At the 22nd Börsen-Zeitung Retail Banking Day, Eva Wunsch-Weber, CEO of Frankfurter Volksbank Rhein/Main, underlined the importance of an attractively designed branch network. Bank decor can send an „I'm not interested in you" signal to customers, and Frankfurter Volksbank is currently modernising its branches to make them feel comfortable.

Branches are an important place for building trust, even for young customers. For example, when young people want to invest 5,000 euros, they seek reassurance either from an influencer online or from trustworthy individuals with whom they can establish a connection – such as through a conversation in a bank branch. According to Wunsch-Weber, what applies to branches also applies to anonline presence. Apps must be much more than mere payment instruments. For instance, Frankfurter Volksbank offers a digital budget book. The app can consolidate the customer's transactions, allowing gthem to manage all their finances. Just allowing people to check their account balance only helps them to a very limited extent.

The Volksbank CEO reported that one of the most common questions in branches is customers having trouble installing the app on a new phone. They expect this service from employees in the branches because they get apps set up at the Apple Store. Banks, Wunsch-Weber warned, must carefully consider what technological challenges they are imposing on customers – and how they will interact ten years hence with those who are now sixty.

One of the central tasks of retail banks is constantly assessing what customers want. And even more complicated finding out whether customers are actually satisfied when the bank offers them a service in this or that form. To better understand customer needs, Frankfurter Volksbank Rhein/Main invites a large number of customers for a close exchange twice a year. The questions asked there range from „How can I invest in private equity?" to "How can I buy cryptocurrencies?,“ and to topics about wealth transition in the case of inheritance.

According to Wunsch-Weber, banks must be prepared for more individuality in customer satisfaction. Institutions operating in retail banking that do not heed this risk alienating their customers. An online offering following the principle of "one size fits all“ no longer satisfies anyone.

„We need to become much more target group-specific", was one conclusion from Wunsch-Weber at the Retail Banking Day. „The days of cookie-cutter banking are over." It is necessary for banks to offer additional benefits in their branches, not just assist with standard tasks. If a customer can make transfers or check their account balance in a branch, they may say, „Yes, it worked“. But they are not satisfied for that reason alone.

The cooperative institution will become the largest German cooperative bank by balance sheet total (around 20 billion euros) after the merger with Raiffeisen-Volksbank Aschaffenburg which was announced last October.