As banking continues to move online, Ridgewood Savings Bank is hiring tech-savvy people to help their tech-leery customers navigate things like depositing checks online and accessing the bank’s app.
“We’re the human component to a tech-based world,” Tiffany Vazquez said. Her main responsibility as a Ridgewood bank employee is to help customers who are skeptical or unsure of how to use the bank’s online services. Vazquez, 27, started working with the bank seven years ago and in the last year she has pioneered her job title and helped to establish the same position at other branches. She is the bank’s online ambassador.
She explained that the people she helps usually fall into two categories. There are those who simply do not know how to do something like take a picture of a check to deposit it online and then there are customers whose problems have more to do with their distrust of technology.
“Putting personal information into cyberspace is a scary thing,” Vazquez said. “So a lot of times it’s fear.”
With these skeptical customers, Vazquez takes them through the security features that are used by the bank to protect identity information. She said that oftentimes customers who don’t know how to use the online features aren’t necessarily older people.
“It’s totally a mixed bag of people that need my help,” Vazquez said as an iPad blinked to life on her desk. “I try to explain how efficient and quick online banking can be.”
The thing that surprises Vazquez most about her job is that she still gets customers who don’t even have an email address. If they’re up for it, she will make an address for them.
“That’s definitely one of the cuter things I deal with at my job,” she said. “They make me smile.”
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