Umpqua Bank, the Portland, Ore.-based regional bank with $28 billion in assets, is growing its human-digital strategy through its Go-To app. Through the mobile digital platform, the bank is putting customers directly in touch with a personal banker who customers can text.

In a call with investors on Thursday, Umpqua president and CEO Cort O’Haver confirmed that the platform has acquired 27,000 users since its April launch. This is the first time Umpqua has released customer numbers for the Go-To app, an initiative the bank will use to expand its digital approach while keeping a human touch.

“We’re not seeing customers text every day or every week; it goes in waves,” said Eve Callahan, an executive vice president at Umpqua Bank. “It’s creating a highly personalized experience, but one that we’re able to scale.”

Go-To customers choose a personal banker based on a picture, bio, expertise, location and personal interests. The bankers show the hours they’re available for communication and can do anything from merge accounts to freeze lost cards. Each banker can handle 750 to 800 people. Customers can call or video chat their Go-To banker, but Callahan said most customers communicate via text messaging. If customers need the advice of a subject-specific expert, the Go-To banker can bring in a specialist for a three-way chat. The bank has at least one Go-To banker in every branch and hubs in Spokane and Portland.

The app is available to anyone, not just current Umpqua customers, making Go-To a customer acquisition tool. The bank also is using the app to maintain a consistent footprint as it consolidates branches. According to O’Haver, the company plans to consolidate eight branches by the end of the year.

See also: Umpqua Sees Cost Reductions with Tech-Driven NextGen Strategy

The app lets Umpqua capitalize on a deeper relationship with customers, and it’s finding app users are more likely to use additional products and services from the same institution, according to O’Haver. The bank markets Go-To through digital, social and out-of-home campaigns.

Umpqua said it built the app completely in-house. During the proof of concept from January 2017 to June 2017, the bank advertised it on Craigslist and a few hundred people participated in the initial trial. Following the initial test period, the bank trained 15 retail bankers to become Go-To bankers for employees. In April, the bank rolled it out to all customers.

Since becoming CEO in 2017, O’Haver has focused on a human-digital approach. At Bank Innovation Ignite in March, O’Haver said regional banks with smaller technology budgets need to focus on key updates to get the most out of their money. 

The convenience of the program, however, could create compliance challenges. “My concern would be controls around the communication,” said Tony DeSanctis, senior director at Cornerstone Advisors.

Callahan countered that Go-To bankers use work computers, and managers can view and search all conversations. “This provides additional insight and training opportunities and also helps bankers track relationship history seamlessly,” she added.