Chrissy Oelke, an assistant vice president at the $1.5 billion-asset Horicon Bank, led an artificial intelligence-driven transformation at the Wisconsin community lender, with the aim of better understanding and engaging customers with the products and services they need.
She led a team that implemented AI-powered customer intelligence across the company's lending, retail and commercial banking segments to modernize sales and marketing efforts. Machine learning tools enabled the bank to harness the value of customer data it already needed to gather and store to manage accounts and meet regulatory requirements. Using AI, the Oelke-led endeavor enabled the bank to study customer habits and finances to assess the most useful products and services for them.
Horicon has substantially increased its share of wallet among existing customers by identifying the best cross-sell opportunities and building a consistent, automated onboarding process. The bank also used AI to develop ways to record the knowledge of retiring loan officers and bankers to give newer and less-experienced staff a process for identifying and acting on opportunities.
The bank initially deployed AI technology within its lending arm, driving a lift in loan application volumes as well as funded loans. Oelke then led the charge for a complete customer engagement transformation across Horicon, implementing the technology within its retail and commercial banking businesses. Oelke's innovative vision resulted in what Horicon now calls a 360-degree view of its customers' behaviors and activities across all its business units.
Oelke is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where she majored in marketing. She has worked at Horicon Bank for more than 27 years and previously held marketing positions at the bank.
"Using my marketing core, drive for data research and analysis, passion for customer experience and engagement — all result in providing valuable insights impacting strategic priorities," Oelke said. "I am passionate in all I do and find joy by continuing to develop my knowledge and skills, along with helping my team and fellow colleagues develop theirs."
