The Future of Branches
May 14, 2009
[Note: There is a slide show embedded in this article.]
“The Future of Branches” is another presentation by Jeffry Pilcher, Publisher of The Financial Brand and President/ICONiQ. It takes a look at trends in retail BRANCH DESIGN, and examines the best practices for engineering a branded financial environment. The presentation features 50 photos and dozens of examples. Here’s a summary of the main points.
- With your next branch, be deliberate, strategic and intentional.
Don’t just do “what you’ve always done.” - You need to build your branch around interactions, not transactions.
- Think like a retailer. Move from “fortresses” to “stores.”
- Cross-sell your financial products and services.
- Think in terms of retail zones. Create retail destinations.
- Create brand theater.
- Have a retail street presence.
- You can create a secure environment without compromising your retail focus…
and without turning into Fort Knox. - Make it enjoyable.
- Make it memorable.
- Differentiate.
“The Future of Branches” is one of four presentations available from ICONiQ that have been built specifically for financial institutions. The other three presentations include “The 7 Deadly Branding Sins,” “Results 2.0,” and “The 11 Cs of Breakthrough Brands.”
Thanks to CUES for hosting the 2009 debut of this presentation.
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Previous related stories from The Financial Brand:
- Creative Showcase: Branches, branches, branches!!
- The 11 Cs of Breakthrough Brands
- 10 Great Presentations for Financial Marketers
- Results 2.0: Social media for financial institutions
SPONSORED MESSAGE: Is your bank or credit union ready to go green with its branches? Watch this free webinar playback, “Green Is The New Black,” where the branch-building experts at Momentum outline the strategy, rationale, challenges, advantages and ROI of eco-friendly financial facilities. WATCH NOW
Filed Under: Branches, Events, Webinars & Seminars
Tags: CUES
May 14th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Another great deck. Do you sleep?
May 14th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Yes. From around 10 pm to 6 am. But as long as my eyes are open, I keep them peeled for things you guys will (hopefully) be interested in
May 15th, 2009 at 9:12 am
So what that 60% of people go into a branch every month?
A large % of them may be elderly people who go there because they get their social interaction that way. Another large % may be going there simply to deposit their paycheck and get out (cuz’ they don’t want to use the ATM and RDC isn’t widespread yet).
You’re on the right track by focusing on the transition from transaction to interaction. For most people, banking is a CHORE. But fancy-shmancy branches don’t change that.
What’s at the core of this transition is moving a customer up the “value chain” from managing an account to managing their financial life. And there a lot of firms working on that — firms like Mint, Wesabe, Geezeo, FinanceWorks, etc. ONLINE firms.
There are too many people in the banking industry who get confused about what a “branch” is. Vernon Hill (ex-CEO of Commerce Bank) argues that nobody wants a relationship with their computer. I’d argue that nobody wants a relationship with a brick, either. A branch — historically, at least — has been nothing more than a place to have a “face to face” interaction. It’s the access to PEOPLE that has made the branch important — the ability to do things there that can’t be done (or done well) through other touchpoints. Technology is changing all that. Technology is making it possible to not only have that “face to face” contact without having to go to a physical place to do it, it’s making the support and account opening interactions better.
Some banks have tried the retail-driven, Starbucks-inspired BRANCH DESIGN. It’s not a panacea, and it’s been a waste of money for at least some (if not most) of them. And I think you’ve mis-characterized retailers’ objectives with store design. They don’t necessarily try to make shopping “enjoyable” — they try to maximize sales.
Some banks have tried the retail-driven, Starbucks-inspired BRANCH DESIGN. It’s not a panacea, and for many other banks and CUs, following that path may very well be a complete waste of money. Especially for those who are trying to acquire more younger consumers.
It’s a very well designed presentation, Jeffry, but I question whether it represents the “future of branches”. You’ve focused on the “design” of branches. A more important question that banks and CUs must address is the “purpose” of branches. Any bank or CU that puts money into the design of a branch before addressing the purpose question is wasting its money.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:11 am
[...] The Future of Branches – Jeffry Pilcher hits it out the park with this slide show, which is filled with lots of eye and mind candy. Rather than calling for futuristic BRANCH DESIGN or technology for it’s own sake, the presentation implores banks and credit unions to change their idea of how a branch should work and why customers should visit. [...]
May 15th, 2009 at 10:15 am
It’s too bad you couldn’t hear the script Ron. One of the first points I made were about “the lonely souls” who simply like the social interaction they get by going into branches. I also point out that staff are the most important aspect of the in-BRANCH EXPERIENCE (see slide 11), but that was an entirely different 60-minute topic and beyond the scope of this particular presentation (something else I mention in the script).
Yes, the presentation was focused on design, as promised in the presentation’s title, “The Future of Branches – Trends in Retail Financial Branch Design.” And I believe there were a number of tips in the presentation about how to use BRANCH DESIGN to maximize sales. I should also point out that the examples included in the presentation aren’t necessarily recommendations. They are used for illustrative purposes only. Many are included simply to show extremes. And some are examples of what not to do (such as UNCB’s Starbucks-style “Gold Cafe”).
The presentation was never designed to be an all-encompassing exploration of branches. I only had 1 hour, so I packed what I could into this webinar (which was intentionally built to be visually-based). I’m sorry it doesn’t address your issues concerning staff and the strategic role/purpose of branches, but those are both excellent ideas for future “Future of Branches” presentations.
May 17th, 2009 at 12:17 am
I have seen The Future of Branches presentation on Slideshare would apprecaite a copy of your presentation by email.
best regards
Haider A Rashed
GM – Operations
Alinma Bank (Under establishment)
+966506681708
May 17th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
All I can say is WOW!!!
This is something we have been talking about here for a couple of months, have you been spying on me again
One idea I have been trying to float, which is an extension on what you have typed (so you might have said it) is to design the branch to the demographic it will be servicing. That is, if it is is in the middle of a shopping centre go Retail, if it is near Light Industrial Areas, perhaps you have a different design to allow busineses to do what they want to do.
Of course this might be hard to get right.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Thanks for the feedback Fred. It’s my hope that we can meet in person some day.
I like your approach — environmentally contextual.
May 26th, 2009 at 7:18 am
An interesting article about the pros and cons of a retail BRANCH STRATEGY.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:05 am
[...] The Future of Branches [...]