38 SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2023 Retail branches, as the public face for financial organizations in the community, can be one of your greatest assets. Promoting brand identity, connecting with potential and existing customers, and engaging your communities – the importance of branch location and visibility cannot be overstated. Networks One of the biggest challenges that financial institutions face is figuring out where to build a branch – or whether to update and/or upgrade an existing branch. A network of branches across the community, positioned at critical points of interest, offers customers easy access to your financial institution and your services. Through location analytics and conversations with design experts, selecting the ideal site for a new presence can be done with confidence. The same process will likely identify that many of your existing branches are already uniquely located and could benefit from a refresh. Sites After identifying a new location to grow your network, individual site selection requires due diligence, and maybe just a bit of luck! What sites are on the market? Are they shovel-ready sites, or do they house an existing building? Many variables play into the availability of a key site at any given time. A thorough First Merchants Bank, Muncie, chose a 17,000 square-foot fit-out space in downtown Fort Wayne to support its operations. This workspace, created in 2018, included offices, open workspaces, conference rooms and small training areas for employees to use. The design incorporates key workflows to foster communication and collaboration between teams. 3 Fundamental Steps to Crafting the Ideal Branch review of visibility, accessibility and buildability can help narrow the search for sites worth pursuing. The perfect site rarely exists, but identifying and weighing as many of the challenges and opportunities as you can will set the groundwork for success. Layouts Site selection and the due diligence process often inspire thoughts about where the branch could sit, how parking is organized around the building or where remote ITMs could be positioned. Conceptual layouts take a bird’s-eye-view of the site to locate these major pieces required to make decisions about visibility, circulation and landscape. How your branch fits on a given site will directly impact your goals and help you establish a key node within your network. This is where the fun really begins! HB FEATURE Jared Monce Architect Design Collaborative JMonce@ DesignCollaborative.com Design Collaborative is an associate member of the Indiana Bankers Association.
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