Nationwide has introduced a new video conferencing service to its Oxford Road, Reading branch to allow customers to receive mortgage advice from an advisor based at a different location.
The Remote Adviser service enables branches without mortgage advisors to provide customers with face-to-face meetings with a specialist in another location. Customers would previously have had to wait to schedule a financial review with a visiting advisor from another branch.
The building society says it decided to implement the video conferencing service after conducting a successful six-week trial.
Robin Bailey, Nationwide’s divisional director branch network, says: "Our branch network plays a key role in providing members with the ability to access their money in whatever way they choose. Installing Remote Adviser in Reading underlines our commitment to the branch network, through greater flexibility and increasing the level of specialist advice available to members."
Previous attempts to introduce video conferencing technology at UK bank branches in the late-1980s foundered as customers took fright at the image of a grinning bank person popping up on a screen. Nationwide says Reading, home to a technically literate population comfortable with emerging technology, offers an ideal location to introduce the new service.