NEW YORK–Consumers increasingly want to find answers to their questions without human interaction, a trend that can be seen in financial institutions branches and in the role of tellers, according to a new report.
At one HSBC branch, for instance, there is “Pepper,” the finance robot, which is about four feet tall and is shiny white with a lemon-shaped head, large eyes that light up blue, and a tablet attached to its chest, according to Bloomberg. The robot’s objective is to lure pedestrians into HSBC’s flagship on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, then pose for selfies, field basic questions and direct customers who need real help to the right human, the report noted.
“When Goldman Sachs Group launched its digital consumer bank, it conducted a survey on customer attitudes. It turns out people want to find answers without assistance -- until they can’t and immediately want help from a qualified banker,” Bloomberg reported. “There’s high tolerance for self-service until it fails, and then there’s no tolerance. As banks across the country reassess branches, those findings keep getting validated.”
The trendline is one reason bank tellers continue to get raises (in addition to the competition for staff), according to Bloomberg.
Conventional Wisdom
“Conventional wisdom is that the job -- held by almost a half-million Americans -- is entering a sharp decline,” reported Bloomberg. “The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects banks will eliminate more than 40,000 positions in the decade through 2026. That would likely suppress teller wages, which hovered around a median $13.50 an hour last year. Yet, in interviews and anecdotally, a more nuanced picture emerges. After banks received generous tax cuts in December, several of the nation’s largest banks…said they’re raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour. Branches and tellers aren’t going away entirely. Instead, as customers turn to mobile phones for routine financial services, tellers are being upgraded, taught to pitch loans, guide local entrepreneurs and offer technical support. The result is that at many lenders, a job widely seen as endangered by automation is starting to pay more.
One analyst told Bloomberg that now tellers have to solve problems like “my PayPal doesn’t work, or my Venmo doesn’t work, or why doesn’t Uber accept my card?”
Video Tellers
Bloomberg further noted the trend toward video tellers, which numerous credit unions have also invested in. Similarly, as has happened in credit unions, bank branches have also gotten smaller.
New BBVA branches, for instance, have gone modular, with walls that expand or contract as needed, turning a conference room into a spot for desks. PNC Bank hosted focus groups to hone its atmosphere, which led to the buying of rounded furniture for a “shoulder to shoulder’’ experience, Bloomberg said. And “some new Santander branches have couches and “nooks” so customers feel like they’re in someone’s home.”