In order to be cost-effective, more and more financial institutions are axing their brick and mortar branches and migrating their services online. However, this rapid transition from human agents to digital leaves behind a conspicuous service gap, one that the only video can fill.

From mortgage brokers to insurance companies to wealth management firms, more and more financial businesses are adapting to our growing comfort with video conferencing.

And sure, it’s convenient for clients—but if you work in finance, it’s good for you too.

In this post, we’ll look at five benefits of using video conferencing for finance.

1. Better than a phone call

Having a video call requires you to have a phone. And internet too, of course, but that’s it. You don’t need a fancy camera or any other gear to have a quick face-to-face conversation with someone.

And when you’re having a serious conversation about finances, it’s best to have that added visual communication. (Hey, there’s a reason we’re used to walking into the bank to handle our finances instead of just doing everything over the phone.)

2. Acquire a competitive edge

Finance is one of the oldest industries around—and whether or not this is actually true, to most people, it’s probably the least open to change as well.

So, how will your average broker or bank or credit union adapt to what the new generations need?

Slowly, probably.

But according to McKinsey, many of your clients and prospects are actually comfortable working with a virtual financial advisor. Who will be ready to serve them?

It could be you, if you move quickly enough. If you can fill this gap and offer a way for people to do their finances online—you’ll have a head start on building stronger relationships with these new clients, getting referrals, and more.

3. Attract a younger client base

Millennials are in their 30s now. Gen Z is more than old enough to have their own bank accounts—and might even be starting to think about loans and mortgages.

Will you be able to communicate with them using the channels that they like using?

We’re not saying you need to have a TikTok page. We’re not even saying you need to have an Instagram page for your business.

But you do need to have the right people and the right skillset to attract this audience. And to do that, you need to first attract a team with those skills. Namely, they should be comfortable with using tech—like video conferencing and social media.

The interesting thing is, according to Deloitte, millennials still value face-to-face meetings for advice—in their survey, 82% of millennials said that they wanted more personal meetings with their financial advisors, not less. So, how can you provide that face-to-face interaction in a world where convenience reigns supreme?

Video conferencing, of course.

And there are other benefits to incorporating video conferencing into your day-to-day work too—it can get your team more comfortable with trying different technologies, and the more tech-savvy your team is, the more likely they’ll be able to come up with creative solutions for serving clients or even innovative products.

It’s a trickle-down effect. If you want your business to be fluid and adaptable to changes in the financial space (and they’re happening more quickly now compared to before), be open to incorporating new tools so that your team has the opportunity to try new things and adapt.

4. Save the money

If you have clients or branches in other cities or towns, or even countries, it’s not always feasible to travel to meet with people.

And unless you’re a new grad, traveling for work can get old (and exhausting, and expensive), real fast.

With a video conferencing tool, you can schedule meetings quickly—no more traveling—just by sending out a link to the video call.

Whether you’re training new hires or meeting with clients or having a team brainstorm meeting, you can save on flights and hotels for everyone by having video conference calls instead.

In a year, you could save thousands (or even tens or hundreds of thousands) of dollars. The real kicker? Most video conferencing tools are super budget-friendly and charge you on a relatively cheap monthly subscription basis—they’d probably pay for themselves within months or even weeks.

5. Improve the efficiency

Video conferencing actually saves you time in a few ways.

First, the obvious one: it saves you lots of travel time. Instead of having to fly or drive to meet clients in remote areas or have meetings with teams in other branches, you can just get on a video call with them.

Secondly, video conferencing can help you make decisions faster too—especially when multiple people are involved. If it’s a big discussion with investors and partners, and everyone needs to refer to files and documents and videos, then having a good video conferencing app is essential.

A good video conferencing app will let you and your team have the video call while screen sharing and looking at docs on the screen if you need to.