National Australia Bank is taking a very different approach from rival ANZ, which is currently trialling voice recognition to encourage mobile banking at the expense of branches – while NAB has invested $6 million in its central-Sydney flagship branch.The branch now has an Apple Store-style layout,
complete with a cafe, open-plan meeting areas, and hands-on tech bars at
which staff coach customers in online banking, according to an AAP newswire
report. This follows an earlier Apple-style rejig of its Docklands, Melbourne
outlet.
NAB says the new-style approach will be rolled out elsewhere if it proves
successful.
Despite the growth of mobile and Internet banking, the branch network remains a
key asset for traditional banks, according to NAB chief customer officer Andrew
Hagger. Indeed he reckons rejigged branches can help the move to digital.
Quoth Hagger: “We know customers want to do a lot of everyday things
through digital means if they can just be shown how to do that. For some
people, digital functionality is intuitive, for others it’s good to have a
guiding hand” – which hopefully they will get at the Apple-style rejigged
branches.
