Why do customers go to a branch in the first place? Typically, they want help finding the best solution to their problem, concern, or need. Despite having a wide array of technology options, customers still head to their branches because they seek high quality advice and because they trust in the bank’s ability to meet their needs on their home turf.

While bank branches are facing some growing pains transforming themselves into more customer-focused institutions, we believe that they do have a vital role to play in the bank of the future. Branches should focus on building relationships with new customers and strengthening and deepening that relationship over the customer lifecycle. Successful banks will leverage branches to deliver an advisory or predictive sales process to their customer base and provide exceptional support systems.

There is an expectation that when you walk into a branch you’ll get premium service. But that’s not always the case. These days, a customer may be better informed than a branch officer, especially when it comes to investment class products. Additionally, when I enter the branch, no one knows me, so the ability to tailor a solution in a face-to-face environment is difficult – but we can do that with technology with relative ease. A relationship manager needs to understand the customer’s footprint or total relationship to the bank – and where there are gaps and opportunities to provide better service to the customer.

But to really thrive, the branch of tomorrow will need to develop predictive capabilities so that it can anticipate customer needs and meet them in all-new ways. So what will this look like?

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Banks need to innovate around form and function to improve their ability to target products and services to specific customer needs, rather than simply delivering the transaction platform of times past. Some traditionalists might argue that it is customers’ need to process a transaction that brings them to a branch and presents a cross-sell opportunity in the first place. However, the reality is that the cost of over-the-counter transactions is simply too high to warrant the long tail of converting whatever cross-sell and up-sell opportunities are presented during these face-to-face interactions.

The fact is that most banks target a cross-sell ratio of somewhere between two and three products for the average customer. If coming into a branch generated real cross-sell opportunities this figure would be a lot higher. The fact is, if you look at the most affluent customers who have a cross-sell ratio of say somewhere between 5-10 products, this ratio has everything to do with customer behavior and is almost never driven by the branch.

This uncertainty around branch function illuminates the differences between banks’ goals and customers’ objectives. The bank increasingly sees the branch as a revenue center, whereas in the past it was more accurately classified as a cost center. Thus, the bank is now totally focused on improving branch profitability.

Customers, on the other hand, simply expect service from a branch. They expect face-to-face service because they “pay for it” with account-keeping fees, over-the-counter fees, and other such levies. For an exchange of value to occur between a bank and its customer, both parties need to receive something significant from this interaction.

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So how can we craft a roadmap for improving branches in the short-term to deliver benefits to both the bank and its customers? Over the next three to five years we believe that innovative banks will use the following areas to drive improvements in their financial operations and customer service at the branch:

• Improved customer communications and language.
• Better cross-sell and up-sell capabilities.
• Efficiency gains through process and training, including rapid or preemptive credit risk assessment, straight-through processing of applications, and sales/service culture and training.
• Better channel migration.
• Improved use of transactional automation and service technology.
• Better segmentation and location management.

To bring these capabilities together the bank will need at a minimum to look at the following initiatives:

• A single view of the customer – the customer dashboard
• Customer recognition – RFID-triggered response and better sales scripts
• Consistent experience and channel hand-off: Talk in the branch or on the phone and see that message played out online
• Pervasive banking – wherever you are, is where we as a bank must be. Mobile banking is a major part of this solution.

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The case for a better dashboard is clear: Today’s customer service environment is a snake pit of stovepiping. Customer service representatives (CSRs) have to navigate so many disparate systems and manual workflows that it’s a wonder – and a testament to their skill -- that we don’t have more customer service disasters on our hands. Today, a customer logging onto his banking account can see more consolidated information than a CSR working in the contact center or a teller in the branch. That is bad business. Banks should be smarter than their customers, not the other way around. The solution? Banks should design a single-screen dashboard to provide their personnel with all the data they need to serve customers.

HSBC is investing big-time in this capability as part of their OneHSBC initiative. This initiative is by far the largest single initiative with the most significant chunk of HSBC’s annual $6 billion global IT budget dedicated to this platform, which should bring channels together more tightly and provide a standardized view of the customer relationship from country to country and channel to channel. NAB (previously known as National Australia Bank) is likewise spending more than $1 billion on their NextGen platform to move NAB’s core technologies away from transactional banking to more customer-focused capabilities.

Before you develop a dashboard, it is helpful to classify the key information components that a branch representative needs to handle the customer effectively. Based on our research, we have identified the following key data points:

• Customer-related data and information
• Contact history across all channels
• Critical frequent functions and transactions
• Key product applications and inquiries
• Account and relationship footprint
• Sales opportunities

Branch employees need access to up-to-date, relevant customer details that enable them to offer solutions that will meet real needs and solve real problems, while creating broader-based, more profitable relationships. These dashboards should provide such information as total relationship footprint, current sales opportunities (based on analytics and modeling), outstanding issues, and credit rating and pre-approvals. Today’s dashboards provide limited information. However, if a customer uses a bank-hosted PFM, just imagine how this data could be leveraged throughout the entire retail sales environment.

Branch representatives may need training on how to identify needs before customers even ask for help by studying their recent activity; deliver sales scripts to customers when they walk up to the counter; or demonstrate how to complete tasks on mobile phones.

