Technology has redefined how consumers interact with banks on every level—except the branch. Walk into the typical bank branch today and the experience will be much the same as 30 years ago: Fill out paper forms, stand in line or "have a seat, please," twiddle thumbs and wait.

Yet despite automated teller machines and online and mobile banking, the branch is still important to both customers and banks. Customers demand the convenience of banking where, when and how they wish, whether that be transferring funds online at 2:00 a.m. or applying for a home equity loan in the branch on their lunch breaks. And branches remain the premiere channel for acquiring new bank customers.

More branches, fewer transactions

As a result, many financial institutions are shifting the focus of branches to customer relationships, rather than just transactions. In order to attract new customers and to deepen relationships with existing ones, a new model of the bank branch is in order. That’s just what can be found in the Banking Innovation Center at HP Labs in Palo Alto, Calif.

HP's Banking Innovation Center is a showcase of technology and ideas for transforming the retail banking experience for both bankers and their customers.

Step into the hypothetical First Agility Bank and you're greeted by a floor manager. Using an RFID card, a cell phone or traditional magnetic stripe card, the customer is checked-in and directed along one of several different zones, based on her banking profile and the reason for her visit.

High-value customers may be expedited while lower-value customers could be asked to wait in a lounge where monitors offer information and offers tailored to the occupants.

Simple transactions, now the central focus of both the branch and most of its personnel, can be accomplished at a teller-assisted kiosk. Functioning much like a modern airport check-in, customers serve themselves from multiple touchscreen stations.

A teller stands ready to complete transactions that require assistance. Likewise, tellers can monitor patrons' actions and profiles and step in to assist first-time users, point out little-used features or even to make a personalized, real-time offer.

Customers move at their own pace while receiving highly personalized service, and a routine, low- to no-profit transaction becomes an opportunity for the bank to offer customers what they really want and need to buy.

Meanwhile, back in the customer waiting room, a homeowner who just had a child, but who only checks with the bank, is watching a short home-improvement show. An offer for a home-equity loan follows as she waits for advice on a college savings account.

The customer with a portfolio of investments, loans and high-value accounts, is already meeting with a personal relationship banker in a private video booth. With remote video conferencing, customers can consult with financial advisers, retirement experts or investment bankers who can be located anywhere in the world. Not only do customers have access to experts that might not otherwise be on site, but banks can more efficiently deploy human resources, allowing specialized personnel to work with more than one branch.

In another zone of First Agility, a couple is closing on a mortgage. The application was filled out online from their home, supporting documents were dropped at a branch near work and the couple will sign the final papers in a third branch near their home. But all these documents come together in one system and can be printed securely from this branch using a digital key and password. No worries about lost papers or a courier tied up in traffic.

By this point, you've probably realized that much of what makes First Agility exceptional extends far beyond one location. No matter whether a customer opens an account online or in the bank, gets cash from an ATM, accesses mobile banking, transfers funds by telephone or by walking into a branch, the experience is consistent.

At every customer touchpoint, the bank remembers him, what his last transaction was, the offers he has rejected and those he has accepted, and his personal preferences, wants and needs.

That's because First Agility runs on very real, integrated banking technologies—technologies that are available today. These technologies transform not just branches, but entire financial institutions, addressing not only customer satisfaction, but staffing issues, efficiency and infrastructure issues as well.

Banks might never run exactly like First Agility does, but the HP Banking Innovation Center is pointing the way forward by allowing financial institutions to immerse themselves in the possibilities.

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