The Tortoise and the Hare: Part Two: The Branch Needs to Get Smart

In the Tortoise and the Hare Part One, I talked about getting faster, moving channels, and working with slower-changing core banking systems. However within our channels
there is a similar race where mobile is the Hare and the Tortoise is the branch. In the choice to invest time and money, the odds are your bank has favored the Hare as well. We speak of Mobile First strategies while startups work on Mobile Only.

 Research shows that branch accessibility as a big deciding factor in choosing a bank. Some creative ideas for moving branches up the value chain are being tested around the world. Recently JP Morgan announced plans for the opening of up to 400 branches across the United States.This begs the question, if branches are going to be here for a long time, what is the strategy for ensuring our customers get value out of them? If your branch system’s best-before date is coming up, or worse, already past, it’s time to invest in conversations.

While we drive down the cost and drive up the ease of small dollar and short-term activities, we need to leave room for those of us who want to slow down for strategic initiatives. Many of us want a second opinion when it comes to banking decisions -- when there is a lot on the line, we want to talk to someone face-to-face in a comfortable environment.

But that’s all we want. We don’t want to have to restart the application. We don’t want to come back when we forgot one important document. We don’t want to drag our partner in who doesn’t care as much as we do. We don’t want time lost wondering if the process is done once it has started. In short, we want the branch integrated with our overall experience. We want to make use of remote signature. We want to be alerted on our phones if another discussion is required. We want a browser notification that our line of credit has been increased.

So are we saying branches must live on? Not really. Conversations in a comfortable environment must live on. The next branch of the future won’t be built to focus on transactional needs. Comfortable conversation is where the new branch layouts focus energy. I see the huge potential for a bank of transactional devices at the forefront for those who still go to the bank for that.  It could look like a kiosk with video chat, where voice assistants and virtual reality create new places for customer conversations.

Be prepared to have the banking branch journey change with age, personality, ability, technology and circumstance. Be ready to adopt the next thing and meet the customer the way they want. Handle the stop and start of conversations without starting from scratch.  Your branch should be a part of the conversation and that is smart thinking.