High Street bank branches are making plans to pull out all the stops in an effort to entice their personal and business bank account customers to come in out of the cold, sources say.
Several UK banks are planning to have more than just competitive interest rates on offer, as one industry source has recently revealed plans to install music systems, wide screen televisions, and even systems to pump in scented air into their branches. Visual, scent, and audio services firm, Mood Media, is currently talking to various UK institutions about adding the services to their branches.
Mood Europe president, Claude Nahon, stated that High Street banks have been looking for ways to shed their ‘tired’ image by incorporating more 21st Century amenities into their branches. As more than 20 million Brits now do their banking over the Internet instead of face to face, the new services could work to revitalise banking in a face-to-face environment, Mr Nahon added.
In fact one recent poll discovered that 63 per cent of UK consumers now prefer to use online banking to avoid long branch queues. Only 9 per cent of survey respondents indicated that they actually enjoy their local bank branch’s accouterments.
The proliferation of online banking options in the UK has led many High Street banks just one more reason to shutter branches far and wide. At least one branch has seen its doors close every working day throughout the last two decades, official figures say, with a total of 7,000 closed since 1990.
Many concerned customer advocacy groups have been campaigning tirelessly to stop financial service providers from shuttering the last banking holdout in some regions, as the practice leaves the elderly and vulnerable without critical local services. Major High Street banks have abandoned 24 small towns and villages already this year, and today 500 communities have only two bank branches, an additional 1,100 have but one, and 1,000 have no branches nearby altogether.