Another day in the life of Julie … if you're killing time, why not do some field research ….

I had some time to kill at a local bank recently. (Had left my ATM card in the machine, and the only person with keys was out moving her car and getting coffee).

(Forgot the iPhone at home so couldn't watch TV. Figured taking photos wouldn't be cool so I was just standing around waiting.)

I noticed a brochure for Mobile Banking on the counter. The front piece was good. It read "Get What's NEXT in BANKING" with a photo of a cell phone and "mobile banking" in smaller print. It was also nicely laid out. The inside cover focused first on the benefits with the enrollment process on the second page. One might argue that those who visit branches might not be the early adopters, but why not put the brochures out. They were at least easier for me to understand than the pyramids of 7-up cans.

The tellers weren't that busy so I surveyed them – "What do you know about the program?," "Do many people pick up brochures?," "Do many people ask about the service?," "Do you know how the service works?," etc. They didn't really have any information. They didn't understand how it worked. They basically told me that I'd have to go online to check it out. I did eventually check it out, and it looked to be a pretty good site though I couldn't go that deep because I'm not a customer.

One of the key pieces of driving adoption of new services is customer education. I believe this program was still being trialed, and they weren't looking to drive mass adoption. That said, having the folks locally understand the service, the sign-up process, etc. wouldn't hurt. At least at this branch, folks seemed to have some time on their hands.

And if you're curious … I did get my ATM card back. No photo ID required – I just had to ID the lost item. 🙂