retail bank, furniture store or traffic department?

there is a famous saying that goes something like…

“marketing is the most important function in any company, far too important to be left to the marketing department”

this broadened the scope of marketing as well as the responsibility for it. there is a similar move afoot in retail, and nothing demonstrates it better than the recent acquisition of ellerines by african bank. now the bank looks like a furniture store and is a pucker retail environment

contrast this with the major “retail” banking environments. there is little distinction between their branches and the licensing hall at your local traffic department, apart maybe from the quality of the finishes. they provide a good bank but a lousy shop. this may give us some insight into why we hate going to the bank but see shopping as relaxing or even entertainment.

so, as much as we want to improve the experience for our shopper, as retailers, we could show other organisations, like banks, a thing or two about people, product and space.

pick n pay made a customer promise a few years ago that the manager will always be available, and will spend most of his time on the sales floor. in the bank, the manager is furthest person from the customer. the only time you get to see her is when you are in trouble.

another promise, made by many grocery retailers, is that the moment there is more than one shopper at a till, another till will be opened until all are open. imagine a bank where all the tellers were open.

in a fashion retailer, the shopper can interact with the product. he can look at it, touch it, price it and try it on. think of all the information that he can gather from this process…colour, size, style, fashionability, fabric, quality, price, fit… to name a few. the challenge for the bank is to find a way for him to easily gather enough information to make a decision. if a bond or a savings account was a thing, what would it look like?

these are just a few of the thoughts i have had when pondering the question…

what would my bank look like if it was run by a retailer?

for those non-bankers amongst us, replace the words “my bank” with “my office”, “my reception”, “my department”, “my charity” or anything else for that matter.

would people want to come to it?
would they easily find what they needed?
would the offering make sense to them?
is the balance between self service and assistance correct?
would they be happy to give you what you want in return for what they got?
would they come back?
what would your returns percentage be?

…worth a thought