High-net-worth investors are amongst the earliest adopters of technology; they are the most demanding in respect to service; and they are responsible for the highest profit of any customer group within the retail bank. Increasingly HNWIs are highly mobile, are time-poor, and require their bank to be able to respond in real-time to their needs. It sounds very much like they need a much more integrated, connected banking experience today where the bank really is about anticipating their needs before they happen.

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When clients meet with their financial advisor, they don’t want to see their advisor’s head buried in a laptop, as he pecks on a keyboard, trying to decide which product is right for them. They want their advisor to listen to their needs before making any recommendations. The problem with today’s investment management software is that the advisor has to ask so many questions to obtain a suitable recommendation that the client feels like the interview is an interrogation, not a discussion about opportunities or problems that need to be solved.

As a consequence, the best tool for the financial advisor to-date is – and has always been -- the pen and paper. The problem we currently have with the pen and paper toolset is the drive to action. Right now the weakest link is the follow-up with the customer. There is a disconnect. Research shows that just three to four days after meeting with an advisor it’s likely the customer has forgotten most of what was discussed, even if he has looked at the product brochures the advisor gave him. So we need some sort of technology here to strengthen closure and keep the discussion going, but we don’t want that technology to get in the way – it has to be complementary.

This new application, when paired with an iPad as the delivery device, could be a godsend for the client-investment advisor interaction. It enables advisors to gather information quickly, use tools to model proposed solutions, and provide key outcomes that the client can walk away with. Of equal importance, the simplicity of the interface keeps the focus on the face-to-face dialogue, preserving the advisory nature of the meeting.

The application could be integrated with the client’s Internet banking account so that he can see joint recommendations and the new proposed portfolio mix; to implement it, all he has to do is execute transactions in the comfort of his own home. The application provides the client with control; he has the knowledge and tools to commit to specific investments in specific asset classes.

Alternatively, the advisor can select the most appropriate products in each target specific asset classes, and the client can do additional research online to validate these recommendations. One of the biggest challenges advisors face these days is dealing with all the compliance paperwork required to enroll a new customer in an investment-class product. However, the advantage of a self-directed customer engaging through the internet banking facility is that most of those concerns are taken care of because the compliance workload is significantly decreased.

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The challenge for banks these days is to know which customers are the most important as they walk in the branch. Today we don’t know who you are until you identify yourself – and if you’ve been standing in a line for 20 minutes waiting to speak to someone, you may not be in the mood to engage in a conversation that is about deepening your relationship with the bank.

Another innovative tool banks are using to engage affluent customers is radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, a tool that has been used by large retailers for product identification, authentication, and tracking purposes. HSBC recently trialed RFID-tagged cards for their mass affluent premier customers in Hong Kong. The cards use RFID tags, tiny computer chips and radio antennas, to capture vital information about customers, including their contact information, relationship status, and physical location.

As soon as card-bearing premier customers entered the branch, RFID readers auto-recognize them as priority customers, signaling bank personnel to give them immediate, preferential treatment. In addition, the cards allowed bank representatives to detect the purpose of premier customers’ visits. The RFID-tagged cards eliminate the need to ask for personal or account information, streamlining customers’ interactions with bank personnel. Of course, customers still need to provide identification for a third-party transaction or account withdrawal, but they benefit by receiving immediate, targeted service.

Given the fact that this technology is simple, proven, and available today, why don’t we see more banks using RFID technology to improve their ability to recognize valuable customers and serve them better? This same technology could be integrated in the future with point-of-sale technology so that when you shop at your local retailer, special offers for you driven by your banking relationship could be displayed on a screen near the cashier.

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In movies likeMinority Report and Quantum of Solace, media walls or oversized interactive touch screens are used to link parties for face-to-face conversations, deliver technology solutions, and provide one-to-one advertising.

But this technology is actually available today. Microsoft recently developed a technology called Microsoft Surface, which is a sort of table-based or wall-based multi-touch experience. It’s like an iPad for an entire wall.

In recent times, we’ve seen banks like Bank Santander using media walls in their headquarters and branches to provide visitors and customers with a new interaction tool. We predict that this tool will soon become a mainstream feature for many flagship branches in capital cities. Why would branches use this? It’s simple – right now today branches spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars each year with posters, printed brochures, and other such collateral in the branch: collateral that has a relatively short shelf-life. Using technology like a media wall would replace the total spend on collateral and provide a link between sales messages and the individual customer who wanted to engage digitally. Just the cost savings from redundant print campaigns would be enough to pay for this technology, but the outcome would be far, far superior to anything you could print today.

The wall can interact with you in different ways. If you are far away, it will try to anticipate the products you might like by scanning offers in the customer database that match your RFID-tagged customer ID or by using facial recognition software. When you get closer to it, the wall becomes tactile, allowing you to use a multi-touch interface to navigate through information on the bank, its products, or decision support information.

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Augmented reality (AR) is the term for real-time digitally enhanced interactions with the physical real-world environment, where real-world elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery, touch or positive feedback, sounds and, even possibly, smells. The resultant mixed reality is what we term “augmented”. While this might sound gimmicky think of your GPS in your car today – this is a very early example of overlaying data on your ‘reality'. By using a 3d map or directional advice, we're able much more easily to find our way around town – now trying going back to that old printed street directory and tell me GPS is a gimmick!

