As we all know, in order to compete these days, community banks must do much more than deliver traditional services. They must deliver exceptional, consistent, and personalized experiences across every touchpoint in the buyer journey. Doing so, however, can be a challenge when silos separate the front, middle, and back offices, preventing the flow of much-needed, real-time customer and market data across departments.
Front-office functions—like customer service, sales, and marketing—often operate independently from the compliance-driven middle office or the operational back office. Each team uses different systems, has different goals, and stores critical data in isolation. According to a 2025 industry penned by Ricoh USA1, a provider of technology solutions to the financial services industry, this fragmentation leads to costly inefficiencies that hamper an organization’s ability to fully leverage its resources.
In fact—as cited by the report—70% of banking executives spend a significant amount of time managing siloed data. Without alignment across offices, the entire customer journey suffers. Relevant insights are trapped in the wrong place, decisions are delayed, and customer acquisition initiatives are less successful as a result.
Growing share of wallet
When a bank breaks down silos—such as when, for instance, front office customer service integrates with back office customer data—it can leverage that data in cross-selling opportunities, such as life events, financial behaviors, and more. Community banks that connect their offices from front to back benefit from:
- Improved personalization: With integrated data, relationship managers can offer tailored products, like recommending a home equity loan to a customer who recently refinanced
- Faster service delivery: Coordinated systems means shared information, which means fewer delays in processes such as loan approval, account openings and dispute management
Growing share of mind
Mindshare is how top-of-mind your brand is in the consumer's daily life. Do customers think of your bank first when they need financial advice, to open a new account, or to refer a friend? Integrated offices support the creation of consistent, seamless customer experiences that shape brand perception and trust.
A disconnected back office can undermine even the best digital experience. Imagine a customer applying for a product online, for example, only to experience delays due to back-office manual processing. That negative experience erodes trust … and mindshare.
Conversely, when offices—and consequently, internal systems—are aligned, banks can create frictionless digital journeys that reflect brand values, foster loyalty, and grow the customer’s share of wallet and mind.
Want to learn more?
By dismantling silos, banks unlock the full potential of their data, increase operational agility, and deliver seamless, customer-first experiences. The reward? Greater share of both wallet and mind.
Interested in learning more? Join BankMarketingCenter.com on August 21 to hear Eric Cook and Jack Hubbard explain why market share, wallet share, and mindshare are harder to win than ever before. The key to making these three critical success components come to life? “Smarketing.”
In this August 21 webinar, Cook and Hubbard will unpack the concept of Smarketing—the strategic alignment of sales and marketing efforts—and explore how this collaborative approach helps banks identify new opportunities, build stronger customer relationships, and ultimately drive measurable growth. They’ll cover best practices, tools to bridge the marketing-sales gap, and present dynamic examples of how marketing and sales teams are not working alongside each other, but with each other.
Whether you're looking to attract new customers or deepen relationships with the ones you already have, this session offers practical takeaways to help your entire team better understand how working together really does work.
Register today!
Bank Marketing Center
We’re Bank Marketing Center, the leading subscription-based provider of automated marketing solutions for community banks. Our mission is to empower bank marketers with timely, effective communication that builds trust, strengthens relationships, and boosts revenue. We do this by automating critical marketing functions like content creation, social media scheduling, digital asset management, and both brand and regulatory compliance.
We’re also committed to sharing insights—and learning from others—through resources like our Smarketing webinar with Eric Cook and Jack Hubbard. Whether it’s the latest in AI technology, suggestions on how to attract and retain top talent, or the importance of data protection, our goal is to elevate community bank marketing for all involved.
Interested in discovering how we can support your bank’s marketing success? Visit bankmarketingcenter.com to explore more. You’re also welcome to reach out to me directly at 678-528-6688 or nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com. As always, I welcome your thoughts.
1Ricoh USA. Accelerating the power of information 2025.