5 ways VR improves finance & bank teller training

Too often, Financial Services training relies solely on face-to-face training or e-learning. While these approaches both have their place in a well-rounded training program, VR is the secret sauce used by organizations such as Bank of America to significantly improve their bank teller training.

Whether you’re looking to significantly increase retention rates, roll out bank teller training at speed, or boost confidence among your banking employees, it’s time to add VR to your Financial Services training program.

Below, we will explore five ways in which you can use VR for Financial Services training that makes a real impact. Visit our VR use cases for financial services page for a full list of impactful training topics designed specifically for employees in the financial services sector.

01. Fraud protection

In an increasingly complex world, fraud cases are growing exponentially, with 46% of organizations questioned by PwC saying that they have experienced fraud, corruption, or other economic crimes in the last two years.

Cash handlers in banks and other high-consequence financial environments must be fully trained and confident in spotting fraud and following the correct process to mitigate it. However, face-to-face with a customer who’s expecting great service, it’s not always easy to apply fraud protection knowledge under pressure in a real-life situation.

VR training replicates these situations in an immersive environment, so cash handlers feel the same emotions and pressure as they would in a real fraudulent transaction without risking real money for high-impact, low-risk bank teller training.

In the VR headset, cash handlers will first learn to detect fraud before being put in realistic fraud scenarios to apply their training in a safe environment. Managers can then use immersive data and insights, such as where the learner was looking at key moments in the transaction, to review the way the cash handler dealt with the scenario to provide feedback and offer pointers to help improve their performance in the real world.

02. Contact center training

Bank contact centers are constantly busy, with a wide variety of questions, concerns, and issues raised by customers. Customer service is always vital for those working in contact centers, but especially for banks, who must maintain trust and great service levels to retain customers.

For contact center staff, especially those who are new to banking, VR training is a powerful way to build empathy and elevate customer service skills. These skills can include active listening, creating genuine connections with customers, and even selling skills.

Regular practice will help contact center employees build these important skills, and with VR, they can significantly improve their skills before they ever answer a real customer call.

For instance, in the VR headset, a contact center employee may be given multiple customer scenarios that they must deal with using their customer service skills, such as handling a complaint, opening an account, or transferring funds. The VR module can then provide guidance based on each response, as seen in Bank of America’s VR training.

In Bank of America’s program, they launched VR training to almost 4,300 financial centers nationwide, reaching 50,000 employees. VR modules are set in a financial center, allowing employees to “interact” with coworkers and customers. Once the employee has completed a scenario in the lifelike virtual environment, they receive real time guidance within the module, helping them build new skills, retain knowledge, and better connect with customers in the real world.

03. New manager training

Great bank managers who care about employee development and retention are more important than ever before. Yet, first-time managers often lack the skills that come with longer-term management experience, including handling difficult conversations and soft skills such as empathy and resilience.

This may be why 87% of financial organizations have struggled to retain employees in the last year. Banks that want to help their new managers improve and grow with the organization can benefit hugely from VR training.

While new managers can learn a certain amount from standard e-learning or 1:1 management coaching, the simulated coaching experience in VR training helps them explore a range of management challenges, then review the training with an experienced manager to identify opportunities for professional development.

VR can be a particularly valuable training tool for new managers, as they can test out their skills without affecting real employees. Instead, VR allows them to practice privately and repeat exercises to master their new skills before they face the challenges in real life.

Explore our full list of VR training topics for professional development that your organization can leverage for new managers and people leaders.

04. Sales training

Often, banking customers don’t know exactly what products and services are available, and they rely on associates to help them find the right fit.

VR provides realistic sales training for customer service associates in banking and finance roles. Unlike a retail transaction, where a customer simply pays for an item they have chosen, banking customers will often have lots of questions requiring in-depth, specialist knowledge and answers.

VR sales training will help your customer service associates level up their product knowledge and cross-selling opportunities for greater sales success.

How? VR training can provide all sorts of hands-on virtual experiences, from listening out for the right cues to persuading a customer who may not be initially convinced. When associates aren’t completely confident or comfortable in a selling role, customers will recognize this, leading to missed opportunities. VR training enables them to practice on virtual customers to gain the selling skills they need.

05. Safety & security protocols

Organizations in the financial services and banking space are constantly expected to adapt to rapidly changing standards for workplace and customer safety. In bank branches, armed robberies and active shooters are a very real risk, and every single employee must be equipped with the training to act quickly under extreme stress in these situations.

VR is an effective tool for training banking employees in safety protocols, as it allows them to repeat training exercises over and over again to ensure that they are fully familiarized with the processes. In particular, VR immerses banking employees in the emotional, physical, and mental environment of a high-risk scenario, so repeating these stressful situations dramatically increases the likelihood of employees instinctively following the correct safety protocols in real life.

This isn’t just vital for the banking organization as a whole but also for individual employees and customers. Investing in high-impact, immersive safety training for your banking employees will keep them safe and make them feel safe, which makes a world of difference when the stakes are so high.

VR is the ideal way to ensure your training hits the right emotional and psychological notes.

Ready to take financial services training to the next level?

VR training is having a measurable impact on organizations in the Financial Services sector, from increased compliance to reduced time to proficiency and improved customer satisfaction scores. Find out more in our ebook: How VR has transformed learning in financial services.