TIM SMITH/BRANDON SUN
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Colin Romano, branch manager for RBC’s 18th Street location, leads members of the media on a tour of the new building on Thursday.
RBC will introduce a new style of doing business when it opens its new building at 18th Street and Van Horne Avenue on Monday.
In what is the first branch of its kind in Manitoba, the open concept building will offer clients more interactive displays, staff working from the floor rather than offices and an opportunity to host seminars on various financial matters, said RBC’s Manitoba West regional vice-president Terry Burgess.
The approach also changes what the bank calls its business location, as they have rebranded their branches as retail stores.
"We will have self-service, which are primarily ATMs and online banking kiosks, and assisted banking where staff on the floor can assist customers with technology pieces on the floor to walk through any questions they may have," Burgess said. "One of the misnomers about our new retail stores is that we don’t have traditional teller services and we have expanded teller services."
Areas of the building, estimated to cost $6.5 million, are intended to show clients where they can get information on various financial services and products. That includes a central seminar area, as well as six glassed-in offices. It also includes a series of touch-screen computers, which eliminates the need for many of the paper pamphlets.
"We are bringing people from out behind desks and offices and bringing them out onto the floor," Burgess said. "If you have been to the Apple Store in Winnipeg, that’s what this is going to look like."
Branch manager Colin Romano said the seminar area will enable RBC to team up with other community groups and RBC partners to offer various financial issues, including one on Wednesday on buying property in the United States.
The new branch will be the hub for 25 to 30 people, some of whom will travel to businesses and homes to provide financial services.
There will still be traditional wickets where tellers can serve clients, with eight available for the general public and two dedicated to business clients.
The new location will have three ATM machines inside the building and a drive-thru ATM will be added to the branch.
While the new building will be open for business on Monday, there will still be a series of transitions the bank will work with as it tears down its old facility. It will also take a day or so to move the ATM machines from the old building into the new building.
Burgess said it will take between three to four weeks to tear down the old building, to create a new, larger parking area with 31 stalls.
» kborkowsky@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition September 7, 2012
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