BPI Makes you wait in line for a long time

I entered the bank at around 1:31 in the afternoon and left the bank at around 2:43. That is more than an hour spent waiting in their queue just to make a simple deposit.

I would have thought that banks knew the value of time and wouldn't waste that of their customers. Apparently, I was mistaken.

BPI has been known to be an innovative company. Among the banks in the Philippines, they have been the first to adopt a touch-screen system for entering bank transactions, doing away with the traditional paper-based system. And while this new system may have helped the bank lower their costs for printing deposit and withdrawal slips, it has also made the wait time on their queues much longer, apparently.

I used to think that PNB was the bank with the worst queuing system. I used to spend hours and hours in PNB, just to make the same type of transaction. But even PNB has been able to improve their wait times to less than 30 minutes. And they are still dependent on a paper based system for registering transaction details.

Now, BPI not only has to deal with long wait times, but also overcrowding inside its branches. Having between 40 to 100 people inside a branch at the same time shouldn't be normal for a 100 to 150 square meter facility. A typical branch shouldn't have more than 20 customers inside all at once. There were several people coughing while waiting in queue. You can just imagine customers getting sick from viruses spreading in such a cramped space.

And despite efforts by the branch to make their customers comfortable while waiting, about 1/3 of the people waiting can't do anything but stand.

Instead of investing in pretty wall paper and posters, I think BPI should invest in improving its customer service experience. A person typically is able to withdraw money within 5 minutes. Why can't a simple deposit take the same amount of time? Why can't BPI invest in additional tellers when they know that their branch staff is undermanned? Only two people are manning their teller booths when their interior design designates that there should be 3 to 4. I pitied the Branch Manager since she had to take up some of the slack for the queue, but this clearly was not enough. If BPI wants to improve, each branch must be able to estimate the amount of transactions they will have in a day, and allot the same amount of manpower accordingly so that the transaction times will be consistent and within a maximum service level. A source of mine states that AUB have maximum limit of 9 minutes for a typical transaction. 

Perhaps BPI is already aware of this issue. Perhaps, they think that having a branch full of people improves the image of BPI - because the service must be highly demanded. But Metrobank, BDO, AUB, East West, etc. offer similar products and services and similar interest rates. And if a customer values his time, he would instead place his money in a bank that does the same. After all, time is money.