Our banking clients regularly ask us about the role of bank branches in consumers’ decisions about where to bank. This question keeps coming up among predictions of the death of the bank branch, not to mention banks themselves, in an age in which most, if not all, banking transactions can be completed online and non-financial institutions are increasingly offering services traditionally provided through banks.
While those predictions may be realized in the future, the surveys we have done with consumers over the past 40 years invariably show that convenience of location is the key factor in bank selection. In looking at the results of recent studies we have conducted for banks, for example, about 50% of consumers rated the convenience of the bank’s location as the most important factor for them in selecting a bank, making it either the most important factor or the second most important factor behind the bank having low or no fees.
While consumers want their banks to offer the online tools that let them do their banking any time, anywhere, there are tasks that many consumers would prefer to do in a branch, such as opening a new account or applying for a loan. Consumers are concerned that they are going to have questions and/or need help with those kind of tasks and want to be in a branch where they can get any assistance they need.
Chase demonstrated its understanding of what consumers are looking for in opening its 12,500 square foot branch in Manhattan. As Gordon Smith, Co-President and Co-Chief Operating Officer, and Consumer & Community Banking CEO at Chase stated, “Branches are the heart of the company. Whenever we move into a new location, it’s the branch that drives all of the business we do. We hear an awful lot about, ‘Will branches exist in the future?’ The answer is a very resounding ‘Yes’. We have more than 5,000 branches and more than a million people go through those branches in a day.”
https://thefinancialbrand.com/84967/chase-bank-branch-consultation-flagship-dimon/?edigest
So while retail stores continue to close across the country and malls are being converted into office buildings and co-working spaces due to the shift to online shopping, many banks are like Chase in that they continue to expand their branch networks as a key component of their growth strategies.
– Posted by Julie