Omnichannel’s Unfinished Business: Reviving the Bank Branch to Reignite Loyalty
Banking's future lies in empowering both self-service and assisted channels to handle transactions seamlessly, freeing bankers to focus on personalized, consultative interactions.
By Emily Steele, President and CEO of Savana
Despite its promise, omnichannel banking remains far from achieving its full potential.
The cause is technological. Many financial institutions still can’t effectively integrate disparate systems of record. These limitations prevent customers from experiencing a seamless digital journey both inside and outside the branch.
Financial institutions get a limited amount of time with a customer when they step into a branch. If frontline employees are forced to waste that time piecing together fragmented customer information from different systems, their aim — coaching that customer on financial wellness and literacy — becomes improbable, if not impossible. Such inefficiency wastes opportunities for meaningful engagement.
Why Omnichannel Often Isn’t Delivering
The concept of omnichannel banking emerged as a major theme in the early 2010s, paralleling similar developments in retailing. The core idea was simple: Customers should be able to interact with their bank or credit union through various channels — online, mobile, call centers and physical branches — and maintain a consistent, cohesive, informed experience.
Classic examples: A customer might start a loan application online and later visit a branch to complete it with a banker without having to restart the process. Alternatively, a small business owner might begin a payroll transaction online and later contact a banker to address a related inquiry, expecting the details of their activity to be readily accessible.
These examples reflect early ambitions of omnichannel as first defined — focused on continuity between channels.
While progress has been made, the goal of seamless, integrated experiences across all interactions remains unmet. Achieving this vision requires not only unifying disparate systems of record but also rethinking how technology supports more complex, consultative engagement across every channel.
The future of branches is tied up in this challenge. To enhance the in-person banking customer experience, institutions must consider how technology improvements will empower frontline employees. By reducing the time these bankers spend retrieving customer information from disconnected systems, banks free them to focus more on consultation.
To realize this, banks and credit unions need to address these underlying inefficiencies in a way that not only benefits both employees and customers but also strengthens the relationship between them.
Read more: How In-Person Banking Can Survive the Digital Age
Bank Branch Resurgence Drives Omnichannel Evolution
During the early stages of the pandemic, institutions rushed to enhance their digital capabilities as business shifted to virtual platforms. Understandably, branch banking was deprioritized. As the world stabilized, the industry began to reconsider the future of in-person banking in an increasingly digital age.
The number of bank branches had been falling for a decade, hitting 69,905 at the end of 2022. However, this trend may be changing. FDIC reported that in 2023, for the first time in a decade, U.S. banks saw a net increase — 92 new branches. This small resurgence suggests that branches are not disappearing; instead, they are reemerging as a critical part of banks’ strategies.
Today, financial institutions have an opportunity to focus on how they can best serve customers in a physical environment with technology at the forefront. Younger generations are increasingly turning to branches for financial advice. They also want support with complex needs, such as structuring long-term investments or exploring tailored mortgage solutions. Equipping bankers with a real-time, comprehensive view of a customer’s financial journey —combined with insights and tools that mirror the ease and efficiency of the digital experience — enables them to provide actionable advice and personalized guidance, moving beyond routine transactions.
A 2023 U.S. Bank survey found that 62% of Gen Zers trust financial advisors to provide financial advice, more than any other generation. A survey by Insider Intelligence is equally telling: 70% of Gen Zers have used physical bank branches to purchase banking products and services, indicating a continued reliance on in-person banking for complex needs.
To capitalize on this renewed reliance on branches, banks have an opportunity to address persisting omnichannel gaps and create a new standard for customer experiences.
Read more:
Unification: Foundation for Omnichannel and Branch Revitalization
At the heart of addressing today’s omnichannel shortcomings —and enabling the revitalization of the branch — is the operational layer of the bank. True omnichannel banking, with its promise of seamless and consistent experiences across all channels, cannot be realized without first unifying the systems and processes that underpin those experiences.
