Low-Tech Branch Strategy Works Fine for Bridgewater Savings

If branches are dying, it's a gradual death, and one that requires tough choices about how to prioritize the large IT projects designed to manage declines in branch traffic and increase in digital access.

For a small bank like Raynham, Mass.-based Bridgewater Savings, it's simply not possible to take on branch automation and mobile banking at the same time. So the $480 million-asset bank is trying instead to drill deeper into activity at the branch to squeeze out extra staff efficiency.

The bank is using web-delivered software to analyze traffic at branches down to the hour, in an attempt to target part-time branch staff to specific times in which they are needed. The goal is to handle about 20 transactions per hour at its eight branch network (though some branches have lower goals of 12 to 16) without having tellers idle.

Bridgewater is hoping that by optimizing staffing, it can cut branch expense while pushing back some of the more forward-looking approaches to branch automation that have been taking shape at other banks, such as two way video tellers that allow banks to open smaller branches will less in-person staff. At the same time, Bridgewater has over the past year adopted mobile banking in an attempt to enable more digital transactions.

Joe Mitchell, senior vice president and branch administrator for Bridgewater, says the new video-heavy branch technologies are intriguing, but require the type of project that the bank can't take on right now. "We do think about video, but there's only so much we can afford to do in one year, and the best bang for the buck right now is to give our consumers the ability to work remotely though texting, phone and the Internet," he says. But the bank is under the same pressure as all banks to reign in branch costs, which can take up to 50 percent of the total budget for a bank.

Bridgewater's goal is to have part-time workers on-site for 20 to 24 hours per week (for a branch network that's open about 55 hours per week) with staff matched to the unique needs of each branch. "This way we can move staff around from one branch to another during the day as needed," Mitchell says.

Banks have tried a number of strategies to accommodate branch declines, such as the use of video tellers and the redesign of the branch network to include centralized "hub" branches surrounded by smaller, more video-centric branches that are minimally staffed.

Since most of Bridgewater's branches are in the same general area, southeast of Boston, the need to connect people that are outside the bank's footprint at smaller branch locations is minimal. Also, Mitchell says the bank's existing consumer base probably isn't ready for a cutting edge, high-touch in-store experience. "In terms of video it depends to some degree on demographics and culture that you are serving," he says. "We're serving consumers that are in a part of the northeast that aren't on the front of the wave in terms of new technology, so we make our best effort to connect with them in a way that's comfortable for them."