In recent times, banks have been utilizing this technology so that anyone with a smartphone and the appropriate app can hold their camera up and see where the nearest branch of ATM is in relation to their location. In the future, it will also give you feedback based on customers in the area that have used the branch and found the advisory staff to be helpful --or not.

Foursquare is a social network, designed primarily for mobile devices, that allows people to check in at businesses, recreational facilities, or other similar physical establishments. The application uses the GPS capabilities of mobile smart phones, iPods and other devices, to determine a user's physical location and provide him with a list of nearby establishments. The user simply selects the physical location of a business, say “Starbucks,” and selects a "check-in" button. In recent times, other retailers have offered a free item for every fourth or fifth check-in. You might dismiss this as not very useful for banks, but remember that this is very early into the use of this technology, and we haven’t even started thinking of the applications of such geo-location capabilities as yet.

One honor that users can earn is designation as the “mayor” of a particular location. To become a mayor at a location, a user must check in there more than any other user. Obviously, this designation changes frequently, maybe even daily. Other individuals checking in to that business using Foursquare can see the first name and photo of its mayor.

Some banks have started offering special offers to the “mayor” of their branches. North Shore Bank in Wisconsin has offered its branch mayors a $5.00 Subway gift card. A Foursquare user simply shows a teller his mobile device, confirming that he is the mayor of that branch.

Become Mayor on Foursquare

But this is just the start. Augmented reality is already being integrated into your phones —just use your GPS to find your closest bank branch. Before long, customers will use social media networks to rate the service at different banks and branches. So when you’re shopping for a new bank, you’ll be able to search for those which are rated A for service by your social network peers – in real-time, on the move! The implication for banks is that their brand reputation will increasingly be powered by mobile and social individuals who are more interested in what their friends say about you, the bank, than what you tell them through your advertising. In fact, get it wrong in the social media space and no amount of brand advertising could rescue you from that tailspin!

AR Business card Test

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If you are a banker and you do nothing else as a result of reading this, just keep asking customers and listening to customers about how they want to engage with the bank. When those customers talk about mobile, the Internet, social networks and so forth, don’t say anything about the effectiveness of your branch or how broad your ATM network is. Instead, figure out how you are going to provide customers with accessibility and functionality on the right channels at the right time.

Look at the structure of your executive team and your marketing team today. If your executives aren’t on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, help them get engaged with these new tools to understand what your customers are doing. If your marketing budget is not at least 50 percent dedicated to digital or interactive media today, then you are in trouble right now. Your organization needs to have a dedicated and relenting focus on trying new ways to engage customers across new mediums. Most banks are already behind the eight ball on this.

But most critical of all, innovate and experiment. Things move so fast technologically these days that you cannot wait until a trend is three years into its cycle to adapt. Why not? Because by three years into the adoption cycle, the next big thing will already be on its way. The more channels, applications, touchpoints, and locations you use to engage customers, the more you will discover that channel silos are crippling the speed with which you engage and convert sales opportunities. Start removing the silos immediately and revenue will go up. Create a team that serves as advocates for customers and a team dedicated to creating the right offer, across the right channels, at the right time. Give these resources huge support because they are your new frontline.

Understand one thing. Customers are not going back to the old ways of branch banking. They are moving forward. If you are not moving forward with them, then they will pass right by you—at warp speed. Engagement Banking is now. Get moving, or watch the customers move out of the way and onto a competitor.

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A customer revolution has occurred, and most banks don’t even realize what has happened. Empowered by the freedom, choice, and control offered by new bank channels, customers are changing their behavior. In the year 2010, the branch is just one of many different channels, joined by the Internet, the call center, IVR systems, ATM, kiosks, and Web 2.0. All combine, ideally synergistically, to create a new kind of banking experience.

Customers choose the channels and interactions that get them to their desired solution quickly and easily. They don’t visit a branch to get "better service" unless they feel that human interaction is a critical element of a specific solution. They don’t use Internet banking because the bank has great functionality, tools, or technology. And they certainly don’t phone the call center to get the best answers to their questions. They choose all of these channels at different times when they provide the most expedient means to achieve their goals. Don’t like a channel? Just switch it to get better service.

Ten years ago when the web started to really acquire traction, there were various attempts at launching PFM (Personal Financial Management) technologies, but these largely failed because customers were not yet that sophisticated. But it seems that just in the last two to three years there has been a complete reversal as customers increasingly seek more complex financial management tools.

Online financial tools, such as Mint, Quicken, and Money, are now playing a critical role in engaging customers. Not only do these PFM solutions provide customers with powerful, easily accessible modeling, analysis, and transactional tools, but when executed correctly, they also can convert data into the relevant, actionable information that consumers crave. We believe that PFMs will turn online banking upside down and move it beyond the transaction.

