Branches work to balance providing digital ease and personalized service
By Kristen D’Andrea
The Daily Record Newswire
LONG ISLAND — While the national banking landscape continues to evolve, so does the retail strategy of local banks. Technology is increasingly playing a significant role in consumers’ relationships with their banks. And, as the number of branches nationwide falls slightly, those left standing are working to find a balance between providing digital ease and personalized service.
According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s latest data, the number of branches nationwide declined by 1.5 percent between June 2014 and June 2015. Overall, the number of branches nationwide has declined by 6.3 percent since 2009, according to the data.
Those statistics fall in line with recent banking activity among JPMorgan Chase customers. In October, more than 16 million deposits were made through ATMs across the bank’s branch footprint, which comprises more than 5,500 branches. In addition, another 3 million deposits were completed via mobile app at Chase QuickDeposit.
“The way people are banking is changing,” said Chase spokesman Michael Fusco. “They are using their phones more than going to a teller. Customers are still coming into the branches but for different reasons – to have a conversation about buying a house, saving for college or starting a business.”
Chase is incorporating its’ customers’ preferences toward self-service into the design of its branches, including the 183 currently in operation on Long Island, Fusco said. The bank recently introduced new, modernized ATM machines, located in the middle of the lobby, which allow customers to withdraw cash in multiple denominations, unlike traditional ATM machines. In addition to accepting deposits up to 200 bills at a time, the funds from checks deposited at the new eATMs — which feature large, portrait touch screens — are available immediately. Thirty branches on Long Island — and 1,300 nationwide — have been renovated to include the new design and technology; upgrades will continue next year at additional branches, Fusco said.
In addition, in late 2016, Chase customers will be able to use fingerprint recognition on their mobile devices at ATM machines.
“Today, our ATMs and the eATMs can perform about 60 percent of transactions our customers do at the teller window, and we are enhancing them to do even more next year, including check cashing and bill payment,” Fusco said. “Customers will be able to cash checks and make their Chase credit card and mortgage payments at the ATM next year.”
In September, TD Bank celebrated the grand opening of its first New York “concept store,” at 86th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan (its first concept store opened in Baltimore last October and another opened in Naples, Fla., in September). The store, which offers a high-touch, one-stop service model, allows customers to bank using a variety of channels and new technology. The Manhattan store has a smaller physical footprint — about 1,300 square feet — than the traditional, full-service stores, which are generally more than 3,500 square feet, according to Chris Giamo, regional president for metro New York. The concept store features video banking, free high-speed Wi-Fi and smart ATMs, with enhanced technologies like those at Chase, such as touch-screen tablets and the ability to accept check deposits and disperse money in multiple denominations.
TD currently maintains 61 branches, which it calls stores, on Long Island, with approximately 815 employees. Still, “even traditional full-service stores are getting smaller in terms of their footprint and utilizing more technology as consumer behavior is changing and using remote for deposit, transfer and online banking,” Giamo said. “We will continue to invest in those channels – online, mobile and ATM technologies – so our customers can bank how they want, when they want.”
As its branches evolve, TD has introduced a new employee role, as well: customer solutions associates, who will act as customer concierges at concept store locations.
“If a transaction can be handled on [customers’] mobile phones, [the concierge] will educate them and let them know they don’t need to come into the store and wait on line,” Giamo said. “The concierge serves as an educator as well as someone to guide them to the most efficient way to bank.”
Bridgehampton National Bank has introduced technological advancements cautiously – behind the scenes and not at the exclusion of customer service, according to James Manseau, executive vice president and chief retail banking officer.
The bank has supplied tellers with a cash-handling machine that can electronically count up to $8,000 in cash, enabling tellers to have a conversation with customers during their transactions, Manseau said.
“It’s making a much more efficient process of handling cash,” he said. “Other than that, we believe in banking the old-fashioned way.”
BNB offers its customers mobile technology, so if they prefer to bank on a screen they can do that from home.
“Most customers, if they go to a branch, they want to talk to someone,” Manseau said. “We don’t want technology to get in the way of human interaction; we want it to enhance it.
“You don’t go to a bank to be directed to a touch screen 10 feet away,” he said.
In 2008, BNB had $610 million in assets with 14 branches; today, it operates 40 branches and has grown to approximately $3.5 billion in assets.
“I look at our growth and success and I think it works,” Manseau said. “We look at technology coming down the pike but we’re mindful of the human experience with that technology.”
