Photo courtesy of Citizens
Karen Swiatocha
Head of Retail Transformation, Citizens
Years experience: 22
Age: 47
Citizens Bank has opened a new branch in Brockton as the bank and others continue to invest in their local footprints. The Rhode Island-based bank has 181 branches in Massachusetts.
After Stop and Shop closed a location in Brockton, Citizens wanted to continue to have a presence in the community with a freestanding location. While banking has largely become a digital venture, the $218 billion bank still values its physical branch locations and the impact they can have in a community.
As Citizens’ head of retail transformation, Karen Swiatocha plays a key role in the bank’s branch strategy. Even with the rise of digital tools she believes that branches will continue to serve an important role in banking.
Q: What’s driving Citizens continued investment in physical branches in Massachusetts? Why does Citizens kind value that physical presence?
A: I think, broadly, in years past there was a strong belief that digital was going to take the lead and overtake the physical presence. What we’ve seen is that while digital has grown as a very critical channel for customers, the branch is not dead. In fact, our data – both industry and internally – shows that customers prefer to meet in-person when they’re considering a financial relationship. So for us, as we’re looking to grow our households, deepen our relationships, provide advice and help people on their financial journey, really being embedded in the community where our customers live, work, play with their families is important: Not only so that they feel the security of the brand in their community, so they can come in, meet with us, but so they actually feel like they’re doing business with somebody who is also investing in their community.
The branch network continues to be incredibly important to us, regardless of market. When we talk about Massachusetts, we have a very long history in Massachusetts. If the branch network is here to stay, if it’s important for our connection to the community for acquiring customers, for deepening relationships and for providing advice, then we need to take very seriously how we continue to invest in that network. That’s exactly what we’re doing. You can see that playing out very specifically in our decisions around the Brockton community.
Q: What prompted Citizens to open up a branch in Brockton and how does the bank look to be an active participant in the community?
A: We were present within a Stop and Shop. The Citizens brand has long had a partnership with Stop and Shop, and unfortunately, Stop and Shop took some decisions to close down their presence in the community. The Brockton branch is an incredibly important one to us, as is the community. It’s an incredibly busy branch, tons of foot traffic, tons of households, long-standing relationships. So, we took what felt like an unfortunate situation and really said, “How do we turn this into something that provides us an opportunity to invest?” So we moved out of the in-store into what would be a traditional-format, free-standing building.
It allowed us to invest in ways that are just underscoring our values already for Brockton, which is one, we’re here to stay and we value your community. Two is we want to show up as your financial partner. What are your goals, your aspirations, for your individual, families, your communities, your businesses?
How do we show it best? One of those is genuinely having more space for advice. Bankers who can show up, who can have private conversations. The in-store format wasn’t as conducive for that. We also wanted to show we’re committed to convenience. Hard-working people in Brockton, they live busy lives. They have jobs. They have families. So, the idea that we could even provide them with something as simple as drive-through ATM was an incredible way that we thought we could show up for the community, as well.
Q: How has Citizens invested in talent to allow the bank to compete against other institutions?
A: One of the things that’s always been at the heart of Citizens is our credo, our value of the community: the customer and the colleague, and how those things come together. So who we hire, how we recruit, how we treat our colleagues, how we train and develop them so that they can show up for their best selves for our customers, is incredibly important.
It’s an incredible staff at the Brockton location, and they’ve been in the community for a long time. They know their customers. It was important that we continue that continuity. They are also a group of colleagues who are very passionate about giving back. They’re involved in the community, contribute several hours of their own volunteer time in the community. So, we feel like not only are they being poured in in terms of their development and capabilities around advice, but also that they then, in turn, are pouring into the community with their volunteer time, their financial giving as well.
Q: As you mentioned it seemed like at one point digital was just going to come and take over, but looking ahead the next five to 10 years how do you think the function of a branch will continue to evolve?
A: Managing one’s financial health on a day-to-day basis, and planning for the future is a very personal thing. It can be an area where relationship and trust has to be at the foundation of it. Often, that trust and that relationship comes from experiences and people that you trust. I just don’t think that, looking on the horizon, that’s going to change much. Hiring people [for branches] who are genuinely talented, committed to community, is going to continue to be a differentiator for us. Digital, of course, will continue to evolve. All companies, let alone just our industry, are investing in it and we will continue to do the same. We want to provide convenience. We want to remove friction from our customers day to day lives, but at the end of the day, we don’t see much changing with regards to relationship being at the heart of trust, and trust being at the heart of financial education and growth for our customers.
Swiatocha’s Five Mini-Joys That Make Her Day
- Being greeted by my dog in the morning
- Catching a beautiful sunrise with a hot cup of coffee
- Hearing my kids laugh together
- The first really warm spring day
- Watching a ballet or dance concert
