JAMES STUKEL
‘End strategy’

More than just four walls and a roof, the design and construction of a bank branch has evolved over time to project a friendlier, more inviting and retail-oriented feeling. Understanding not only retail design elements but also bank concepts and even the weight of a safe is crucial for a construction management firm.

Shawmut Design and Construction is one of the best-known firms when it comes to bank retail construction. Currently, the firm is working on 10 branch construction projects in the Bay State and has completed more than 40 in the last year.

“What we really try to do is listen first and then work with [banks] to articulate what the end game, the end strategy will be,” said James Stukel, project executive and director of operations for Shawmut.

Both Citizens Bank and FleetBoston Financial have picked Shawmut for many of their projects.

Besides putting in an attractive bid, Shawmut boasts retail-bank-branch construction management experience. That’s important, said Shawmut’s Stukel, a point agreed on by those contacted by Banker & Tradesman.

“I think it’s very important to have a construction manager that has the experience on the bank side of the equation,” said Gerald Curtin, director of real estate for Citizens Financial Group. Currently the bank, with assets of $17.8 billion, is in the middle of the third phase of building out about 100 Stop & Shop locations and 25 new branch construction projects in the New England area. About half of the grocery store locations are being handled by Shawmut, along with another 15 branch renovations. Additionally, Shawmut handled a downtown Boston project for Citizens totaling 115,000 square feet in 1999.

Curtin said it’s important to choose a firm with experience in building bank branches for a variety of reasons, from floor-load issues with safes and safe deposit boxes to data ports and other equipment all encompassed in a small space.

Fleet uses Shawmut for about 30 percent of its construction projects, said Alison Rourke, an executive vice president with the bank. But Rourke said even more important than bank-branch construction experience is retail project experience. “We look at our branches more like stores. And we’re really emphatic about creating a consistent customer experience in our new builds and in our renovations,” she said.

Shawmut has both. Stukel thinks Shawmut is a popular choice for a number of reasons, the first of which is happy customers. “Our best advertisement is our existing clients, and I think through a lot of word of mouth we’ve gotten to be known as a company that really delivers and is really able to help leverage the design, functionality of a bank with the ultimate cost of doing that,” he said.

Shawmut is hired and contributes from the very earliest stages of a project, working with a variety of firms to develop the end structure. “Each retailer has its own way of developing their customer experience, and they do that through what I would call a branding process, what’s recognizable for each of those retailers. The customers will then attach themselves to those recognitions and hopefully patronize the bank,” said Stukel. That is accomplished through an assortment of colors, building shape, materials, and signage and interior configuration, he noted.

Stukel said although client banks’ needs are divergent across the country, the newest trend is pretty consistent. “Trends are really focusing on bringing it to the point of source – bringing it to the community where there are customers,” said Stukel. Banks are concentrating more on putting branches in shopping malls, grocery stores and theater districts as well as developing communities where banks can establish a niche.

“Some of the things that are happening that are exciting [includes] a lot of upgrades from what I would call 1980s design into 2000 design,” he said, including compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

‘Difficult Balance’

The entire concept of building a branch has undergone change, according to Eduardo Alvarez, senior vice president at Rochester, N.H.-based Willey Bros., a branding consulting firm.

Because of the level of competition for banking customers, banks have to consider what they want to be saying about themselves to customers who walk in the door.

According to Curtin, gone are the days of the dowdy bank branch; in vogue is a friendlier, more customer-centric design.

Viewed in a very simplistic way, people enter a branch for two reasons, said Alvarez. One is to perform a transaction, something that they want to do within five minutes. The other is to seek advice or buy a product. “People go in needing a little more time; they’re a little more relaxed frame of mind,” he said.

“The way you design a branch is taking those two patterns into account, a traffic pattern that gets me to do a transaction very quickly and very easily by the way I design teller lines, where I put the ATM technology, how I design a drive-through,” said Alvarez. On the flip side, the customer waiting area for the more involved transactions has been transformed into more of a customer resource area. Many banks have taken advantage of technology to run anything from financial ticker tapes, to video-screen listing services, to video plug-ins to MSNBC.

“The other two trends we are seeing is, banks are beginning to learn to communicate with people in the environment much the way retailers do, with merchandizing … Banks are beginning to promote what they sell and what their brand is all about and why they’re different,” he said.

For Citizens, the difference is projected from the start. “Customer service is what we shoot for right out of the gate, as far as layout goes,” said Curtin. “We have a number of greeter desks so that a customer doesn’t have to just come in and get in line,” he said. The greeter is there to help direct customers to the proper place.

“We have branch standards that we try to adhere to. All new construction has similar floor plans. The situation, in all honesty, with Citizens is that we’ve acquired a lot of bank branches so they haven’t lent themselves to a kind of standard,” said Curtin.

Citizens likes to upgrade or improve its branches every three to five years, said Curtin, because they are all highly trafficked areas and need to be spruced up more often. The bank’s customer-focused design is determined by frequent customer surveys – weekly, in fact, according to Citizens spokesperson Melodie Jackson.

For Fleet, creating a consistent customer experience is important. “We look at our branches more like stores, and we’re really emphatic about creating a consistent customer experience in our new builds and in our renovations,” said Rourke.

Rourke said the look that Fleet is going for is best summed up by customer comments. “They characterize it as clean, modern, professional, inviting, warm, innovative. In fact, the best comment we got was from one of our branches in New York where one of our customers characterized it as a perfect mix of high-tech and high touch,” she said.

But while bright and airy is the desired look, it is sometimes difficult to link that with other concerns. “It’s a difficult balance in terms of the safety and security aspect of it as well as the access and transparency we’re trying to create,” said Rourke. “That’s very much a function of how we design the branch, in terms of making sure we’re putting the secure functions away from the glass and using the glass to promote and have customers see in – whether it’s the specialists we have located with the office, the electronic banking features we have,” she said.

Although security is even more of an issue since the Sept. 11 tragedies, Rourke said it’s unlikely those concerns will translate into a design change for bank branches. There may be enhanced safety procedures, but getting away from using glass isn’t necessary. “Frankly glass, although it is very transparent, it’s secure and is used in many cases as barriers, safety barriers. Depending upon the location, we’ll use bullet-resistant glass, and we have barrier glass in all of our teller areas to make sure we have that sense of security,” she said.

Stukel said bank-branch design and construction continues to be a very exciting field, “particularly based on the bank consolidation that has been going on where you’re creating regional and national networks that you want to look and feel the same.”

Bank Branches Are Changing With the Times

by Banker & Tradesman time to read: 6 min
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