What do customers want most convenience or trust?

Recently I was reminded of the importance marketers should place on understanding two of the fundamentals of our business: trust and convenience. One our young product managers demonstrated to a group of us how a new, Web-based software construct would allow clients to make deposits of checks to their account right from their home PC. This "Remote Deposit Capture" software is able to scan checks into the appropriate Check 21 format and direct it immediately into the check collection stream so that it ends up in a client's account lickety-split. This same technology is being deployed in businesses so that the owners are able to make daily deposits of checks directly into their accounts without leaving their shops.

Again, technology is making life easier and faster. No need to stop by the branch anymore, unless you want to deposit cash into your account. Modern technology enables our clients to get cash, apply for a loan, draw money from an account or line of credit, view their various balances, examine their portfolios, and conduct a variety of other transactions without ever visiting a branch. Our clients' relentless drive for ever more convenience is driving some futurists to ask, "Do we still need the neighborhood branch?" and, if so, "What will be its mission in the future?"

Can there be convenience without trust?

The answer is "trust." The twin value propositions at the heart of banking are trust and convenience. That is, a bank is where people put their money. The bank needs to be convenient and it needs to be trustworthy. While people demand convenience, most are unwilling to trade off trust to get more convenience. In other words, while the onslaught of technology is enabling banking transactions to occur further and further away from traditional branches, most clients still want the comfort of knowing that behind it all is a human banker who can unravel mistakes, solve problems, serve as a sounding board and help plan for the future.

There are those who believe that if you are able to provide enough convenience, you can overcome trust, or vice versa. And for a small segment of the market, this may be true. But for the vast majority of us living in everyday America, we want both.

There will always be branches

Now, an analysis such as this does not mean that the branch of the future will be the same as the branch of today. It won't. As smart product developers exploit further advances in technology, virtually all transactions, and information about them, will become ubiquitous, immediate and more convenient. Branches themselves will evolve in a variety of ways also, but at the center of this evolution will be strategies to place smart, people-oriented bankers in close enough proximity to their clients so that the bond of trust is maintained. Such a strategy may lead to many smaller branches rather than a few large ones; or hub-and-spoke branch systems with a combination of large and small branches; or a few traditional branches housing an army of mobile bankers.

There will be lots of experimentation with banker delivery systems, but in the end, there will still be bankers, because that's where trust comes from.

L. Biff Motley, CFMP, is Senior Vice President Retail Banking and Marketing, Whitney Bank, New Orleans. He can be reached at [phone]