Restructuring the bank branches and its effect on customer preferences

SUMMARYTelephone banking, new generation Automated Teller Machines (ATM), kiosk, webbanking and electronic banking are represent the new form of banking today. Today, thebranches of banks have been changing their physical appearances, organizational structures,and alternative distribution channels, which are quite different from past ones.Decreasing profit margins due to increasing competition in the market have led thebanks to try to benefit from novel technologies in order to protect their market shares fromcompetitors. Both increase in population and increase in work load caused by newly emergedproducts of novel technologies have forced the braches of banks to use their office spacesoptimally. Therefore, the banks have differentiated their services and restructured theirbraches by focusing on automation.The aims of the new structure in the braches of banks can be summarized as follows:Using line up systems based on productivity, to select the best productive customersfrom the daily crowded and to give them priority.Dividing the branches into services, to become an expert for a specific transaction, willincrease the flow of jobs and supply the service for the needed customer. This will make thebranches as an active marketing center.The branches will always survive in the system to circulate flow of the physicalmoney. People will still need to make their transactions in the braches in the future.Therefore, managers of the banks will continue to develop new strategies and bring newtechnologies for them.In this study, the effects of the changes in physical and organizational structure on thepreferences of customers are investigated. According to a survey conducted with 351 bankcustomers, it is concluded that the availability of the ATM, the availability of desktransactions, operations, individual and commercial marketing and the availability ofcommunication with the authorized people are emphasized as important factors. On the otherhand, sex of the bank?s employee, the size of the branch and the availability of the lining upsystem based on productivity are not important factors based on the conducted study. Theresults of the variance analysis have concluded that the physical and organizational factors inrestructuring the banks are significantly related to customer?s age, occupation, educationlevel, use of computer and internet and income level.