Breathing new life into local bank branches

With the advent of digitalisation, one might assume that there is less personal interaction with one’s bank. Éric Campos suggests that the reverse is true because in reality, the perception of the service provided at a distance with on-line devices is improving. On the other hand, walking into the local branch of one’s bank is no longer an obligation, but a choice made by the customer, and the bank should justify this choice by providing a more appropriate service. The bank must replace the image of the universal bank advisor who can sell products with random expertise, and instead propose a service offering complementary skills, whereby customers’ expectations can be met appropriately and at specific moments in their lives (such as when they require loans, have inheritance questions, are going through a divorce, have major upheavals in their lives, and so on). A major organisational and hierarchical change needs to take place because vertical management leaves little place for group intelligence which alone dares to act in the face of uncertainty.