There is still a video camera trained on the door. Customers still must pass through the double glass security doors to get into the Encino branch of the Washington Mutual bank on Ventura Boulevard. But once inside, things start to get all warm and fuzzy. The bank reopened early last month after an extensive makeover, part of an industry-wide campaign to refocus on customer service and push sales of financial products. Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc. is in the process of retrofitting many of its existing branches and opening new locations with a concept it calls “occasio,” Latin for “favorable opportunity.” The Encino branch is the first in the Valley to undergo the transformation, but the campaign began in 2000 with the opening of 21 occasio “stores,” as they are now called, in Las Vegas. There are now 10 occasio stores up and running in Arizona, 48 branches on the West Coast targeted for remodeling over the next 18 months and 24 new occasio stores planned for 2002 in Atlanta. Marcia Lansdon, senior vice president for consumer banking for WaMu, said, “Having the customer in the lobby gives them an opportunity to use our other services.” Teller windows have been replaced with teller “towers,” where a customer and bank employee stand side by side and view account information together on the same computer screen. There’s a children’s play area called WaMu Kids with Legos, Game Boys and a TV. Just beyond the front doors is a small retail center offering books on finance, WaMu action figure dolls, banking software packages and $3 impulse items like plastic piggy banks and Slinkys bearing the company logo. Managers don’t have assigned desks but instead walk the floor with cell phones in hand and tellers have ditched the ties and more traditional business attire for khaki pants and denim shirts. At the front of the branch you’ll find a “concierge” who not only welcomes customers, but can take a deposit, give out an account balance or, if there is a wait for service, hand out a beeper so the customer can shop at nearby stores while waiting. So why are banks like WaMu dusting off the welcome mats when just a few years ago the trend was to direct customers to the ATM and the Internet and, in some cases, charge them for the privilege of coming inside for help? According to Hai Vu, an analyst with Jefferies & Company Inc. in Los Angeles, banks are slowly recognizing how diverse customer demands are and are attempting to put a retail spin on the concept by building themselves as brands, much like The Gap or J. Crew Group Inc. would. He said customers may like the Internet and the convenience of the ATM, but they also like to know they can get personal service if and when they want it. “What many institutions are finding out is that steering customers away from the bank didn’t work too well,” said Vu. “On the one hand, the concept did help out with cost cutting and more efficiencies in banking, but you can’t build a business model on that concept alone. Because of the backlash, banks are saying we have to get back to basic branding and name building.” Lansdon said market pressures are part of the motivation for the new concept, but added that WaMu has always tried to stay ahead of the consumer curve when it comes to service. “I don’t really view them as market pressures,” Lansdon said. “We know the consumer doesn’t want to be where the bank wants them to be, but where they want to be.” Lansdon oversees 161 branches in the greater Los Angeles area, including 25 in the Valley. According to Vu with Jefferies, so far the remodeling effort has had only a minimal effect on foot traffic. “The capital investment Washington Mutual is putting into the occasio thing is a lot of money,” said Vu. “So what’s the return? Not much. Therefore, we have to believe this is purely for branding purposes. If you make things stick out in people’s mind, then you’ve planted the seed.” Lansdon said it’s too soon to draw conclusions from sales figures for the Encino store and, because the Vegas stores were all new branches, there’s nothing to compare sales to there. She said the company won’t give out remodeling costs but added that they are about 40 percent lower than building a new branch. Wells Fargo & Co., the country’s fourth largest bank, began its “Warming of Wells Fargo” campaign a few years ago. The company began adding Starbucks Corp. stores in some locations up and down the West Coast and started sprucing up lobbies. In June, the Panorama City Wells Fargo branch was given a fresh look that draws on the area’s Latino culture. While the branch doesn’t have a Starbucks, and there is still an army of teller windows dividing customers from the cash, it now sports warmer color schemes, historical graphics and Mexican artwork. Signs and product brochures are written in Spanish and English. According to Diane Miller, senior vice president for distribution strategies for Wells Fargo, the Studio City branch will get a revamp by year’s end, and several other Southern California stores are being targeted for a Spanish theme over the next year. Wells’ strategy also includes more partnerships with Starbucks, lowering teller windows, adding televisions and computerized stock updates in some markets. Fritz Elmendorf, vice president of communications for the Consumer Bankers Association in Arlington, Va., said some institutions did such a good job of driving customers out of the building that they are going to have to work very hard to clear up the mixed signals. “In any bank, some customers are not profitable, so some banks have said, ‘OK, let’s figure out who these customers are and either drive them out or make them profitable by charging fees, such as to see a teller at the window,”‘ he said. “But that strategy wasn’t as simple as it seemed, and I think maybe the lesson or more current strategy is to go back to focus on selling any way you can.”
