The would-be thief in this FBI image is a suspect in several bank robberies.

The employees working in a Seattle branch of First Mutual Bank recognized the man immediately. They’d seen his photo on a flier from the FBI and knew he was a suspect in previous bank robberies.

Instead of waiting for the man to rob them, the bank’s employees snapped to action. But they didn’t trigger any alarms, or call the police and run to the vault hugging each other.

“If a person is a legitimate customer, they will experience superior service. If their intention, however, is to rob the bank, they will experience paranoia, anxiety and a desire to escape.”
– FBI Special Agent Larry Carr

They just started a conversation with the man by greeting him and saying hello.

The man left the branch without any money — and without incident.

You might think this is a silly way to thwart a would-be robber, but it works.

Twice in a row, as a matter of fact.

After the robber left First Mutual, a bank employee called a nearby U.S. Bank to give them a heads-up: the man might be coming their way next.

Sure enough, the guy walked into the U.S. Bank branch, but to his dismay, he confronted the same sort of friendly, personal service he found at the First Mutual location. So he left, empty-handed again.

Key Insight: Robbers don’t like good customer service. A personal touch coupled with questions about opening a checking account annoys robbers. Why? Because they would prefer to remain fully anonymous and unseen. And because good service doesn’t fit the branch experience they usually encounter. In a sense, good, personal service is so uncommon that it surprises robbers, catching them off guard.

As FBI Special Agent Larry Carr puts it, “If a person is a legitimate customer, they will experience superior service. If their intention, however, is to rob the bank, they will experience paranoia, anxiety and a desire to escape.”

Carr worked with EHS Design, the financial industry’s leading architectural firm, to develop a complete strategy for secure branch design, something they call SafeCatch. NPR even did a piece about it last year.

Robbers will often “case the joint” before robbing it. If they walk in and are confronted with attentive staff who seem to be “on their game,” they’ll move on to softer targets. Remember: They’re after easy money.

Reality Check: You should be providing great service to everyone who walks through your branch door…no matter what — people with purple mohawks, 14-year olds, even guys with sunglasses and hoodies. If not because you want more business, then at least for the safety of your employees.

Bottom Line: Banks, 2. Robber, 0.

You don’t need to turn your branches into medieval fortresses to prevent robberies. A branch built like Fort Knox undermines your ability to ability to provide warm, friendly personal service.

Who knows, a greeter might be a more effective method of preventing robberies than having an armed security guard. One thing is for certain: greeting people with a friendly handshake, a genuine smile and a warm hello definitely helps create a positive brand image — especially among your law-abiding branch customers.

If you want more information about SafeCatch, check out this brochure (PDF) or contact EHS Design.

Here’s the FBI’s latest data on robberies of financial institutions for the first three months of 2008.

Alarm Systems

Alarm systems were installed and maintained in 96.2% of all institutions robbed. Of those, they were activated 92.7% of the time, meaning that in 61 robberies the alarm wasn’t activated. Thirteen times an alarm was activated but it didn’t work.

Key Question: In this day and age, how can any bank or credit union not have an alarm system (that works)?

Surveillance Cameras

Cameras were installed in all but 23 institutions that were robbed. In 44 instances, cameras were installed but not activated. Seven times cameras were installed but failed to capture the crime.

Loot Taken: $16 million

Loot Recovered: $2.3 million

Key Takeaways:

• The presence of anti-robbery measures only reduces robberies — it does not prevent them.
• Anti-robbery systems do not work all the time.
• Expect robberies to increase sharply as the economy worsens.

Here is the FBI’s official data on robberies of financial institutions, including injuries and deaths for 2006.

TOTAL NUMBER OF ROBBERIES: 6,985

• Bank robberies: 6,154 (88%)
• Credit union robberies: 521 (7%)
• Other (e.g., check cashing): 372 (5%)

INJURIES:

• Number of incidents in which injuries occurred: 94 (1.3%)
• Customer: 17
• Employee: 75
• Employee Family: 0
• Perpetrator: 17
• Law Officer: 8
• Guard: 5
• Other: 7

DEATHS:

• Number of incidents in which deaths occurred: 13 (0.2%)
• Customer: 0
• Employee: 1
• Employee Family: 0
• Perpetrator: 10
• Law Officer: 1
• Guard: 1
• Other: 0

Credit unions aren’t robbers favorite targets. Small branches with no or small vaults lack the significant stockpiles of cash that tantalize robbers. Also, many CU branches are off the beaten path, and robbers prefer easy access to main roads, thoroughfares and freeways – the quick, easy getaway.

CUs can probably also thank their image for fewer robberies. Robbers may not see CUs as big, lucrative “scores” for the same reasons many people struggle to see CUs as full-service financial providers.

Unfortunately, the FBI either does not publish or doesn’t have data comparing robberies and injuries/deaths vs. various security measures vs. branch size/designs vs. cash handling systems.

As a financial institution responsible for your staff’s safety, it likely that your fears of employee injury and death exceed the reality. Only 1.5% of all robberies result in the injury or death of an employee – and that’s assuming you get robbed in the first place. Applying this ratio to CU robberies means that only five credit union employees are injured every year across the country from robberies. And only one credit union employee is killed every five years in the course of a robbery.

Statistically speaking, working in a CU is probably safer than working in a bar, night club or gas station. And it has to be a lot safer than working in construction jobs.

Reality Check #1: Just because you are in a cash-intensive business doesn’t mean you need to build your branches like fortresses.

When you wall your employees off behind bullet-proof glass, you’re erecting a barrier between you and the people you serve – physically, visually and aurally. This is a literal roadblock to building relationships.

Reality Check #2: You can’t have bullet-proof “bandit barriers” if you’re going to say you’re “all about warm, friendly, personal service.”

Do people really feel comfortable discussing sensitive financial subjects through a four-inch hole in an inch-thick sheet of acrylic?

Employee safety wouldn’t be an issue if your branches didn’t get robbed. Bullet-proof glass is a treatment for a symptom, not the root problem, and there are other things you can do to deter robbers.

For starters, you can move your teller lines as far away from the entrance as possible, and cutoff sightlines between the transaction zone and any exits. Robbers get uneasy with each step they take further into a branch, and they get really uncomfortable when they can’t see an exit at the height of the robbery.

Simply saying “hi” to a robber when he comes in to scope the branch is often enough to scare him off (hint: “greeters”).

Reality Check #3: Your average architect doesn’t know how to design “robbery-resistant branches.” Most local architects will design branches that look just like everyone else’s…because “that’s what branches are supposed to look like, right?”

Bottom Line:

• Building branches like Fort Knox makes you look just like everyone else.
• You can reduce your risk of robbery with careful branch design and how you manage your in-branch experience.
• A well-engineered branch not only mitigates risk of robbery, it also builds your brand and helps cultivate relationships