Avoid The Trap of Branch Paralysis With a Branch Transformation

Your head is spinning.

There you are, trapped in another meeting discussing how to improve your branch and customer experience.

“What can we do with our current branch design?"

"Do we need more technology?"

"How do we find the right design firm?"

"Do we need to add tablets?”

“What about omni-channel?” 

“What about our branch size – it’s too big?”

“Universal Tellers are the way to go?"

Each question brings more questions. More choices bring more confusion. The list of options, ideas and technologies are mind-numbing.  

So what happens? You leave the meeting with little progress or momentum to move forward. Instead, it’s more research and pushing decisions until the next meeting... and before you know it, you've been discussing branch transformation ideas for over a year, or longer.

You're not alone. The most common frustration we hear from financial institutions is that they've been talking about branch transformation for months, but are paralyzed by indecision and fear of failure. 

Choice paralysis is a proven fact

In a Vanguard study of over 2000 Employer Voluntary Retirement Plans, for every 10 mutual funds the employer offered, rate of participation went down 2%. So, if you offer 50 funds, 10% fewer employees participate than if you only offer 5. Why? Because with 50 funds to choose from, it’s too hard to decide which fund to choose!  You just put it off until tomorrow...and then tomorrow, and then tomorrow. And of course, tomorrow never comes. 

The same may be true for your branch transformation project.  Are you stuck in a pattern of choice paralysis - making no changes, getting nowhere and failing to transform your client experience? 

Luckily, there is an easy solution. Instead of spending months on research to make exactly the right choices, why not consider ways you can simplify the decision-making process, and still meet your goals?  

Great things don't have to be difficult

The first and most important step is to find a partner who can help you break it down, one that helps you make choices you feel good about. 

So, what you should you look for in a branch transformation partner? Here are a few tips:

1. Find a company that truly understands the industry so they can make smart choices for you. If they don't understand all the options out there, their recommendations for you will be limited or misguided. 

2. Find someone that will help bring your team into focus.  At DBSI, we go through an initial process of compiling everyone's opinions, ideas and thoughts into an executive summary.  Why do we do that? By summarizing everyone's comments, it makes creating aligned goals and decisions that much easier.

3. Find a partner that can help you define your Current State.  We find that clearly identifying what is and isn't working in your current branches is a great way to simplify the choice of what makes you unique, what needs to stay, and what needs to go.

4. Find a partner that can help you understand what your Desired State is.  Decisions are a whole lot easier when you clearly understand what the new elements are, and why they are being added.  When you see the final project, you should be able to think "Yes, this is exactly what I expected!"...something that feels right.

5. Find a company that can show what your Branch Transformation will look like -- before any construction is done. Unless you're an architect, making sense of blueprints is impossible. By getting 3D renderings of proposed designs, you can truly understand what these spaces will look and feel like and have confidence in your choice of design.

6. Use as few vendors as possible. One of the most complex aspects of a Branch Transformation process is trying to be a project manager and get several different companies to work together to complete a project. The typical scenario calls for roughly 14 different companies from start to finish. This isn't the ideal way, which is why we built a company that has everything under one roof. 

You can't get much simpler than that.   

If you are looking for a partner that can help take the stress away from your Branch Transformation project with a simple, done-for-you attitude, we might be perfect for each other.  DBSI completed over 3,000 projects in 2013 alone with our simple, proven process. To get started on your Branch Transformation project, contact us here.