Independent Banker - March 2021 - 44

it comes to banking specifically, Accenture found that
50% of consumers now interact with their bank through
mobile apps or websites at least once a week. What's more,
46% would be willing to do video calls with their banker
even when branches are open and 35% prefer it to face-toface
meetings.
Lessons from
the pandemic
But digital transformation doesn't come without its
challenges, which Fisher acknowledges. The Accenture
report notes that while consumers trust digital offerings
on a transactional level, they remain wary of its interface
when it comes to counsel: Only 28% said they would trust
a human advisor " a lot " delivering advice over a video call,
compared with 36% and 48% who said they would trust
a human advisor " a lot " delivering advice by phone or in
person in a branch, respectively.
" We need to make that high-tech, high-touch
connection, " Fisher says. " That's critical to our business. "
He mentions programs like ICBA's ThinkTECH
Accelerator that support bankers in identifying solutions
When COVID-19 reared its head in March
2020, Robert Fisher and his team at Tioga
State Bank in Spencer, N.Y., were poised to
support the needs of the community.
" As a community bank, we've always
worked with our customers, especially if
a customer is having a problem, " he says.
" With COVID, we had a lot of our customers
experiencing issues, so we knew early on
that we would figure out ways to help them. "
The community bank ended up
processing more than 500 Paycheck
Protection Program (PPP) loans to the
tune of $42 million to help local small
businesses. These included not only
current customers but also any other small
businesses in the community that needed
support. " We knew with the PPP that we
were going to participate to help our small
businesses, " Fisher says. " It was really the
only lifeline that they had at the start of
this, and we knew that we had to do it for
their sake. "
While it was a bumpy road, that's
exactly what Tioga State Bank and other
community banks around the nation were
able to do. Fisher says his connection to
ICBA helped him be better positioned to
respond to the need.
" It was invaluable to be connected to
Fisher with his wife, Beth; their two daughters, Allison (far left) and
Kate (center left); and their son, Josh.
to meet their innovation-centric priorities. The program's
2021 cohort introduces companies that specialize in digital
transformation and onboarding, customer self-service,
know-your-customer (KYC) and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)
and anti-money laundering (AML) services, fraud and risk
mitigation, and beyond. " Community banks don't have the
budgets that the big megabanks have, so we're going to
have to figure out ways to partner with fintech companies, "
Fisher says. " ICBA's ThinkTECH Accelerator is the perfect
vehicle to figure out which companies are relevant in
providing solutions for community banks. "
Looking further into the future, Fisher sees the need for
44 Q ICBA Independent Banker Q March 2021
ICBA during this [time], " he says. " We were
all sharing information literally as it was
happening, and it was great to be able
to share that information with my staff
so we that could adjust and anticipate
some things that the SBA was coming
out with. I'm so thankful and blessed that
we had that connection with ICBA and
other bankers, because it really made a
huge difference in our ability to help our
customers out. "
So, coming out of this experience, what
does he see as the key lessons?
" As a small business ourselves, agility
was pretty key to being able to adjust on
the fly. Plan for uncertainty and be flexible, "
Fisher says. " I think those played out pretty
well for our bank. "
Independent Banker - March 2021

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