The future of CRM. (Tech Notes).(customer relationship management; report by Forrester Research on bank branches)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)(Polling Data)

Banker, The, June, 2002

A NEW REPORT by Forrester Research has claimed that banks will not meet their key objectives of improving customer service and reducing operating costs simply by operating web-enabling branches.

The future branch, Forrester says, will be a thinly-staffed collaborative service centre based on open standards and connected to internal or external service networks.

Of the 33 leading European banks interviewed by Forrester, 73% said the internet has had "little or no impact" on branch distribution; and 67% said they believed that branches would remain the dominant channel. This is contrary to the anticipated demise of the branch network -- between 1995 and 2001, banks in the UK, France and Germany closed 11% of their branches.