We all know that branches are under productive. We all know that we have to move branches to a sales store and not just a transaction shop. Our own Chairman, retired CEO of Diebold and as Cleveland Federal Reserve Chair, Bob Mahoney, has been talking about this for over a decade. The fact that some banks are thinking about branches as Apple stores is nothing new. BUT, so little has really happened. And why this is so important is unbelievably simple: the vast majority of account opening is still happening in the branches. That does not mean that the online channel is not crucial because it is – people are conducting more research about banks on their sites. But with all the energy around the internet sites for the banks, they are primarily used for online banking.
So turning the branch productivity button up means better sales conducted within them at the moment of account opening. And the challenge faced there is that relationship managers do not have the optimal tools for making the right offer every time.
We define “optimal tools” very simply: can the branch inform each customer about the correct and complete product bundle for which they are eligible?
More next week.
Here is an article from BAI that provides some good insight into bank branches. http://www.bai.org/bankingstrategies/distribution-channels/branches/getting-rid-of-zombie-branches
