an article written by Karl Dahlgren, Managing Director at BAI
The accelerated adoption of self-service and digital banking tools during the pandemic is causing banks and credit unions to change how they use branches and call centers.
While some would suggest that the pandemic shift will bury branches faster, BAI research indicates that nothing so simplistic is going on. Leaders are examining how branches and call centers can be refocused in a “digital first” environment to help provide strong customer service for all channels.
This approach optimizes the way customers interact with their bank by building integrated products and services that combine digital-first capabilities with support from more traditional channels that complement digital banking or serve a unique need.
BAI research indicates that branches will not go away completely. Leaders may be reducing their footprints or reconfiguring their purpose, but there will be a real need for the foreseeable future for branches — and for the sake of consumers that have proven to be misunderstood.
In the BAI Banking Outlook research on 2022 trends, financial services leaders reported the top three ways customers utilize the branch network are to open or close an account, conduct a transaction, and resolve an account problem. Surprisingly, the generation that had the most touchpoints in a month was Gen Z, who averaged 5.9 branch or drive-up interactions per month. The least traffic came from Boomers, who only made 2.8 branch or drive-up monthly interactions.
Another BAI survey asked leaders about their top three priorities for branches in the future, and the responses indicate that they are preparing for shifts in customer behavior while still supporting their current demands. In the survey, 66% of financial services leaders said that relationship building and marketing are top priorities, followed by digital banking support (51%) and account opening and closing (51%).
Accordingly, institutions are shifting spending to transform the branch experience. Among the top places investments are going now are to developing advocates to promote and explain digital services and equipping them with tablets providing a 360-degree customer view. To serve transactional business, banks and credit unions are investing increasingly in interactive teller machines with remote tellers.
This is part of a wave of change. BAI research found that in 2021, 60% of financial services organizations had made changes to staff, 33% had added teller pods, and 23% had implemented contactless service. This indicates that financial services organizations see the branch as not only a place for in-person interaction, but to also leverage digital banking tools to supplement the interaction.
This requires leaders to balance current demands with the trend towards more self-service over time.
Read the full article here
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
