Employees’ Viewpoint on Changing Banking Service Needs in Pohjanmaan Osuuspankki

The objective of the thesis is to find out the biggest challenges in the future that the bank needs to be ready for considering customer service. The banking industry is in a turning point due to developing technology, automation of the services and digitalization. That is why the banks needs to develop itself and find out new ways of serving the customer, also online. Employees of the bank are in contact with the customers every day and notice what is working and what the customers think. The commissioner of this thesis is Pohjanmaan Osuuspankki, and the empirical part of the thesis is a questionnaire for all the banks’ employees, altogether little under 70. The survey is quantitative with elements of qualitative research and includes eight questions about the services, customer service, development ideas and possible new digital services that could be taken into use. Resources used in this thesis are literature about banking services and services’ future. Also, recent articles in the field and experts’ interviews are used alongside with the customer survey conducted in the bank in autumn 2016. Personal working experience and tacit knowledge learned in practice are also utilized in the thesis’ theoretical part. The main results found were that employees would like to see the bank trying chat service, improve other digital services, getting new customers by targeting better certain customer segments and keeping up with the technology’s changes. The employees want to ensure cyber safety and the possibility for the customers to visit an office. The practical suggestions for the bank are to take chat service in trial, to improve information flow between the customers and to co-operate with real estate websites to create visibility. Also keeping the bank as traditional and “suitable for ordinary people” with a modern touch is a wish from the employees that can work as a guideline when improving the services