People Counting Technology and It's Benefit to Retail Banking

With the increased adoption of virtual banking technology, can you recall the reason for your last visit to the bank? Was it to open an account, deal with an emergency, or perhaps a wire transfer? According to a recent American Bankers Association survey, only 14% of Americans prefer to do their banking business through a local branch. This was the third-most chosen alternative, behind online banking (55%) and mobile banking (18%).

Mobile banking challenges retail branches to understand and serve their customers from a personal level which machines and platforms can not deliver. This requires the service at retail locations to over exceed consumer’s expectations. In order to do so, banks must collect, integrate and analyze the existing consumer data that they may have. In other words, combining data from customer’s on-line to behavior within the physical branches will position banks to capture and retain every walk in customer.

People counting technology are beneficial for banks in many aspects:

By placing people counters at the entrance of the branch, management can understand the baseline traffic of any specific retail location. With this at hand, it provides insight and forecasts on busy days as well as peak hours. This can also help banks effectively manage operations such as staff allocation, cleaning and maintenance.

People counting data also provides a good baseline for performance benchmarks. People counters generate visitor data which is crucial for top level reporting as it depicts the visitor traffic in comparison with other branches. Ultimately, people counters benefits banks as it depict the profitability and effectivity to build up their competitive advantage according to the specific traffic of each location.

People counters can be embedded with Wifi technology to understand the draw in rate. Banks can then track the number of visitors passing by verses those who have entered the branch. This provides an objective overview of the traffic and shows to management whether their branches are located in high traffic neighborhoods. This data can also be benchmarked accordingly with other retail sites.

Banks often have billboards, brochure and promotional stands placed within various areas in each location. By installing heat map devices across the branches, management can gain insight to whether the implemented marketing methods are effective. Heat map insights provide an idea of where the customers are lingering as well as the hot and cold areas. Ultimately, management can understand whether the retail promotions have been attention grabbing or placed in the right areas with heavy duration times. Banks can optimize their marketing budget they invest in store and increase the promotion effectiveness.

Long wait times are usually an red alert for banks and also its retail customers. With an effective queue management system in place, customers can walk out satisfied and they almost immediately associate the banking location with efficiency. An individual queue counter can be placed on top of each line, this reports to management in real time the amount of people waiting in line and their anticipated wait time. With this data at hand, management can then open or close new queues, leading to a more effective management of visitor traffic.

In the technology driven market today, banks now have full visibility within their branches and now possess the tools to understand and decipher consumer behavior. People counters provide a basis that supports modern and efficient structure which allows management to take objective and make decisions based on data. Thus, providing the end customer an efficient, humane service that are well integrated within their expectations.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

I am Mike Aaren Digital marketing manager and professional content writer. We are global manufacturer and seller of cutting edge people counters, Wi-Fi tracking and Path Mapping technologies. http://v-count.com/