February 2018, Guaranty was updating its processor at the same time and didn’t want to overwhelm employees. Following the processor update, 75 employees did 10 practice switches over a two-week period before officially launching in April 2018. “There’s a stigma that when you’re a 106-year-old bank, you’re stuck in your ways,” Barber said in an interview with Bank Innovation . “We like to have unique products that make it easier for the customer.” Guaranty has $2.2 billion in assets and 30 locations, eight of which were added after launching the account-switching tool. Although Barber didn’t have numbers on how much deposit amounts have increased, she noted that Guaranty is doing around 55 account switches each month. Switching bank accounts has long been a pain point for customers. According to a 2017 study , the average American has used the same bank account for 16 years. J.D. Power found that only 4% of Americans switched bank accounts last year. Bob Meara, a senior analyst at Celent’s banking group, said ClickSwitch alone doesn’t make a bank more valuable or appealing. “It’s not a reason to switch primary FIs,” he said in an email to Bank Innovation . "It does, however, remove a key switching barrier. I wish more institutions were using it.”

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Guaranty Bank & Trust uses account-switching tool to promote new branches

Digital customer migration leads U.S. Bank to close more Chicago-area branches

Why Chase decided to drop digital-banking app Finn

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