The front-end experience is important for customers and the employees that assist them. However, the way the bank brings together various processes across multiple channels is vital.
Without this integration, banks cannot transform the customer experience. If a bank’s operational layer is perpetually difficult to navigate and unstable due to fragmented systems, banks must continue to depend on manual, error-prone processes across each institution.
Most associate integration with an "enterprise service bus." This technology acts as a central hub for data exchange, enabling different systems and applications in a bank to communicate. But that by itself is not the solution. An ESB moves information among systems, but it doesn’t inherently determine how that data should be processed or used.
An ESB must be married with an "orchestration layer" that drives common processes and communication, routes work appropriately, and provides consistent guardrails for compliance. The orchestration layer defines and manages the flow of business processes and communication. This provides structure and consistency, enforcing business rules, compliance requirements, and automated workflows.
Together, these tools allow data and data-driven insights to be surfaced in a unified desktop and common products and processes to be delivered to the banker and systems on both the front end and the back end. This is the foundation for the promise of omnichannel —enabling seamless digital and in-branch interactions alike.
Unifying their systems in this way empowers banks to position branches as extensions of their digital strategies, transforming them into hubs for efficiency, trust and deeper relationships.
Read more: Why Banks Need Flexible Tech Architecture — and How to Build It
Rebuilding Loyalty Through the Modern Branch
Customer loyalty was built through the branch, not through digital channels. However, as digital adoption grew, it reduced focus on improving the branch experience. Transactional banking relationships took hold, sidelining proactive, advice-driven interactions that once fostered loyalty.
To bring that loyalty back, the bank’s branch must become part of its digital strategy.
What does this look like in practice? Here are two examples that demonstrate how closing the divide between in-branch and digital channels through unifying technology can elevate the customer experience.
• Transforming In-Branch Account Opening: From Paperwork to Partnerships
When opening a new account or adding a product in a bank branch, the process often relies on paperwork — physical documents that must be printed, signed and scanned, or digital signatures that must be collected on physical bank devices. There are aspects of the process that leave the customer uninvolved, as they are often unable to see what the banker is doing or review the documents they are being asked to sign. These steps also dominate the interaction, leaving little room for meaningful engagement between the banker and the customer.
By bridging the gap between in-branch and digital account opening, banks can create a faster, easier and more transparent process. A retail banker can guide the customer through the process in a consultative way, offering personalized product recommendations. Customers can view and sign documents directly on their own devices or on a tablet, eliminating the need for paper-based workflows and reducing reliance on multiple peripherals.
Simplifying the administrative aspects of account opening gives bankers the opportunity to focus on meaningful conversations — helping customers explore financial goals, investment strategies, or solutions that align with their broader needs. This approach not only enhances efficiency but also delivers measurable ROI by reducing operational costs and ensuring compliance. Trust between the customer and banker is strengthened as a result.
• Accelerating Multi-Owner Applications: From Delays to Discussions.
When applying to open a multi-person account in person, it is common for all parties not to be present. This is a particularly frequent challenge for business accounts that encompass multiple beneficial owners or authorized signers, often causing unnecessary delays. These interactions are focused on administrative completion rather than opening the door to deeper advisory opportunities.
When banks bridge the gap between the branch and digital channels, this challenge is eliminated, enabling a seamless and efficient process for both the banker and the customers. The in-person party can begin the application, providing initial information about the absent individual. Invitations are then sent to co-owners or authorized signers who are not present via the digital channel. These individuals can provide their information through any channel — online, call center or at another branch.
When systems are integrated, the account application process moves forward automatically. With these administrative steps resolved, the banker can focus on conversations that support the business’s financial health or growth. For example, they can discuss cash flow strategies, explore working capital loans, or suggest tailored financial tools that align with the company’s future goals.
As these examples illustrate, a true omnichannel approach allows banks to reposition the branch as a vital element of their competitive strategy — where operational efficiency meets personalized, goal-oriented engagement.
