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Friday, Apr 06, 2007
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Banking Money & Banking - Customer Relationship Management Bank branches turning into comfort zones for customers Elina Mohanty
Feel-good banking These branches are specially targeted at high-net worth individuals and mass affluent customers. The investment in setting up these branches is recovered in one or two years.
Mumbai April 5 Bank branches are no longer muggy halls with dull colours, long queues and grunting fans. It is all about air-conditioned halls, channel music, bright colours and swanky lounge areas. A customer of a new private sector bank said, "I don't want to be caught in a queue; in this branch I can sit in the meeting room and discuss the financial details with my bank manager. I can sip coffee and surf the Internet on my laptop at my bank branch. It feels good to be treated in that manner at my bank branch, after a tiring day at work." These branches are specially targeted at high-net worth individuals and mass affluent customers."It is basically a move to give my customers a comfort zone. It helps in retaining my customers," said Mr Sangeet Shukla, CGM, Personal Banking, SBI. But isn't it expensive to start such a branch? "Actually it depends on the area required by a branch. Roughly, the initial cost of setting up such a branch (excluding the real estate cost) is never more than Rs 20 lakh and the investment gets recovered in one or two years," he said.
Upgrading branches
SBI has over 150 such branches across the nation and is in the process of upgrading some other branches as well. "These branches give our customers exclusivity and helps in retaining them. We are soon to launch branches at Hyderabad and Gurgaon," said Ms Manju Srivatsa, Senior Vice-President-Retail banking, UTI Bank. The UTI Bank branch at Andheri (Mumbai) has a business lounge, Internet access zone and a meeting room. The branch has special investment advisors and relationship managers to advise customers on financial matters, she said. Such branches have customers usually with annual income of over Rs 10 lakh. UTI Bank has such branches in Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata. "We have a meeting room, which a UTI bank customer can book free-of-charge to hold business meetings. There is a special kids zone for kids whose parents are engaged in banking at the branch," she added. Development Credit Bank is also to revamp the internal layout of branches to give it an appealing look. Mr P.N. Vasudevan, Head-Consumer Banking Group, Development Credit Bank, said the bank hopes interface will be better at these bank branches as the customers will be comfortable in transacting cash and other services
Related Stories: More Stories on : Banking | Customer Relationship Management
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