Branch optimisation

A financial services company was facing declining advised sales throughout its branch network due to the growth of online platforms and regulatory changes. Knowing it needed to make a change, executives wished to observe its branch network and identify the key factors influencing customer conversion and drop-out rates.

QuantumBlack began analysis of the company’s branch network by ingesting and combining more than 40 disparate legacy data sets. This data helped us get a look at typical branch activities, the interview process, and customer progression along the conversion pipeline over time.

With this data, we quantified the impact of more than 30 factors in the conversion process—including wait time, source of booking, adviser span of control, and adviser fragmentation—across multiple branches. Using counterfactual historic analysis, we then identified the potential impact from specific interventions along the conversion path, with the goal of helping the company retain some of its in-branch customer base. Our analysis helped the financial services company’s branch network increase its in-store mortgage conversions despite the rise of its digital platform.