KQ Article

More than 1,400 U.S. bank and credit union branches have closed in the past two years, and yet the answer remains unclear. Should you branch out or rein in? And if you do modify your branch network, who will be impacted most?

First, there are seniors, who in general like to do their banking in person. So do some customers with complex transactions, such as small businesses. But there is another group — the largest by far — that prefers the branch over all other channels: people experiencing problems.

Problem resolution is the top reason customers and members visit branches. It has always been this way, regardless of demographics or market conditions. Banking involves people’s money, after all, which gets emotional fast. With emotion comes anxiety, which can build to a point until the only option left is to drop everything, head down to a branch and talk through the issue in person.

If handled correctly, this face-to-face interaction creates a positive sense of progress — one that many have not yet found through phone support or online help.

Any modification to your branch network will likely have some impact on your ability to resolve customer problems. As you ponder next steps with your branch network, you should also examine how well you are designed for problem resolution, what role your branches play in this process, and what other systems might take over for swiftly solving customer problems if some of your branches go away.

The truth is, if your branches are not optimized for problem resolution (the main reason why people visit them), you may not be getting an accurate snapshot of how they could potentially contribute to the customer experience and your bottom line. So perhaps you should optimize your branches for problem resolution first, and then — only then — decide what to do with them.

Our Point of View
1. Experiences should be rooted in your story.
2. Experiences should explore and celebrate customer values.
3. Experiences should be purposeful and inspire the heart.
4. Experiences must be meaningfully measured.
5. Experiences live or die by stewardship.

_{© 2012 Deluxe Enterprise Operations, Inc.}