What do customers want most convenience or trust?

• Author: Motley, L. Biff
• Position: Customer Satisfaction

Recently I was reminded of the importance marketers should place on understanding two of the fundamentals of our business: trust and convenience. One our young product managers demonstrated to a group of us how a new, Web-based software construct would allow clients to make deposits of checks to their account right from their home PC. This "Remote Deposit Capture" software is able to scan checks into the appropriate Check 21 format and direct it immediately into the check collection stream so that it ends up in a client's account lickety-split. This same technology is being deployed in businesses so that the owners are able to make daily deposits of checks directly into their accounts without leaving their shops.

Again, technology is making life easier and faster. No need to stop by the branch anymore, unless you want to deposit cash into your account. Modern technology enables our clients to get cash, apply for a loan, draw money from an account or line of credit, view their various balances, examine their portfolios, and conduct a variety of other transactions without ever visiting a branch. Our clients' relentless drive for ever more convenience is driving some futurists to ask, "Do we still need the neighborhood branch?" and, if so, "What will be its mission in the future?"

Can there be convenience without trust?

The answer is "trust." The twin value propositions at the heart of banking are trust and convenience. That is, a bank is where people put their money. The bank needs to be convenient and it needs to be trustworthy. While people demand convenience, most are unwilling to trade off trust to get more convenience. In other words, while the onslaught of technology is enabling banking transactions to occur further and further away from traditional branches, most clients still want...