Tech of a Life 5: A people society

The role of our high streets is a topic that’s been continuously under the spotlight in recent years. What were once thriving hubs of activity and the cornerstone of every town and city are an ever-evolving landscape. There were over 10,000 retail store closures on the high street in the UK in 2023 alone*, and there are now less than 8,000 banks and building society branches, down by around 64%** compared to the late eighties.

The physical need to shop or find a service is reducing, as digital technologies advance and continue to offer consumers more convenience than ever before. However, in parallel, we are seeing a shift in people seeking an experience in-store and making connections with service providers that the digital world can’t replicate. The question is, will there always be a place for these in-person interactions?

One organisation that thinks there will be, and is breaking away from the trend of closures, is Darlington Building Society in the North of England. Although a smaller society, it’s experiencing strong growth and retaining its physical branches in our digital world. We spoke to Louise Thorpe, the society’s Distribution Director, about the importance of a people-powered service, and it was clear that there are a lot of synergies with Estate Agencies.

The importance of physical branches

In-branch transactional activity has been on the decline in recent years and the pandemic accelerated this for the whole industry, as more people got used to digital servicing for what we class as basic transactions like depositing and withdrawing money. Despite advances in technology across the world which have given consumers further power to make these transactions as well as serious financial choices remotely, we find that our members still choose to visit us in branch for what we deem as complex transactions. They’re seeking advice and support on a personal level for what can be quite daunting and high-risk decisions. Whether it’s making large transactions, looking for mortgage guidance or navigating through difficult circumstances, like power of attorney or bereavement. These aren’t your everyday financial situations and people may only have to deal with them a handful of times in their lives. It’s only natural to want to consult with an expert who you trust rather than carry the responsibility alone, and we find that the majority still want this experience to be in person, whether it’s for the whole journey or just key parts of it.

In-branch interactions also open the opportunity to support the wider financial wellbeing of everyone, which can’t be achieved as organically or bespoke as a digital service. For our business, good customer care isn’t just about delivering on the transaction or matter that has brought someone into one of our branches. Yes, this is important, but it’s also about being able to offer our other services or signpost people to the right places to meet their full needs. These are needs which the customer may not have known they had before speaking with us, and we see this financial wellbeing support as our responsibility as a trusted adviser to our communities. Offering our other services first and foremost must be for the benefit of the individual, but of course this is also beneficial to us as a business if they then decide to move forward with any of them. Opportunities to authentically cross-sell like this could easily be missed without in-person interactions, and the ability to understand an individual’s full financial situation.

Meeting consumer expectations in branch

Consumer expectations across the board are always changing and paired with the pull towards the convenience of digital solutions, it’s essential to keep evolving. As a mutual we’re owned by our members, so the customer is even more so at the heart of our organisation. At our annual AGM we have members vote in relation to how they want our business to be run and the experiences they want to see us offer in branch, and we adopt this voice when we implement the outcomes. Our member experience is driven by this as well as research we carry out and insights we gather, to make sure we’re really delivering on what our communities want and need.

We’ve recently completed a branch refurbishment programme which has elevated the standard of our branches to make them welcoming environments, offering a better overall experience to members when they visit. We created more open spaces so people feel like they can come in and have a relaxed conversation, with the option of a private room for more confidential matters. There are also coffee stations where people can help themselves, supporting footfall and the chance of someone seeing what we have to offer

Although this latest refurbishment exercise is complete, we know we can’t stand still and need to keep developing our branches. Our next area of focus involves bringing a digital experience into branches. This doesn’t mean that we’ll be pushing all our members to use a digital service, but if they want a helping hand in learning how to use it so they have the option depending on what will best suit their needs, they can come to us for this, and we’ll show them. This will apply to making transactions as well as looking at our other products and services so they can find out more and apply online through a self-serving hub. Our goal is to be able to give our members more choice when it comes to our services and how they access them, and if that choice is still to come into branch, they’re more than welcome to.

We’ve also set up a Member Experience Team, whose role is to flag the areas we can improve on as well as highlight what’s going well, and we could be doing more of. To keep enhancing our experience, feedback from members is essential and we know we can’t improve without their voice. We’ve made some real inroads here in the last couple of years, and our NPS score went up again this year. Member experience isn’t just about our services and the branch environment – a lot of the feedback we get through NPS is about our team. Our people are at the heart of a members’ experience and our biggest asset by far. Our brand is Darlington Building Society but it’s our people in branches who members are building relationships with and that’s a large part of the affiliation they have with us. This focus on people from a feedback point of view proves that people want to deal with people.

A person to person service

As a business, we’re on a digital journey to be able to offer our members an omni-channel experience. Savings and mortgage accounts can now be opened in branch and online too. There’s careful consideration needed when it comes to growing our digital presence alongside the focus on in-branch activity, but with the right balance it will positively support our aim to offer more choice. Our branches will still be there when people need them, and for them to continue effectively serving our communities, investing in our people is always on for us, so we can arm them in being equipped with the latest skills and knowledge to best serve our members. When our members choose to come to us in branch or have a conversation over the phone, we want our people to make them feel like they’re in safe pair of hands and getting the right advice with a personal service. This is huge for us.

We can’t forget that AI is developing at lightning speed and since its presence has ramped up in recent years, there’s been talk around what this means for jobs – including customer facing roles. As part of our digital journey, we’re thinking about AI and the areas it could add value. It’s being used already in our industry across things like chat boxes on websites, to respond to customer queries and direct people to a human if that level of contact is needed, which is common across other industries. Our industry is heavily regulated and I’m interested to see more advice come out on the governance of AI. But, even without this level of detail, we’re clear that when it comes to developing how we use technology including AI, it will only be to support our team in delivering more of the things that they do best, freeing up more of their time to be spent supporting our members. We know there will always be a need for digital touchpoints, but our heritage will always be people helping people. Technology doesn’t provide all the answers, and for what we do, people are still needed throughout the journey.

Our goal is to be able to give our members more choice when it comes to our services and how they access them.

The future of the high street

The high street will continue to face challenges but we’re passionate about our physical presence within our communities. As a mutual we’ll work hard to keep our place on the high street and we know there may be difficulties along the way; we see this with other organisations like banks which are often stakeholder owned and unfortunately navigating closures.

Growing our membership base in and around our local communities is a big goal for us, and to support our branches’ footfall is something we need to be proactive about. One thing we’re doing is getting outside of our bricks and mortar. We’re out in the community as much as possible visiting colleges and businesses to help people with their financial wellbeing and, if the opportunity comes up, signposting them to our branches. These visits are important to us, and we do them in secondary schools too, working with the charity Wise Up. We know there’s a gap in skills at all ages when it comes to financial education and we feel strongly about bridging this gap. The people we meet may never choose to become a member of the society, but we still want to be part of supporting them in making good financial decisions.

There will always be a draw for consumers to want a personal interaction in times of need, which the buying and selling process definitely falls under. Finding the balance with digital will be key, giving consumers the power of choice.

*Statista, January 2024. **Mail Online, April 2024.

 

Technology doesn’t provide all the answers, and for what we do, people are still needed throughout the journey.