RFID in the bank branch of the future, via an article in CNET:

"Welcome to the bank of the future.

For all the talk of the Internet killing off the branch network, around half of a bank's customers will visit a branch at least once a month. That's three times the number that will visit the Web site. So banks are taking another look at how to boost sales through their branch network.

The trick is to use cutting-edge technologies to capture new types of data that can be used to improve a bank's ability to sell to customers, according to Michael Redding, director of research at Accenture's technology labs.

Radio frequency identification technology, digital pens and motion-tracking cameras could all be added to the arsenal to help banks find out when their most important customers are visiting and how to sell them more financial products.

Bank cards could be fitted with RFID chips that would allow banks to react faster when important customers visit the branch -- for example, by sending someone to meet and greet them as in the scenario above.

Alternatively, screens in the bank could display a message advertising products that customers might like to buy, based on their profile. If the bank knows Mr. Smith has two teenage kids, then when he comes into the branch the screens could advertise student loans.

Accenture's Redding said one bank in Latin America wants to roll out RFID-chipped cards to its VIP clients. "They are trying to make it a status symbol," he said. "By making it an object of desire they can get people to elect to take part."

RFID chips could also be embedded in leaflets, and these chips could trigger videos on in-house screens to provide further information. The information could be combined with the information from the RFID chip on the customer's card and sent to the counter staff, who could then use this to cross-sell."

Hmmm. I am a big believer in contactless (RFID-chipped) credit cards, because I can see the efficiencies at the retail point of sale where they are used.

But some of these other RFID uses mentioned for the retail bank branch strike me as expensive overkill. And they ignore other, more fundamental process issues.

Banks don't need RFID-chipped leaflets to cross-sell more products. They could sell more simply by being more responsive to their existing customers, improving internal processes, and making the experience of going to the branch pleasant. And making better use of the computer technology that they already have. There is plenty of low-hanging fruit to pick, before working RFID into retail banking.

In this day and age, why should it still be a 45-minute ordeal to open up a Certificate of Deposit? Why must I sit and wait for nearly a half hour while the teller lines are empty but the lone client service rep (the "only" one who can set up a new account) has a line 3-deep?

By the time I get up to that poor rep I am already trying hard to suppress my grumpiness because I know I will be late for my next appointment. So I don't inquire about that home equity loan offer from the flyer I received in the mail. What a wasted direct mail campaign!

Then the paperwork takes 25 minutes to complete, even though I already have 3 other accounts with the bank. Basic computer technology today should make it possible to pre-fill an account application electronically with my details and print it out on the spot for me to sign. That should take, what, all of 4 or 5 minutes?

Instead I endure a painful 25 minutes watching someone assembling the right combination of multi-part forms. Naturally there is always one that the rep can't find and must run all over the branch hunting for. Then the rep types some of them on a typewriter (a manual typewriter no less! -- or maybe an IBM Selectric), all the while asking me questions about information already in their databases. But of course the computer is down or "slow" today and she can't pull up my account profile right now, so she has no idea what other information the bank has about me.

In the midst of this process, she stops to call the head office for instructions. What's with the calling for instructions? When your job is to open new accounts day in and day out, how many "new" questions can there possibly be, people? Sounds like an overly complex process or a training issue, when the people carrying out their duties have to call for instructions regularly.

That client rep has zero chance of cross-selling me on other products after the endurance test I've just been through. Of course, not that she would have had much time to cross-sell me. By now the line behind me to see her is 4 deep and I have eight eyeballs boring into my back silently wishing my time with the rep would be over -- NOW. I can't wait to get out of there. And, from the harried look in her eye, I can tell she can't wait to get rid of me.

I did not write this piece to rant. Rather, I used to be a banker in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In fact, for a while I was that person in the head office that the branch rep called for instructions.

Unfortunately, some branch processes (especially surrounding the opening of new accounts), just haven't changed all that much in 20 years in many banks. Believe me, plenty can be done to eliminate inefficient bank processes and give bank personnel the time to cross-sell.

RFID-chipped leaflets are not the answer.