Creating a hyper-local experience customized for each branch is massively important to the success of your institution. The right technology selections, service delivery plan, and branch amenities can make or break a branch. For example, a high-traffic area with tons of young professionals needs a branch or micro branch with tons of self-service options, high tech features that make stopping by the branch easy and efficient. While a branch near luxury real estate or a wealthy, older population needs fewer self-service options and more places for advisory conversations and better branch amenities.

Financial institutions (FIs) that have mastered choosing the right mix for their branch in each market are winning. The examples below showcase branches that found the sweet spot where they are cutting costs by being specific and not just adding everything while attracting new clients with their perfectly crafted branch experience. True Masters. Are you one of them?

A Branch Built for Techies By Techies

Capitol Credit Union, a $194 million asset credit union headquartered in Austin, partnered with DBSI+CFM, a banking innovation expert, to announce the upcoming opening of Capitol's new branch location at The Domain. Aligning with other tech giants such as Amazon, Facebook, and VRBO all headquartered in The Domain, this new branch gives Austin's Tech workforce convenient access and a new kind of banking experience with the latest in biometric self-service plus access to banking advisors.

"Our goal as a credit union has always been to provide immense value and convenience to our members where they live, work, and play," said Pierre Cardenas, CEO, Capitol CU. "We are providing our signature level of high-quality service right in the middle of Austin's fastest-growing Tech Hub. This is a unique branch, packed with tech that every techie craves to make their banking experiences easier."

Capitol CU members will have an unrivaled, true tech-corridor banking experience. Located across from Whole Foods, this branch of the future offers the latest technology in banking.

• Self-Service | Easy and Simple Transactions with NEXT™, a self-service kiosk that delivers gives consumers more transaction options including cashier's checks, change to the penny, and more.
• High-Tech Security | Biometric identification options for advanced security and convenience.
• Bankers Equipped with Tablets | Bankers can serve members from anywhere in the branch even after a transaction has been started on a kiosk with Nomadix, an associate tablet interface technology from DBSI+CFM.
• 24/7 Accessible Kiosk | The secure kiosk is always available for quick and easy transactions.

"When we create technology, we think about the member experience first," said Nathan Moore CTO (Chief Technology Officer) and Head of Customer Performance at DBSI+CFM. "Our technologies are built to solve some of the biggest challenges in banking, from stale branch environments to archaic technologies and processes that weigh staff down. That is a critical piece to transforming an experience from transactional to advisory. Our award-winning, patented innovations deliver the freedom for credit unions to operate a retail-friendly branch and we are excited to partner with another forward-thinking organization like Capitol to launch this directly to consumers."

Read the full press release here. 

Banking Where You Work 

Can a fully functioning branch really fit under a staircase in a corporate office building? For BCU, a $3B Illinois-based credit union, the answer is a resounding YES! 

As an institution voted one of the Nation’s Top 100 Credit Unions, it’s no surprise BCU is finding creative ways to get closer to their members and offer even more convenience through micro branch concepts. One such project: create a branch small enough to fit inside a 640 sqft staircase corridor of a United Health Group (UHG) corporate office building, while still offering a full-service branch model that only required two full-time employees to serve the 2,200 UHG employees. The amount of space to innovate was tiny, but the opportunity for building something new was huge. 

With a budget just under $500,000 and a short roll-out timeline of 36 weeks, BCU and DBSI created a 640 sqft micro branch that delivered astonishing results.

The open micro-branch design offers many of the amenities of a full-service branch, including a discovery bar for transactions and advisory conversations, flex offices, digital signage, a technology bar for self-service, fully functioning ATM machines, and more. By simplifying operations with a slimmed-down space, the staff is able to focus more on advising members and less on maintaining a huge space.

Breaking through a new market with Exceptional Service 

Through a combination of research, best practices, and some live role-playing in DBSI's Ideation Center, Vantage West's playbook for the entire network was thoughtfully developed.

With the strategy and elements defined, DBSI wasted no time crafting floorplans for the first two branches. By investing the time and doing the strategy upfront, floorplans were approved and signed off in one day. Even better? For the remaining branches, the entire design process, from creation to approval, takes a mere 8 hours. Talk about saving time and resources!

The final branch experience incorporates an open design that includes flex offices and Service Spots for collaborative conversations, teller towers complete with digital signage, and inviting lobby environments for casual conversations.

The newest in-branch technology, including RTA, enables staff to complete cash transactions from anywhere in the branch, and members are engaged with dynamic digital signage displays.

With such a dynamic change and not wanting to leave anything to chance—Vantage West ensured their front-line staff was properly trained and ready to deliver the new staffing model by investing in DBSI’s Delivery Defined training program. By engineering the experience, staff understood the strategic intent behind the change, how to interact with members with all of the new key elements, and had talk tracks for engaging members. And the results have been phenomenal. Since opening, the new branches have received 100% member satisfaction and perfect scores on every secret shopper survey!

[Your FI] crushes the competition in [Your Market]

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