North Shore Bank’s first Digital Ambassadors completed their training in August. In the Digital Ambassadors program, nine branch employees received in-depth training in topics related to the bank’s digital services. The curriculum covered subjects like online/mobile banking and bill pay; third-party payment solutions like PayPal and Venmo; digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay; business digital tools; and debit card alerts.

“It was informative,” North End universal banker Shannon Quinn said of the program, which began last December. “I wasn’t aware we offered so many awesome electronic services to our personal and business customers.”

Program participants were selected after taking a survey in which they identified their level of comfort with digital technology and selling digital products and services. Ambassadors are expected to help customers set up and use the bank’s digital tools, share knowledge about the digital tools with their branch teams, deliver customer feedback on digital tools to management, and help test and adopt new digital tools.

“The training has helped me to think outside of the box to troubleshoot issues our customers are having with Online Banking or another digital product or service,” Burlington teller Bryana Stagg said. “It helps me think of the right questions to ask and how to find solutions, and has made it easy to talk to customers about the digital options that would best suit their needs.”

VP training and development manager Milene Below said participants would first complete a self-directed portion of training on a particular topic, then attend a webinar to discuss what they’d learned, and then take a quiz.

“You did a lot of research on your downtime at work,” Sturgeon Bay East universal banker Melody Langrick said. “Because of the way the program was set up, I feel I retained more of the information, and am more able to incorporate it into my everyday consultations.”

“The follow-up group discussion and questions were extremely helpful,” New Berlin universal banker Ava Howland said. “I hope other employees get to participate.”

Milene said the next class of Digital Ambassadors will likely begin this fall. Branch employees who are interested in becoming Digital Ambassadors should talk to their district manager.

VP branch sales manager Craig Witz praised Milene and training specialist Kate Engle for putting together the program. “They built this entirely from scratch, assembling information from various sources and turning it into a meaningful program,” he said. “Really good work.”

North Shore Bank’s first Digital Ambassadors are Northland universal banker Kim Balser, Mequon teller Nathan Cardosi, Wauwatosa teller supervisor Jessica Dalba, Ava, Franklin universal banker Patience Krizan, Melody, Shannon, Bryana, and Menasha universal banker Ashley White.