How? PFMs offer consumers a consolidated view of their holdings and the tools they need to model and analyze financial decision making. As such, these tools can help individuals improve the quality of their lives by evaluating tradeoffs and making better choices. Customers rightly expect that banks should have an informational advantage when it comes to making financial decisions, but they also expect that advantage should carry over to their relationship. So banks need to be seen as enhancing the financial lives of their customers, and PFM-type technologies can be the platform for bringing this all together. In this way, banks can also enjoy far deeper, more profitable relationships as customers learn that this “informational advantage” is actually saving them money and making their life easier.

Some financial institutions want to incorporate PFMs into their corporate websites. However, we believe PFMs should not be treated as adjunct solutions, but instead as stand-alone offerings. One of the reasons for this is that PFM solutions need to be more about integrating banking services into the daily life of your customers. Thus it is about mobile enablement, message delivery, anticipating needs of the customers, and learning more about them so you can service them better. It’s not just a plug-in to an internet banking website.

Customers use the tools and information we provide them to obtain better banking service that is tailored to their needs and timetables. In short, customers are seeking a complete banking experience that engages them on their own terms.

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Most banks today perceive these changes in technologies from within the silos that they are assigned within the bank. There is rarely an individual within the bank that has worked across every channel in the bank, because traditionally those channels are effectively competitors. So when new technologies like the Internet or the iPhone come on the scene, it becomes: “How are we going to pay for this” and “Where’s the ROI?”

The problem is that these changes we’re seeing are part of a system shift -- a shift in behaviors that is so significant it is completely altering the way customers engage with banks. The shift is so revolutionary that it will completely change the direction of retail banking over the next five to 10 years – but most bankers have no idea this shift is occurring.

The first phase of the Big Shift coincided with the arrival of the Internet. Suddenly, customers had the power to access their money whenever they wished, however they wished. They could transfer funds with just a few mouse clicks rather than make a time-consuming trip to the branch. They could check bank balances via IVR in less than a minute rather than wait in a lengthy phone queue to speak with a representative. And they could research complex products on their own schedule, using Google, Bankrate, and others to uncover information and knowledge that would help them understand offerings and obtain the best, most relevant deals. The Internet created a new power paradigm, and the consumer, rather than the banker, was now in charge.

At the start of the new century, customers executed 50 to 60 percent of all transactions with a bank teller at a branch counter, with ATMs, cash, and checks accounting for the rest. Now, some 90 percent of all transactions are conducted through the Internet, call centers, and ATMs. This has happened largely under the radar of most banks – we’ve adapted. But to illustrate how significant this shift is, ask the average retail bank if it were to turn off Internet banking or online trading today, how staff would cope with this additional volume of interactions through traditional channels and the answer is always, “We couldn’t.”

The second phase of the shift emerged when the smart device or app phone became the driving force behind mobile banking. Having previously deployed Internet platforms, banks knew that they needed to focus intensively on usability; mobile phones now takes banking on the road, increasing customer access. Already many banks are deploying what amounts to a cashless ATM on a mobile application platform. We’re also beginning to see social media, geo-tagging, and augmented reality enhance customer connectedness and improve the banking experience, trends we discuss later in this paper.

The last phase of the shift will be the mass adoption of mobile and P2P payments. NFC-based (Near Field Communication) mobile wallets and stored value card micropayments are already here, but there is much more to come. This third phase will usher in the convergence of the mobile phone and credit/debit card, mainstream adoption of person-to-person payments, and new ePOS developments. Thus, in 10 years with checks gone, use of cash reduced, branches reformed into sales environments with no transactional capability, with ATM and branch networks half the size they are today, and with marketing completely refashioned around customer engagement, things will look very different.

The reality is, however, that the most significant changes will occur in the way banks work. If customers are not connected to a bank through a branch, if 99 percent of their daily interactions with a bank are through digital channels, if traditional marketing methods no longer work to attract customers – what exactly will the bank’s organizational structure look like when it serves the customer of tomorrow?

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The phrase “customer experience” is so pervasive that it’s in danger of becoming meaningless. Let’s be clear: This term refers to the total experience the customer has with a bank. It is not a customer satisfaction score; nor does this phrase refer to the experience a customer has in the “branch.” Instead, it is an ever-changing dynamic that is shaped by every transaction or service, every channel usage, potentially every single day. As such, the bank’s work is never done.

In times past, banks helped create a positive customer experience by training managers and tellers on how to interact with customers in the branch. However, most customers these days will use Internet banking five to 10 times and ATMs 20 times more frequently than they use the branch. So what does that mean for the customer experience?

Banks provide us with streamlined access to our cash and offer a range of financial services that enable us to buy a car, home, holiday, or other desirable goods. However, this value proposition -- easy access and diverse services -- is also offered by a great range of other providers. For example, in the 1990s, mortgage providers popped up everywhere, operating without banking licenses. And today we can pay for goods and services online with PayPal without using our bank.

For banks, customers’ expectations have never been higher, nor the stakes greater. When today’s customers have a need, they want their bank to meet it quickly – or they will find another provider who will do so. To keep customers content, banks must offer pervasive integration of their channels and services. Consider this: If it’s 11 pm at night and you are looking for trip insurance or you’re at the mall on a Saturday afternoon and you can’t withdraw cash from an ATM because your paycheck hasn’t credited, the fact that a branch is nearby is irrelevant and even useless. Your bank has to be standing at the ready with the right service whenever you need it – both the ones that you’re already using and the ones you haven’t even considered yet.

