First National Bank of Pennsylvania
Background
First National Bank of Pennsylvania maintains holdings in excess of $4.7 billion. In January, 2004 FNB of PA split with their parent company, First National Bank of Florida. Through their recent transition to a separate entity, FNB of PA currently maintains 125 branches, over 1,000 employees, and holdings in excess of $4.7 billion. This financial institution has been in operation since the late 1,800’s, and has an established and proud history of successfully serving its clients for over 100 years.
The Problem
In the banking industry, in-house and customer communication is crucial in maintaining cohesive business relationships. Existing relationships, as well as potential business contacts are the basis by which FNB sustains its ongoing success. FNB’s contact information maintenance system was well-established; however, it was not optimal for efficient routing, disseminating crucial information, or time efficiency. The contact and referral system employed by FNB was (like so many enterprises) bogged down by the inherent dysfunction associated with paper correspondence—snail mail. FNB’s system would begin with an employee transcribing data onto an information form that would produce three copies via carbon-copy technology. The respective copies would then be relegated to the appropriate individual or department. The turn-around from receiving referral information to actually reaching the appropriate individual was at least three days, if it reached them at all. As with any system that requires various levels of personal exposure, mistakes and problems were encountered consistently.
Barry Munko works for FNB of Florida as their Performance Compensation Analyst. “Our organization is very spread out in Pennsylvania. We have branches and professionals, as well as customers, covering virtually the entire northern section of the state. In receiving referrals from so large an area, and very commonly needing a specific lead to go to a specific individual, the process by which this takes place is extremely important to our business,” said Mr. Munko. “Referrals are of obvious importance to our bank, but, they are equally important to our staff. We have various compensation systems afforded to our personnel. The entire process of handling leads and referrals is critical to many of our staff, as up to 20% of an employees salary will be predicated on our Incentive Compensation Model.”
The Solution
The “paper system” that had been in use for FNB left many employees spending valuable time chasing loose-ends and redoubling their efforts in the attempt of securing information pertinent to their individual goals. GroupLink’s eReferrals software solution provided for FNB the ability to quickly and competently handle vital contact information. FNB utilizes Windows 2000, and SQL 2000, as well as the highly effective Novell GroupWise Netware system. As with all GroupLink solutions, eReferrals’ amazing integration capabilities provided FNB to greatly capitalize on existing investments. “The integration of eReferrals went off without a hitch. Our staff was very excited with how the system virtually runs by itself. It is as if the system is on cruise control,” said Mr. Munko. “The compensation package that I created was greatly capitalized on with the implementation of eReferrals. With the enormous increase in referral management control, some of our employees are earning upward of an extra $1,000 a month; needless to say, our employees love it.”
With the ability to maintain all aspects of referral information, FNB has transformed its sales efforts into a full-functioning, information-sharing system. “Unlike our prior system, eReferrals puts customers in the hands of people who can close deals, spanning our 125 branches, and does so in 10 to 15 seconds. eReferrals provides a tool by which the handling of our compensation package is virtually flawless. Since the beginning of the year to current, we’ve added over 7,000 referrals to our database,” said Mr. Munko.
Conclusion
Prior to the integration of GroupLink’s eReferrals, First National Bank of Florida was wasting valuable time and resources supporting a contact and referral system that failed to fully capitalize on their many employees’ best intentions and efforts. “One amazing advantage to the implementation of GroupLink’s eReferrals is that our entire staff, in each of our separate branches, can access our entire contact database through eReferrals. What was once done by branch, on-site, is now available to all of our employees on a common database,” said Mr. Munko. In an environment that generously compensates referral based business, employees for FNB have embraced eReferrals as the instrument to help maximize their efforts, and financially reward their successes. “eReferrals gets leads into the hands of those who can close the deal. Our business has seen a definite increase by encouraging more rapid sales. We are very pleased with what GroupLink has provided us with, and look forward to doing business with them in the future.”
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