Jeff Gelles: PNC 'concept branch' integrates technology

A common frustration during the Internet era's version of the Cambrian explosion - the sudden appearance, in the six years since the iPhone's launch, of about a million mobile apps - boils down to this: We've developed this amazing thing. How do we get people to try it?

It's a huge challenge for a small inventor. But even the largest businesses don't find it easy, which may explain why something new popped up recently on Route 202 in Malvern: a PNC "concept branch" that showcases how the $300 billion bank hopes to integrate technology into a business bound by hundreds of years of tradition.

Many large banks have tried the stick. PNC, for instance, has drawn flak for charging customers to use tellers, such as $3 for a human being's help shifting funds between accounts.

You might call the Malvern branch the carrot. It's teller-free - yes, not a single traditional window will put you face-to-face with that familiar bank functionary. But the message is that you don't need one - that you're better off without, as bank officials suggested when I paid a recent visit.

So what do you get instead? Some examples:

A souped-up ATM that can take up to 30 checks, or 50 bills, without a deposit envelope. You deliver them to the machine sandwich-style, and it processes them while you wait. Need cash? It dispenses in denominations down to $1 and up to a $50 bill.

A video room where you can meet - virtually, that is - with a specialist in areas such as mortgages and business banking. Need a document? Your video banker will print it right there for you.

A "discovery table" where a "financial consultant" like Brendan Penn can demonstrate electronic-banking tools such as PNC's Virtual Wallet, its suite of online- and mobile-banking tools that can spare you almost any trip to a bank branch.

PNC officials are reluctant to talk about the Malvern branch as money-saving, and the truth is that it may not be - at least immediately. Instead, they tout how it better serves customers' needs.

The video room? "The banker on the screen can do everything a traditional banker can do, except for shaking their hands," says branch manager Daniel Bishop.

The lack of tellers? "We designed this branch to break down the barrier between the teller line and the customer," says regional manager Dawn Doherty. "Every single interaction here is shoulder to shoulder. It's very collaborative, very relaxed."

Penn's title is shared by most of the branch's 11 full-time staffers, more than the five to seven at a typical branch. All are cross-trained to meet as many needs as possible.

The 3,600-square-foot branch is also larger than is typical. It's designed with offices that are as interchangeable as the staff, although a wealth-management specialist has a private office. With the Vanguard Group's headquarters a stone's throw away, PNC plainly sees the Malvern site as a draw for affluent, tech-savvy customers.

PNC has two other concept branches that are smaller and less generously staffed. But each features some of the same features - especially the demos of Virtual Wallet and other e-banking tools.

Bishop and Doherty say PNC isn't abandoning personal banking, but enhancing it by focusing on what matters to customers. "We're a full-service bank. There's nothing limiting us," Bishop says.

But it's clear that PNC, which signs up about 90 percent of new customers for Virtual Wallet, would like to introduce e-banking more effectively to a broader base. At last public count, the suite was used by 1.3 million PNC account-holders, less than one-fifth of its 6.8 million checking customers.

With tools like Virtual Wallet's "Mobile Deposit" - an increasingly common tool in mobile banking - there's no longer a need to visit a branch or even an ATM to deposit a check. The tech-savviest customers will rarely need more than a cash machine.

To PNC, it's just a matter of getting the word out.