XpertSavers is a dynamic company which transforms community banks and credit unions for the digital age. The company's goal is to make it easy for the clients to compete effectively and to swim in uncharted waters, ensuring success with their digital offering. XpertSavers identifies cost-effective digital strategies that will increase deposits and attract tech-savvy customers outside the branch network. Additionally, the company advises on the most up-to-date technology to increase sales efficiency and account acquisition, delivering end-to-end service from strategy and implementation, to digital marketing. According to Gartner, 69% of US retail banks rank average or below in digital performance, so XpertSavers can really be of great help in improving this average as the company focuses on either "digital-first" strategies, or creating separate digital brands. Either way, XpertSavers delivers exceptional interactive customer experiences while providing hand-holding for their banking clients.  

An Insightful Leader 

Jennifer Armstrong is the CEO of XpertSavers. Over the years, she has had the privilege to lead in a variety of roles at significant financial institutions. Jennifer's passion is consumer banking, having spent a good portion of her career at Citibank and CIT. When Jennifer started working with financial brands they used to be hampered by old systems and low productivity in the back office. However, Citi was one of the early movers in digital transformation when she worked there, so she now knows how to lead into headwinds. In 2010, Jennifer had an opportunity to join CIT and spearheaded the development of an internet bank from ground zero. CIT had a banking license but no customer deposits. In just four years, Jennifer helped built a bank that had $11 billion in deposits, it was an exceptional success. After CIT, she founded XpertSavers because she was concerned that many community banks were falling behind and needed help to transform.  

Reinventing New Products through Past Customer Experience 

Jennifer has had many wonderful opportunities to hone her leadership skills over the years. In the early days, Jennifer was lucky to enjoy sponsorship from key management team leaders, one of whom happened to be a woman named Marge Magner. Marge took mentoring talent seriously and inspired Jennifer. Jennifer was promoted through the ranks on the back of delivering key goals which ranged from reinventing the customer experiences to creating new products and channels. Now, in turn, Jennifer takes pride in mentoring those on her team as well as her clients. She strives to ensure the best possible impact on the bottonline by delivering the best service offering for customers.  

Challenge to Build Internet Technologies in Banks 

While considering challenges, Jennifer thinks a lot has changed in the market. Vendors, clients, regulators and customer expectations are evolving. Initially, when she started XpertSavers, dealing with large technologies firms was problematic because they sold platforms to banks but did not deliver a seamless activated process. The banks themselves were also facing challenges as they had preconceptions about internet deposits and high rates. Jennifer opines "myths had to be debunked". Over a relatively short time, more banks have started to build new internet brands and mobile channels. This was especially helped by a change in attitude by the regulators once they realized the deposits were stable. Jennifer feels well versed in leading transformation and welcomes curveballs as part of the ongoing journey. 

Learning to Succeed through Patience 

Jennifer believes that tenacity and drive are vital. Any type of transformation is challenging and the world needs leaders to navigate and shape new landscapes. "For me time and patience will win the prize", she adds. 

Updating Emerging Innovations to keep up the pace 

Jennifer constantly watches for innovative ideas, identifying best-in-class and then going on to recommend the discoveries as part of the strategy. She thinks, for the most part, that clients don't need to develop technology, they just need to discover it. 

Acknowledging Disruptive Technologies to Anticipate a Change 

Jennifer acknowledges that there is a lot of buzz around disruptive technologies. However, the issue technologies bring is statistical overload. So while XpertSavers is driving digital transformation it remains focused on the best technological fit for the client, with a solution that delivers deeper insights, to improve sales and measure success.  

Insight into the Future 

Jennifer believed that the financial service sector as a whole was already being disrupted, but now digitization has moved to warp speed due to the impact of the pandemic and the propensity for remote working. Fintech start-ups with new business models and highly targeted apps have resulted in disruption, entrants such as Robinhood, Betterment, and Lemonade are putting pressure on traditional financial services offerings such as payment, wealth management and insurance. She adds that the traditional players haven't yet really worked out how to compete. Jennifer suggests that one of the big watch-outs for banks is they don't end up as back-of-house services for other brands and she thinks it would be a great shame to see trusted community bank brands disappear. That is why Jennifer is so passionate about helping local banks embrace the idea of becoming 'digital first.' As XpertSavers evolves, she sees the company developing various technology platforms to serve its clients. She adds that, initially, the company will develop a platform to measure marketing efficiency. This will ensure once the client bank takes back operationalization of their digital marketing from XpertSavers (the company would train them on the new platforms), customers can continue to drive sales and track their marketing spend using better data and analytics.  

Guidance to the Emerging Women Leaders 

Jennifer advises emerging female leaders not to be too patient and not to work in a vacuum. At the same time encouraging them to have confidence in their own ideas. Jennifer believes in the value of making the digital channel as frictionless and engaging as possible in order to help customers achieve their goals. Especially as the data shows that women are very demanding when it comes to all aspects of banking and a great digital experience is especially important. Making administrative banking tasks easier can in a small way, free up time to help them focus on what is important. She adds "every little bit helps".