For banks, these changes are about anticipating the customer’s needs and responding. Right now, banks are telling you what products or services they offer, and making you come to them when you need it. In the future, the banks that differentiate will know what you need and will come to you.

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Need additional proof that customers now have the power? Consider the rise of social networking. Customers now use a bewildering range of tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, Foursquare, Gowalla, and SMS -- to stay in constant contact with their networks. In countries such as China, the variety of local social networking tools is just as bewildering, with sites like QQ, 51, Xiaonei, Chinaren, Xaixin001, 5460, Wanyou, and others. Individuals who do tireless outreach to their large networks are deemed to be influencers and are now courted by corporations to help sell new products and socialize ideas. Even less frequent commentators can serve as “citizen journalists,” notifying others about their concerns or experiences with organizations.

Virtual social networks work to mimic the best parts of “real” social networks, but have a few defining elements that make them more successful in creating long-lasting ties. Firstly, online networks are easy to join: There is no complicated application process, generally no joining fee, and no restrictions on entry. Secondly, growth is not limited by physical space constraints or geographic location; thus, these networks tend to grow quite rapidly once they captivate a critical mass of users. And finally, like real world networks, you get out of them what you put into them, but if you don’t want to do anything you can still stick around.

There are times when social networks can be very powerful for an organization. You might recall how Twitter was utilized in the Iran elections and how news of Michael Jackson’s hospitalization and death spread like wildfire online. In February 2008, in the run-up to the US presidential elections, John McCain raised US $11 million through campaign fundraisers to support his nomination. Barack Obama attended no campaign fundraisers, but used online social networks to raise $55 million in just 29 days.

The growth of virtual communities, which develop around causes or affinities, has an interesting parallel in financial services: community banks and credit unions, which exist to serve a specific customer base. In some cases, community bank or credit union members are linked by geography, while in others, members are bound by a common cause or profession (teachers, pilots, postal workers, et al). These organizations are well-positioned to leverage members’ commonalities to build online community and shape the conversations and interactions that take place in the social media space. Kasasa is one such organization that has helped a community of more than 50 banks come together on a single technology platform to provide greater flexibility and connectivity to their customers. Deploying online, mobile, social, and physical community integration has paid off big time for their members and customers of those banks.

Most mainstream banks are threatened by social media and the way it empowers consumers. They’ve grown up in an environment where their brand and “media spin” is crafted by a phalanx of advisors, including PR representatives, marketers, and advertisers. Banks need to understand that that era is forever over, and that consumers can no longer be controlled. In fact, with social media, individuals are increasingly taking on corporate goliaths – and winning. A few examples make this point.

In September 2009, Ann Minch successfully rebuffed Bank of America’s attempt to increase her credit card APR by using social media to rally others to her cause. Meanwhile, in early 2010, Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post supported the “Move Your Money” campaign, which was designed to encourage customers to move their funds from large banks that took government funds to community banks. Huffington promoted this initiative on CBS shows and other mainstream media in the first quarter, but the hashtag #moveyourmoney continues to track popularly on Twitter to this day. Social media can build support for great service organizations, but it can also expose organizations’ inadequacies. Witness the recent Toyota and BP media debacles for cautionary case studies of what can go wrong when companies end up several steps behind their critics. Companies would do well to heed the advice of 18th century British poet Charles Churchill who said: “Who shall dispute what the Reviewers say? Their word's sufficient; and to ask a reason, in such a state as theirs, is downright treason.”

Social media opens the aperture and removes the controls. Individuals outside banks’ “circle of trust” are continuously telling their networks what they think about their brand and their performance. These voices can’t be silenced or intimidated. If banks don’t engage intelligently with them, they will lose out on a valuable opportunity to help shape a public conversation. And you just may be defined by your critics. On the other hand, if you engage wholeheartedly and positively with the cadre of Twitterers and bloggers, you might just win them over.

An example of recent activities in the space is Wells Fargo’s social media initiatives which incorporates experiential marketing, blogger outreach, distributed functionality, and participation through widgets, the Well’s Fargo Stagecoach Island community, Twitter listening posts, Someday stories initiative, and other such initiatives utilizing social media tools. Dell has had great success building advocacy and revenue through tools like Twitter, in fact, in 2008 Dell claims to have generated more than $3 million online.

With Facebook now having more than 500 million users, with Twitter receiving 92 million unique visitors in June 2010, and with a deluge of new social media initiatives morphing into the mobile space and utilizing technologies like geo-location, augmented reality, viral marketing and so forth – isn’t it time your bank was engaging you on Twitter?

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Banks have become so myopic and risk-averse that the process of requesting a new product – such as a mortgage loan or an investment deal -- has become an anathema to customers. In this new model of extreme risk mitigation, the compliance workload has been shifted to the customer, and he is asked to prove his financial fitness beyond a shadow of a doubt. This approach is not only short-sighted; it is offensive. Is it any wonder that many customers feel that the compliance requirements involved with obtaining a new product or service have become so overwhelming that it is almost not worth engaging with a bank? As a university student in the mid-1980s, I opened a checking account without any identification: I simply walked into a bank branch and filled out two cards, providing a signature, my address, and a few other particulars. Today, anyone walking into that same bank would need to complete an 18-page application form to provide enough data to feed that bank’s 100-point identification scorecard. This, we are told, is progress.

