Banco Popular Dominicano has launched a wholly digital branch in the Dominican Republic’s capital, Santo Domingo. It is the first of its kind in the country, but is the trend expected to take over the region? And is it enough to bring consumers back to branches? Patrick Brusnahan writes
Centro Digital, designed by consultancy FDP, is on a mission to offer a new digital service for Banco Popular Dominicano’s customers.
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“Our new Popular Digital Centre offers a new concept of banking in the Dominican Republic, with the goal of improving the life of our customers by using the most high-tech service solutions,” says Arturo Grullón Finet, executive vice-president of personal businesses and branches at Banco Popular.
Currently the country’s largest bank, Banco Popular Dominicano has over 200 branches servicing the 10 million-strong population. So, with such a strong branch proposition, why go digital?
Over 1 million of the bank’s customers are utilising digital solutions. In addition, 77.5% of transactions were made through these platforms; internet banking alone witnessed 16.7 million transactions during 2017.
FDP project director Simon Bird explains to RBI: “[Banco Popular Dominicano is] midway through a transformation programme which is looking at developing all of their channels through the bank.
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By GlobalData“The digital bank branch is one part of that, which included development of their app, continued development of their online banking, looking at their banking processes and sales processes, and their overall transformation towards taking a lot of their banking products and services into digital channels.
“The reason they wanted a ‘digital bank branch’ was on a number of fronts. They wanted something that would promote their move into digital channels and keep them a step ahead in the market. They wanted to still be the leader in the field, and they wanted to really test out the process of what a digital branch would be.”
Going digital
The Centro Digital branch is a prototype for an omnichannel branch to meet emerging consumer requirements. There are no tellers, but 12 staff members work across the day to assist customers. Furthermore, their main goal is to assist the migration from traditional banking to digital channels.
Bird says: “One of the key aims was customer education, driving migration across those other digital channels. It is about moving away from the traditional service platforms towards online channels and selfservice machines.
“There was a migration target, and a target on improving sales and customer relations. They do have a very well-developed online presence. It’s very user-friendly. They wanted to take that into a bank branch environment and see what that means for a branch.
“We took out tellers in the wholly new branch without any existing client base in a shopping mall. They made the call to take out tellers completely and use it as a showcase for their technology and their different platforms.
“The primary aim was changing customer behaviour but also demonstrating their commitment to technology.” An important aspect of the design was a “removal of barriers”.
This means the staff are on the floor and wearing bright blue polo shirts to make them easily identifiable and approachable. Furthermore, the branch is created so the customers can navigate it themselves.
However, while Banco Popular Dominicano wants its customers to migrate to digital channels, it does not want them to stop using branches altogether. As a result, the location can also be utilised as an event space. It has cameras and presentation equipment, so seminars can be hosted on various banking activities; the plan is that there “would be things going on there all the time”.
How does this fare compared to other banks in the market? It is the largest bank in the country, but does this translate to its digital offerings?
“In the country, it’s a leader,” Bird explains. “It is the first place to do this in the market. No one else is quite thinking that way.”
He continues: “We know in the banking industry around the world that everyone is trying to get their heads around this and find a way of delivering this as an experience. Every economy is slightly different as well. Here [in the Dominican Republic], they have still quite a heave use of cash in their economy, more than we do [in the UK], but I think the change will happen very quickly. In South America, they are quite advanced in what they are doing.”
On how the bank and FDP will rank its success, factors include how well the facilities are used, and tracking customers’ immigration to other channels.
Bird says: “I think the easy one would be new accounts and sales. I know that they’re running at the same type. They’re genuinely using it as a prototype branch; they are gaining customer feedback all the time and we were very clear with them that they needed to.
“This is a branch that needs to develop over time; we won’t get it right first time, and it needs to adapt and things will change. It needs to be a flexible platform. They’re using this genuinely as a prototype to gain feedback from customers. This is a step to a different way of thinking, which is an omnichannel strategy.”
Overall, both sides of the project need to work together for the concept to succeed. Bird concludes: “Crucial in this is collaboration – and the biggest challenge – was bringing together all departments, as we’re challenging all of them at the same time. Without a real collaborative approach, these things don’t happen.”
