New Service Model and Supporting Space Design for 1st Source Bank
1st Source Bank provides commercial and consumer banking services in 60 retail branches throughout Indiana and Michigan. Facing massive industry consolidation, the growing popularity of credit unions, new technology adoption, and increased online banking, 1st Source approached IDEO to design a service model that would attract new customers and loan giving. Driving this exploration was the goal of doubling 1st Source bank’s retail presence with an innovative new branch banking experience.
Working with 1st Source’s management team and front-line personnel, IDEO began extensive stakeholder research, uncovering key challenges about processes and facilities used during the customer-banking journey. The team revealed 1st Source’s ability to leverage its brand in ways national banks could not—most significantly, as a local bank with personal and community ties. The team also discovered that teller interactions felt constrained, and that staff was frustrated by an inability to act broadly and effectively on a conversational level with customers. The team agreed that the new service solution should support bankers in building relationships with customers and bridge the gap between routine banking and episodic activities such as securing a loan.
Centered on making transactions simple, honest and personal, the focus of the outcome is the shift to a side-by-side banking interaction that removes teller walls and allows for a personal and connected banking interaction. To refine the design and fully understand the behaviors it prompted, the team built a full-scale mock-up that was iterated upon based on the feedback of bankers and customers. In the interest of cost-efficiency, 1st Source introduced the model in a part of an existing branch using an adaptation of software, fixtures, and furniture. The successful experiment was followed by a new branch design that fully employed the proposed service model.
The IDEO-inspired space and service model has outperformed the previous model on key metrics, including a 30% increase in loan sales. As a result, 1st Source plans to remodel two more locations and build two additional IDEO-inspired locations.
Connecting people to connect sales
1st Source Bank provides commercial and consumer banking services in 60 retail branches throughout Indiana and Michigan. Facing massive industry consolidation, the growing popularity of credit unions, new technology adoption, and increased online banking, 1st Source approached IDEO to design a service model that would attract new customers and loan giving. Driving this exploration was the goal of doubling 1st Source bank’s retail presence with an innovative new branch banking experience.
Working with 1st Source’s management team and front-line personnel, IDEO began extensive stakeholder research, uncovering key challenges about processes and facilities used during the customer-banking journey. The team revealed 1st Source’s ability to leverage its brand in ways national banks could not—most significantly, as a local bank with personal and community ties. The team also discovered that teller interactions felt constrained, and that staff was frustrated by an inability to act broadly and effectively on a conversational level with customers. The team agreed that the new service solution should support bankers in building relationships with customers and bridge the gap between routine banking and episodic activities such as securing a loan.
Project date: 2008
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