Today, you can do so many banking activities online that when a bank representative insists that you come down to the branch to sign a piece of paper you probably ask: why? You know that when you take time out of your busy day to present yourself, the bank representative will invariably ask you for the same information you have already provided several times over the last few years, but which now seems to have disappeared into the electronic ether.

When you ask why the process can’t be done entirely online or made any easier, you hear that your time is being wasted with yet another data collection sweep because it is bank policy.

Previously, you would have held your peace, because you needed the product and had few or no other options. But in today’s era of transparency, you can post a Twitter screed, blog post, or Facebook update, alerting your network to your bank’s shortsightedness. And won’t your bank representatives be surprised when a single complaint kicks off a firestorm of public complaints as other customers chime in with similar tales of woe about out-of-touch personnel and out-of-date policies?

Says the customer to the bank: Don’t tell me I have to do something that runs contrary to common sense just because it’s your policy: It’s your policy, not me, that needs to change.

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  “I went to the branch and phoned the call center – and the problem still isn’t solved.”

Technology advances and marketplace competitiveness have had profound psychological influences on you and me as individuals. You are in control of the banking relationship, and if the service provider’s offer doesn’t meet your expectations, you can walk away. You have an abundance of choices to select amongst, and you are better informed than you would have been a decade ago because of the proliferation of informational resources. You get better deals because service providers have to work harder to get your business and compete transparently against each other. You save money because banks’ margins have been squeezed through better delivery methods and more competition. And you get a better quality solution because data-mining technologies and rules engines have created products that meet your needs much more precisely than the one-size-fits-all solutions that you were restricted to previously.

So how do you feel about being a customer in this brave new world of banking versus? Chances are you are more motivated to plan for your future and feel better about yourself and your options than you would have been 20 years ago, facing more restrictive policies and services. You are happier and have more control over your financial destiny.

As a result, your expectations of your financial service providers have been elevated to the level where you now expect self-control, efficiency, and choice to characterize all of your interactions with your bank. These elements are not nice to have; they are essential components of every product and service. And you are more than prepared to penalize providers who don’t get the new power paradigm.

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  “It has to be ease of use. Every bank must meld the Mint.com mentality into the banking experience.”

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  “Calculators are good tools for managing money.”

In the United Kingdom, 43 percent of payments are now made by debit card and 23 percent by credit card. Cash still constitutes 32 percent of payments, but continues to decline in day-to-day usage. And checks have almost entirely disappeared: Today, they are only offered for two percent of all payments. As the growth of debit card transactions swells further – fueled by new contactless payment capabilities, person-to-person (P2P) payments, and other transactional mechanisms enabled on your mobile phone -- legacy payment methods will continue to decline. In the United Kingdom, we can easily envision a scenario where 85 percent of all payments will be made by mobile phone or debit card, and 15 percent by cash within the next five years. In Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong, the transition may be even sooner and more startling, given the plethora of technology-savvy customers in those markets.

HSBC recently announced its intention to stop supporting checks in the United Kingdom because there is no business case to support their continued usage. In addition, the Board of the UK Payments Council has agreed to set a target date of October 31, 2018, to close the country’s central check clearing system. Says Paul Smee, its CEO:

There will be a critical review in 2016 when the Payments Council will decide whether sufficient change has occurred against agreed published criteria, to press ahead to do away with the cheque in 2018. There are many more efficient ways of making payments than by paper in the 21st century, and the time is ripe for the economy as a whole to reap the benefits of its replacement.

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  “Branch-based banking and check writing are all in the past.”

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  “I do everything online and haven’t written a check in three years.”

Mobile banking is not a fad. The core proposition of mobile banking is twofold: Handheld devices are already ubiquitous, and mobile banking and payments meet customers’ needs for convenience. During 2010, it is expected that smartphone uptake in the US will have grown from 17 percent of the mobile phone population to 33 percent - that’s in just 12 months. But the US is well behind many other countries where smartphone or app phone usage is off the charts. China, for example, has more than twice the penetration of smartphones in that market than the US. Japan, Korea, Sweden, Hong Kong, Singapore and many other markets have higher penetration of smartphones and 3G or higher data capability. They key to watch here is growth – smartphone usage globally is just starting to ramp up. Double-digit growth in smartphone adoption is expected to continue well beyond 2020, according to industry sources such as Nielsen and others.

Some 80 percent of the world’s population already owns a mobile phone. In the developing world, many countries have skipped the costly process of building a telecommunications infrastructure for landlines – and gone straight to wireless. And since only 20 percent of the world’s population has access to a bank account, it is patently obvious that mobile phones will become the tool of choice for mobile wallet, payments, and bank facsimile.

Secondly, convenience has always been critical to the success of Internet banking. With mobile banking, the convenience factor is even higher because you always “carry” the Internet with you. Got a low balance alert? No need to wait until you return home to transfer money; simply use an SMS service now to prevent overdraft charges from accruing.

