Finacle Blog

Surprisingly, even a 31-year-old customer - with Internet at home and a mobile in his pocket, who does all his banking online - now starts to visit the branch. Electronic banking suited him fine when he wanted to check his account balance or make spur-of-the-moment investments. Now, with a family to look after, he needs professional advice to manage his finances.
Despite numerous epitaphs being written for the branch, it is still the most important mode of banking. And the channel of choice for high value, complex transactions. Which is precisely why banks continue to invest in it.
Of course, branch banking has its limitations.  For one, it is not the preferred banking channel of Gen Y.  It comes with high infrastructure and human resource costs.  Finding staff with the required expertise and cross-functional exposure is difficult.  Hence, the branch must not be wasted in routine activity, but rather strategically used as a valuable resource to support big-ticket business. This calls for a change in mindset and moving the focus from transaction fulfillment to customer engagement.
These are some ways in which branch banking can reinvent itself:
• Offering advisory services to Gen Y customers with little understanding of financial matters
• Providing cross-functional training to all employees to facilitate quick undisrupted service and reduce overdependence on particular employees
• Practicing right selling, rather than hard selling
• Enhancing in-branch customer experience through ambience, facilities and service
• Setting up an optimal number of branches, or even a network of "thin" specialized ones based on market need

Can you think of any other?