How Southern Bank Reinvented the Branch Experience with Video Banking
What started as a quick fix for Southern Bank turned into a long-term, mutual partnership with Invo. The partnership re-invented how their branch experience looked, from day one.
Results
6 Agents Servicing 65 Branches
70% interaction time decrease
Day 1
account openings
About Southern
Southern Bank has more than $5 billion in assets, but prides itself on being like a community bank. Chartered in 1887 as a mutual Missouri savings and loan association, Southern became a publicly traded company in 1994, but began growing exponentially in 2009. In 2025, Southern serves more than 50 communities across Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, and Kansas. Southern partnered with Invo with specific goals in mind to improve their branch experience.
4 State Markets
65 Branches
$5B in Assets
A More Streamlined Customer Experience
Southern wanted to reinvent their in-branch experience to make it smoother and quicker for customers. The question Southern kept coming back to: How can we discover what our customers need faster?
The Challenge
Southern wanted to do more than just cut wait times. They wanted to shorten the entire experience. In the branch, it took anywhere from 30-45 minutes to open a new account witha personal banker. The in-branch experience can be clunky when customers have to wait in line to speak with a teller, only to be moved to a different office or waiting room. Southern Bank challenged Invo to deploy a solution that got customers in and out of the branch faster.
Invo’s Solution
To create a more seamless experience in the lobby, Invo deployed video banking kiosks in the branch. With video banking kiosks, a customer can open a new account in just 12 minutes at a Southern Bank branch. These kiosks allow customers to get in front of an employee who can help them complete the transaction they need immediately, rather than shuffle through multiple employees.
“Happy team members
make happy experiences
for our customers.”
Kim Capps
Executive Vice President & COO at Southern Bank
Southern Bank is among the fastest-growing banks in the community, recognized as one of the 10 best community banks in Missouri by the Small Business Administration (SBA)
Capps joined the company in 1994 and brings more than 27 years of banking experience with her.
A system that allows for turn-key expansion
While Southern has been publicly owned since 1994, it began growing rapidly in 2009 thanks to acquisitions. When Southern began acquiring other banks, it needed a solution that allowed it to hit the ground running with a new demographic.
The Challenge
While Southern has more than $5 billion in assets, it strives to maintain a community bank feel. As such, it was crucial to its expansion strategy that new markets didn’t experience any service delays. Southern wanted an immediate footprint in new markets, starting with a purchased bank in Kansas City that came with 14 branches. They challenged Invo to adapt its offerings so that it could open new accounts from each new branch on day one, without any delay.
Invo’s Solution
Southern’s partnership with Invo began with this merger, seeking a video banking solution to accommodate new branches. A key feature of Invo’s video banking software is the ability for financial institutions like Southern to centralize their staff. This meant that Southern could serve its new and adopted Kansas City customers by having them speak with staff members who were in different, already existing branches. There was no staffing burden on Southern’s expansion.
Video banking kiosk at a Southern Bank branch
Maximize staffing for video banking channel
Southern quickly learned that video was much more than a band-aid, specifically in the area of operational efficiency. Once deployed, Southern began looking for ways that video banking could maximize its staffing and ITM efficiency
The Challenge
When video banking was initially deployed, Southern had a siloed video department. However, it wanted to become more efficient as it acquired more banks and needed more staffing flexibility. Southern ultimately wanted its video banking agents to be able to merge with its ITM staff to maximize the efficiency of its agents. On top of extra help on the ITM side, the bank wanted to video adoption at 100% of its branches, posing a unique challenge: How many video agents are needed to maintain the channel at all 65 branches?
Invo’s Solution
Through Invo’s video channel, Southern can support all 65 branches with six video agents. In other words, any video call that comes in from a Southern Branch, whether it originates from Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, or Kansas, is answered by a team of six agents.
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