Once people realize how easy it is to make and receive mobile payments using either SMS in the near-term or contactless (NFC) applications in the future, we predict that this service will explode. All it will take is an industry giant like Google or Apple pushing a mobile money solution, and the banks will surely follow.

Banks aren’t paying enough attention to this emerging trend. They think they’ve got a lock on payments because everyone needs cash, and trading cash requires a banking license. However, that doesn’t explain the runaway success of M-PESA, G-CASH, and other mobile money solutions in developing economies; unbanked consumers have embraced these tools and given them two thumbs up – that is, when they’re not using those digits to make payments. And in the developed world, technology leaders such as PayPal, Facebook, Square, VeriFone, and others have already launched themselves into the mobile payments arena. There will be lots of competition in this space, as everyone fights for a slice of the mobile transaction pie.

In Kenya, for example, prior to 2006 the only way you could bank was through the big four banks there – they had 3.5 million customers and 750 branches across the country. Then M-PESA came on the scene in 2006, created by Safaricom and IBM, and now has 11.5 million customers and 18,000 outlets (or branch equivalents) and handles more than 10 percent of Kenya’s GDP. This is mobile payments in action, and it is in direct competition with banks. Considering the potential for huge growth in mobile payments in the west, where customers are more affluent and conduct commerce much more frequently, banks should be watching out for the likes of Apple, Google, Visa, and others.

Sure they might get the back-end transactions, but who owns the customer?

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  “The intimacy of mobile devices offer banks the opportunity to deepen relationships.”

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  “There's less a reason to go into a branch, with mobile banking.”

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  “I do everything online and on my iPhone app; I don’t go to banks.”

Banking has been around since the dawn of commerce. The earliest recorded incidences of banking date back to the ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, and Babylonian societies more than 5,000 years ago. As soon as people started to use money, there was a need to stockpile wealth and to arrange ways to secure funding and conduct transactions through an intermediary. This role was filled by bankers.

By 1790 BC, the enterprise of banking was sufficiently well-established that Hammurabi’s Code, a legal text from Babylon, provided laws to ensure its efficient operation. During the third century, banks in Persia (what is now modern-day Iran) and other territories began issuing letters of credit known as Sakks, the ancient equivalent of today’s checks. Several hundred years later, banking expanded across Europe: Between 1100 and 1300, banks began opening “branches” in remote, foreign locations to support international trade. In 1327, the city of Avignon, France, had 43 branches of Italian banking houses alone. Branch banking was open for business.

Traditionally, the branch was the only means of accessing a financial institution’s services. Individuals would visit their local branch to make cash withdrawals from -- and deposits to -- a demand account at a counter staffed by a bank teller. They also could seek other services such as obtaining financial advice from a specialist, renting a safe deposit box, visiting a bureau de change, and purchasing insurance (where it was legally allowed). For centuries, the branch remained the primary channel for accessing vital financial services; as such, it was the heart and soul of the banking industry. However, at the beginning of the 21th century, the branch has shrunk in importance as new channels have emerged. Today, the modern bank branch is a shadow of its former self, as consumers flock to Internet and mobile banking, among other services. Is it any wonder that today’s bank branches are having an identity crisis?

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  Purpose of the branch

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  “Beverly Hillbillies - the branch hasn't changed since the old days; there are no genuine customer experiences”

The branch, historically, has been synonymous with a bank. Most of us were introduced to “our bank” when we were still in elementary school or junior high, and Mom or Dad marched us down to the local branch to open our very first passbook account. The branch was where you had to go to open any type of account. It is probably where you went to get your first car loan, credit card, and mortgage.

In a small town, you may have used a local community bank that had only one branch: In such a scenario, the branch truly was interchangeable with the bank. If you visited multiple branches of a larger bank, you might have noticed that each had its own unique identity that was completely separate from the “brand” of the parent bank.

Over time, banks consolidated and built networks of branches. These early M&A activities typically started in one geography, growing over time to create national and even international networks.

During the dotcom bubble, many pundits claimed that the Internet would herald the death of branch banking. More than a decade later, the bank branch is alive – and in some places doing quite well. While online banks such as ING Direct, Egg, First Direct, and others have managed to thrive without four walls, the number of bank branches has actually increased over the last decade in many countries. In this paper, we analyze the reason why some bank branches are staying relevant to their customer base, while others are not.

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  “Branches provide a human connection, but need to augment it with other channels.”

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  “I always think there should be a person to talk to, especially when it comes to money”

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  "There will always be a role for a branch"

The advent of online stock trading revealed that a transaction platform has no business being situated in a physical branch because a human teller or broker generally adds no benefit to that process. Indeed, very few traditional brokers have survived the Internet trading onslaught of the dot.com boom.

If we are honest about the future of retail banking, we will admit that the only processes that require face-to-face interaction in the branch are sales- and service-related. These “value-added” interactions are also the only elements that will make branches viable from a cost-margin perspective. Current over-the-counter transactions will remain a cost, rather than a revenue opportunity.

As banks face increasing pressure on their revenue and profitability, branches are coming under the microscope. As managers and analysts, we are assessing them solely from a cost versus income-generated perspective. Armed with better data on where new business is being generated, we are discovering that the branch is often serving as a final step in the compliance process, rather than a true source of revenue. In the cold light of day, many branches will fail to deliver the profitability required to ensure their continued existence. Is it time to say RIP to the bank branch? Read on to learn how we propose to breathe new life into this old institution.

