In this installment on how BBVA USA’s Head of Retail Banking Murat Çağri Süzer helped BBVA USA achieve notable branch productivity over the course of two years, we take a look at the importance of digitizing products for increased convenience and efficiency for both customers and branch employees.

Forbes contributor Blake Morgan highlighted in a recent article that digital transformation and customer experience go hand in hand. She goes on to share 100 statistics that demonstrate the growth and importance of digital transformation and its impact on customer experience, as well as the digital challenges and opportunities that companies are likely to face in the future.

In February 2019, BBVA USA’s parent company disclosed in its earnings presentation that BBVA USA’s branch productivity increased by 40 percent over two years, making the regional bank one of the fastest growing in its segment.

BBVA Compass Atascosita Branch Retail Executive Liz Zweifel recently said of the bank’s efforts around mobile engagement, “It’s important to make sure our customers understand we aren’t pushing them away, we just want them to have access to another resource and another connection.”

Thirty years ago this month the internet came online giving consumers the ability to educate themselves on various products and services long before they ever spoke to an expert. For financial services, it signaled a shift in how bankers worked with customers.

At BBVA Compass, mobile banking has a front-of-the-line position when it comes to digital engagement, thanks to a journey that began in the bank’s retail branches five years ago.

Not long ago, banks that offered mobile apps were few and those that did essentially offered a convenient way for customers to check their account balance. Today, choosing a bank with no mobile app would be a non-starter for most customers.

Global consultancy Deloitte recently released a series of articles from their global digital banking consumer survey. In their third article, Recognizing the value of bank branches in a digital world, they found that bank branches continue to have value, even as digital becomes increasingly prevalent in all our day-to-day interactions.

Customer journeys in banking are a bit like a romance, from the initial meeting when you’re trying to figure out if the bank and its products and channels are right for you, to the building of the relationship where of you learn more about each other, and finally to the engagement and marriage of what will hopefully be a happy, productive and successful long-term relationship.

Has this ever happened to you? You’re at dinner and picking up the bill. You reach for your wallet only to discover it’s not there. You’ve forgotten it. With the BBVA Compass Mobile Banking App, what could have been an embarrassing problem is no problem at all.

Having the BBVA Compass Mobile Banking App on your phone is like carrying the bank in your pocket. The many functionalities of the app mean that you are more in control of your financial life, and able to make decisions based on your needs. This is particularly true with the app’s patent-pending Payments and Transfers function.

BBVA Compass customer David Everett never imagined when he deposited his Christmas bonus via the BBVA Compass Mobile App that he’d be rewarded with $10,000 simply for doing so.

So, when he got the January phone call saying he was the bank’s Sign In & Win Sweepstakes grand prize winner, Everett didn’t believe it. According to Director of Multi-Channel Sales and Promotion Cody Sparks, the fact that it was so easy to deposit his check – and in the process win $10,000 – is precisely why the bank conducted the sweepstakes.

Garanti Bank, always focused on facilitating its customers’ lives with its approach of delivering innovative products and services, has launched a new service model with the aim of offering an all-around excellent banking experience. Within the scope of Garanti’s service model, which represents a new era in the Turkish banking sector, all Garanti branches are evolving into an innovative structure built on digitalization where the customers are able to benefit from all kinds of services in a one-stop banking system in the fastest and easiest manner.

David Puente has been the Business Development Director at BBVA Spain since 2012. The division he leads is a fundamental component of propelling the bank’s business and digital transformation in terms of defining distribution models and multichannel processes, as well as the development of channels and digital products and services.

Five global teams from BBVA Customer Solutions and five local teams from BBVA in South America. A total of 10 teams met in Dallas (Texas) with a common goal in mind: connecting around shared projects to ensure that BBVA capitalizes on global capacities to create amazing customer experiences. That was BBVA South America’s Global Week in Dallas.

BBVA’s bank in Turkey, Garanti Bank, has developed an interface that lets customers perform transactions on their app by speaking to it. Efma recognized Garanti’s mobile voice assistant MIA, naming it the innovation of the month.

Speaking at BBVA’s 2016 results presentation, Francisco González said that after 10 years of working on the Group’s transformation, progress is becoming increasingly evident for the bank’s customers. And how is that showing? In new digital services and products with a better user experience.

Reflecting on BBVA’s long and successful history in Paraguay, Agustín Antón highlights some of Paraguay’s most favorable characteristics, a “country that, grossly overlooked as it may be, is blessed with a number of strengths which translate into great opportunities”, as the basis to continue improving as a universal bank in all its aspects.

BBVA Compass’ digital efforts got a double vote of confidence today from independent research firm Javelin Strategy & Research, which gave the bank’s online platform top nods alongside five other banks for Financial Management and Money Movement capabilities in its inaugural Online Banking Scorecard.

The banking core is undergoing a transformation to be able to connect with the customer at any time and at any place: with the cloud, Business to Business (B2B) connections, Business to Consumer (B2C), Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), Big Data and IoT sensors. All these ways of communication must coexist and the challenge for banking is to improve them every day to meet current expectations.

The digital consumer is not aware that he/she is any different to the traditional consumer. Along these lines, Brian Solis, leading analyst at Altimeter Group, analyzes how a company should change its strategy and place the customer at the center of its business.