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Bank of America is redesigning its branches and its branch-customer experience in an effort to create a Disney and Gap-inspired, service-oriented 'Bank of America Spirit.' Among the changes: moving desks and chairs to behind the scenes so bankers can devote full attention to (standing and) servicing customers on the floor, a host station to greet customers, a media wall with a huge flat-screen TV, as well as TVs above the teller windows to provide entertainment during the wait in line. But beyond these layout changes, BofA has announced that whenever employees are wearing their new BofA spirit badge name tags or any branded uniform, they should consider themselves 'on stage,' and should constantly reflect the newly declared 'spirit' that will now permeate every part of the BofA experience. Read the BofA internal memo here.

Article entitled, 'BofA redesigns branches to build up service spirit'
Washington Mutual's equivalent redesign

While the intention behind this type of initiative is smart, namely seeing the bank-branch experience as a blank canvas that can and should be optimized to create a brand-building experience, the implementation is missing some key ingredients. At Disneyland, it's somewhat believable that the employees are excited to be there serving you. The same goes for Southwest Airlines, the Gap, or a host of other retailers for which there is some credibility behind the service enthusiasm or "spirit."

But few retail experiences are more painful, for the customer, the employee and the brand, than when the employee has clearly been told to play a friendly, spirited service role and he or she plays the part like a mediocre actor, visibly trying. It is clear to all parties that there is no way the attempted enthusiasm could be genuine. You, as the customer, feel bad for the employee, are embarrassed yourself, and certainly do not feel positively toward the brand that is compelling the employee to perform. Why would a bank employee be passionate or even interested in greeting you at the door of a bank and radiating 'spirit' while he directs you to the deposit-form table?

In our joint project with researchers at the futurist think tank, GBN, looking into the future of the financial service customer experience, we take as a humbling premise that financial service companies are early in their overall brand and retail experience evolutions. They haven't had to completely redesign or optimize their retail experience every few years the way brands in other categories have. The upshot of this reality is that there are many advances yet to come, opportunities for a particular financial service brands to have an insight, differentiate and win share.

Numerous retail case studies show that a company cannot simply announce that their retail culture is suddenly drastically different, write a memo, send a kit, and have it suddenly be so. Changing appearances without really changing anything below the surface leads to year-long initiatives that get lost and forgotten, lowering credibility as they do so.

The solution for financial service brands, or brands in other categories that may on the surface seem dull, is to take what we at Influx call a 'deep dive,' to dig within the company's history, its employees, each tentacle of the organization and what each tentacle touches, and to find the kernels of genuinely interesting and inspiring facts, ideas and connections. Then, make those kernels the basis of creating a credibly interested workforce and a credibly spirited brand environment in the branch. The bank customer experience is, at present, an empty canvas with a bit of POS cardboard telling about home loans. Use this canvas to share these kernels, via multimedia or signage, in an interesting, relevant way that simultaneously positions against unwanted preconceptions about the brand. Not a sell piece or a company history, but a company that is interested in what it does, sharing why it's interested. Create a branch environment where there's credibility that the employees are enthusiastic about being there and serving customers -- then the BofA shift, or the similar recent redesigns of Washington Mutual or Wells Fargo, could potentially have the underlying fuel to sustain and carry through the visions they are seeking.