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  "As transactions decrease, branches must become more personal"

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  “There is an opportunity for banks to establish themselves in new ways”

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  “The current branch model is broken; branches need to provide high touch service like wealth management firm”

In the past, the branch manager was often a de facto stand-in for the bank writ large. At small banks, branch managers developed policies, set rules and standards, and often served as the sole sales and marketing representative for all products. If you wanted a mortgage or a personal loan, you had to go down and personally solicit the branch manager for credit. As the person who held the purse strings, tightening and loosening them at will, the branch manager wielded a great deal of power over your financial future.

These days, the branch manager no longer serves as either the personality or the power center of the branch. Rules engines now make split-second decisions on new customer acquisitions, creditworthiness, and loan terms, using embedded business rules and exhaustive compliance and legal procedures to determine whether to grant or decline offers and how attractive to make them. Even if you can schedule a meeting with the branch manager, he likely doesn’t have the power to make a decision that goes against bank policy or procedure.

Instead, today’s bank manager now serves as a sales team leader. Both he and his team are keenly aware that they are evaluated by their numbers: specifically, how many product sales they can generate. The branch manager is a cheerleader, educator, and demographics specialist: He motivates staff and educates them about new products and quotas, while localizing product offers to meet the needs of customers walking in the door. Quite simply, the branch manager’s goal is to sell you as much stuff as possible, a fact that is readily apparent to all who use the branch’s services.

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  – “Stop marketing, and start engaging”

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  “I wish banking would go back to being a lot more personal”

Consider the mortgage: In countries and regions such as Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States, mortgages have 70 to 75 percent internet penetration. Most people do their primary product research online before committing to a mortgage; after gathering information, they will use an online inquiry form or make a phone call to take the next step. In some cases, individuals might actually complete most of the loan process on the Internet: filling out an online application, monitoring their progress, and receiving an automated approval. Documentation, of course, is still in the dark ages, as it is submitted and reviewed offline.

Those of us who work in financial services look at metrics, comparing the relative performance of Branch A, Product B, and Direct Channel C over time. While we closely monitor product and channel revenue, we don’t generally have a clear picture of how customers engage with us on their product “journey” and where our revenue is actually coming from. And while we may be able to measure our transaction traffic across different channels, we probably can’t quantify how that traffic has changed over the past two to three years.

As a consequence, we’re recording product revenue like mortgage, cards, and life insurance policies as “branch” or inbound “call center” revenue when the customer lead and initial engagement likely occurred through the online channel. That misallocation results in skewed operational budgets, a misdirected management strategy, and other ills. In fact, today it could be observed that the allocation of budgets and the metrics which measure the success of individual channels and product silos actually create internal gaming and competition.

Competition exists between departments such as the branch and “direct” channels for budget to expand or deploy new staff and technologies, and competition exists between product teams as they compete for customer wallet share. This produces an almost schizophrenic attitude within banks when it comes to the customer – certainly the customer is not at the center of decisions when different internal teams are competing in these ways. And to those who point to increased revenue in defense, revenue alone is a poor reflection of a customer’s engagement with the bank these days. We all know that it’s more complex than that.

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  “Banks’ organizational structure doesn't reflect reality”

Some of us, convinced that the branch is an endangered species, have gone exclusively electronic. We have converted branches into automated transaction centers with only ATMs for cash withdrawal and deposits, computer terminals for online banking, and check deposit machines. ABN Amro and others have gone a step further, launching automated branches where the teller is connected to the customer by a video display. These banks are edging closer to the “pure play” model of virtual banks, which have eradicated branches altogether in an effort to reduce costs and position their offerings effectively against traditional incumbents.

In an attempt to convey a friendlier image, some financial institutions have renovated branches into financial services boutiques, creating a coffeehouse-like environment with sit-down counters, refreshments, interactive displays, music, and recreation areas for children. Some of these branches have retained traditional features such as drive-through teller windows or ATMs.

ING Direct captured the imagination of many in Europe and in other geographies when it launched branches that closely resembled coffee shops. In a short period of time, ING became very successful with a teller-free model: These coffee-shop branches were simply drop-in locations where you could access ING services using a touch-screen. However, a lack of onsite personnel hasn’t stopped ING from becoming the most successful direct bank in the world today.

When Deutsche Bank launched their Q110 (Quartier 110 on Friedrichstrasse) branch in Berlin, the tellers were gone. Q110 was a luxurious flagship store, designed for strong customer interaction in a relaxed, up-market environment. Again, the lack of tellers did nothing to reduce the unbridled success of this branch, making it the highest grossing branch for Deutsche in Germany.

And yet other examples have not been as successful. TESCO decided to launch banking in their supermarkets throughout the UK, giving cashiers the ability to do basic banking services at the checkout. This failed in part because intellectually customers didn’t feel a cashier had the capability to handle their secure payments, but also because customers are no longer focused on face-to-face interactions for transactional banking.

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  “Customers are increasingly receptive to digital delivery”

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  “Banks should think like retailers and give customers a reason to go to branches.”