
I’m just popping to the bank…
I have fond memories of my first ‘proper’ job, an exciting developmental time, 6 years at Nationwide Building Society. There’s something about it’s mutual status which correlates to customer centricity running through it’s veins. I’m in no doubt that the experiences I had there shaped my desire and thinking around what constitues a good customer experience.
For the purpose of this blog, I’m going to use ‘banks’ as a catch all for high street retail banks/building societies.
I’m going to shift the tone now because whilst I was gushing a few moments, fast forward 20 years later and I’m far more modest with my praise of the branch experience for many of UK’s high street banks. Why? Because little has changed and it feels out of step, not least with our demands of an omichannel experience!
Since bricks and mortar branches are deemed an expensive commodity, then my main contention is why havent they re-imagined this to be more effective. I was fortunate enough to live with a space planner for 11 years and really got to appreciate the rigour behind defining circulation patterns, optimising space and visual merchandising. Whilst the first 2 elements are ‘invisible’ to the customer, collectively they go some way to creating a compelling retail experience.
I was in Kensington High St last week and noticed a very vibrant shop front, I thought it was an art gallery and so went in for a look. To my surprise (and delight) it wasn’t a gallery but a bank! In the words of M&S, ‘this is not just’ any old bank. It’s a flipping awesome/creative/visually appealing/social/collaborative/interactive hub which happens to be a bank. I’m so excited that this has hit our high streets (can you tell)… Here’s what the Kensington branch experience consists of:
Innovation lab with students that rotate across their branch network every 3 months. Additonally they offer direct customer input because you can vote on the innovation taking place in the labs,
Meeting spaces available with free wi-fi,
Alexa — Amazon echo on hand to ‘control your money with your voice’,
Staff that come to you to rather than having to queue, they have a spread of stations utilising the space well,
VR experiences and games,
Cafe and nice tea I should add,
Prototyping a system which allows customers/non customers to identify themselves with core skills that others can benefit from. Example shared was someone seeking a native French speaker,
Events that you can sign up for covering a range of themes. The next talk is entitled ‘reset, rebalance and refocus’ hearing from coaches and experts in this field.
I’m not even convinced I captured everything because it’s based on memory but this list gives you the gist.


I’d say Studio B is no more a bank than an iphone is a phone. Thank you to Alvaro who spent some time showing me around and responding to my plethora of questions. And a MASSIVE shout out to Studio B for reimagining the customer & branch experience! What is pretty radical is the way they have broken down the barrier between customer & business, also being thoughful about the needs beyond financial services. I applaud what you have done (from concept to reality in a year is absolutely impressive) and I appreciate you making me geek out and gush about banking again :D ….
Much here to admire about how organisations can think of both the employee and customer experience!
