Banks score with 'high touch' service |
| By Jay MacDonald
• Bankrate.com |
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I can smell the coffee as I enter my bank. A friendly concierge in a crisp blue oxford shirt and khakis greets me at the
door, offers a cup of Joe and the morning newspaper, and directs me to a comfortable couch grouping. Soft alternative rock fills the air.
A teller strolls over and walks me to a kiosk, one of several in this circular open space. We stand side by side, chatting as
she processes my deposit.
She asks if I am interested in a new CD. She doesn't mean certificate of deposit; the bank is offering the Austin City Limits
Festival compilation disc to new credit card applicants.
And as a matter of fact, I am interested.
Welcome to the new banking experience. Mine occurs weekly at the Washington Mutual
store near my home in Austin, Texas.
That's right, they're called "stores"; "branches" are so old-school.
Banks such as Washington Mutual are reinventing in-person banking by emphasizing a customer-centric, "high touch"
experience. In the process, they're attracting new customers and hoping to drive profits and growth higher.
"While other banks were directing customers out to the ATMs and debating 'clicks versus bricks,' we stuck with bricks and
developed a retail concept that meets customers' needs in a friendly, less intimidating, more personal way," says Diana McSweeney, WaMu retail
banking vice president.
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| Banks with 'high touch' service |
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High tech vs. high touch
Banking today is a mature industry. All banks sell pretty much the same products at roughly similar prices. To grow their bottom line, they must
either cut operating costs or lure customers from other banks.
During the 1990s, most major banks chose the former route, cutting back their teller force and driving their customers
toward the convenience of phone, ATM and emerging online services. Some banks even started charging a fee to interact with a human being. They
effectively went high tech.
"The model for years for larger banks was to push consumers onto the Internet and out of the branches, given that the profitability
models said it was too expensive for every customer to be talking to tellers," says Brett Rabatin, a senior research analyst who tracks banks for
FTN Midwest Research.
As a result, branch expansion moved away from stand-alone buildings with full-service lobbies in favor of stripped-down,
fast-food-style convenience locations inside grocery stores and strip malls.
Forget putting your feet up at such locations; many are little more than a velvet-rope queue leading to a teller counter.
However, a few large banks -- including Commerce Bank and Washington Mutual -- and several smaller regional banks and credit
unions have turned back to a customer-service model. They pamper customers with fancy lobbies, concierge service and freebies.
For high-touch inspiration, banks and credit unions look to retail establishments -- specifically coffee houses, restaurants,
hotels and even airport lounges -- that benefit from helping customers relax, linger and spend.
In essence, these financial institutions have started thinking of their branches as stores.
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