Hundreds of companies that used to rely solely on a physical footprint pivoted to offer home delivery, including big chains like Dominos and CVS along with a slew of local businesses. People can even buy a car from home. Now a Virginia bank is one year into home delivery of banking, with plans to expand.
Maybe branches aren’t dying. But the means by which customers access the branch might be changing.
What if a financial institution could deliver all the banking transactions that customers can’t do online right to their front door?
One bank in Virginia, Primis Bank, asked that question in 2021, and nearly a year later their hybrid mobile-physical product, called V1BE, is proving it can be done.
It’s a new take on banking, following inspiration from innovative customer experience giants like Amazon. To Teresa Rios, it seems strange more financial institutions haven’t gotten on the bandwagon and tried meeting customers where they’re at — literally — especially in a post-pandemic world.
“I get everything delivered,” says Rios, Director of V1BE and Senior Vice President at Primis. “I get my groceries through delivery. ”
The inspiration for an app-powered banking delivery service came from Primis Bank’s CEO Dennis Zember. He saw how Covid drastically slowed foot traffic, but just because people started coming into the branch less often didn’t necessarily mean everyone was eager to bank digitally. Or that they had the capability to do so.