Stretching back to the 1980s, a key worry with branch consolidation has been customer attrition, or the risk that accountholders will take their business elsewhere if their anchor local branch is closed or merged with another location.

In this age of self-service channels and tech-savvy customers, do community banks still need to be investing in contact centers and trying to keep up with the money-center banks’ 24/7 accessibility? The simple answer is, yes.

Customer wait time is one of the most reliable leading indicators of customer satisfaction in retail because, well, customers don’t like to wait.

Banks frequently overpay by 15% to 20% or more on average for real estate compared to other retailers for comparable space.

Perhaps the single most important threat facing the banking industry is the fundamental change in the way consumers and small businesses use branches.

As branch traffic continues its decline and branch costs march upwards, community bank executives are often tempted to sell or close branches.

Smartphones are increasingly recognized as a natural conduit for everyday financial transactions, such as making payments and scanning checks for deposit.

The results of our 2015 FMSI Teller Line Study are in and they support widespread perceptions about declining branch transactions and staff productivity and rising labor costs.

A lot of folks are asking me whether I’m really saying that banks need to start all over again? Is that really feasible, Chris? How can you recommend that we tear down the house and rebuild it? Well, there are a lot of reasons I can say this, and believe it.

Digital shopping now influences roughly 80% of the origination stream for new consumer checking relationships, yet 90% of new-to-bank checking accounts are still opened in the branch.

The millennial generation, those people born roughly between 1982 and 2000, is by many accounts the fastest-growing generation ever.

Bankers and their boards have been thinking about their plans for the branch of the future for several years.

Almost every bank either operates its own contact, or call, center or commissions a third party to do so.

Improving the customer experience using integrated real estate, operations and technology strategies can make a branch network highly profitable.

Since its introduction in the 1960s, the ATM has evolved to become an integral part of day-to-day life.

JPMorgan Chase recently held their investor day and grabbed some of the fintech headlines when they stated that Apple Pay has been activated by over a million cardholders since its launch in the U.

When customer loyalty is tenuous, as it is today in banking, selling is especially challenging and requires more sophisticated approaches involving both management and sales staff.

For all that has been written about branches succumbing to the digital onslaught, it seems clear that banks will be clinging to the majority of their street corner outlets for some time to come.

What to do about low-volume branches, or LVBs, which weigh down the profitability of nearly every financial institution? We define these underperformers as branches that process fewer than 3,000 transactions per month.

Ever since cash dispensers became automated teller machines (ATMs), pundits have regularly said that the large retail banks are going to have to change their core systems or they will lose their customers.