Toytown branch trialled by CBA
Commonwealth Bank yesterday reaffirmed its commitment to a strong bricks and mortar presence in the market in launching a "development" branch in the Brisbane CBD. It also confirmed plans to open eight new Queensland branches this year and more next year.
The branch, at 240 Queen Street, Brisbane, is full of interactive tools and advanced ATMs that may or may not find their way into the wider branch network later on.
Commonwealth Bank's group executive for retail banking services, Ross McEwan, said: "We are using this branch to have a go at some new things and we accept that some things will fail."
The inevitable question is why the bank is bothering with innovation in branches when more and more customers are taking up online and mobile services.
McEwan said: "There is a direct link between our ability to acquire customers and having a physical footprint."
These days, branches are less about providing basic transaction services and more about advisory services, business transactions and other more complex tasks.
McEwan said the number of transactions carried out in branches was falling steadily - at a rate of about three per cent a year. Around 3.3 million CBA customers (close to 50 per cent) use the online service, NetBank, and 20 per cent log-on to NetBank using a mobile device.
The bank's mobile app has had nine million downloads since it was offered two years ago, and a property guide app has had 130,000 downloads since it was launched last October.
The Brisbane development branch is an experiment in integrating electronic and physical services.
CBA's executive general manager for retail sales, Lyn McGrath, said a lot of NetBank customers stuck to a few basic inquiry and transaction options. Branch staff would use the battery of in-branch computers to educate customers in other electronic banking functions, she said.
The branch has a concierge directing customer traffic. McGrath said all CBA's 150 tier-one branches have concierges and about 90 of its tier-two branches have them too.
At the new Brisbane branch, a series of touch-screens gives customers information on products, lifestyle information, calculators and event notices. The branch will also be used for seminars and training sessions.
It features iPads and other hardware for transacting and browsing. There is also a deposit machine that will count cash and issue itemised receipts, as well as take cheques, and bank the deposits in any nominated account.
Commonwealth is also running what it calls NetBank labs, where it invites customers to try out new services. The feedback helps the bank decide whether it will deploy a service and whether it needs modification.
Recent lab trials have included a more sophisticated home loan repayment calculator and a more comprehensive account activity report.
McEwan said CBA's core banking system upgrade was driving changes in behaviour. For instance, customers are now finding their online transaction histories more useful because of real-time transaction processing. This is encouraging greater use of the online service and has led to fewer calls about transaction queries.
The core banking upgrade has enabled online verification and real-time account opening.
Disclosure: CBA paid travel costs for John Kavanagh to Brisbane yesterday.