Branch Spotlight: Willis Street

Welcome to the first of our Branch Spotlight series. Throughout the year we will be highlighting a different location from within our national network of over 140 branches. We'll be visiting a new location each month so you'll be able to see how ASB celebrates success in your neighbourhood.

This month we are in the capital to speak to Daniel Warsaw, manager of our Willis Street branch in central Wellington, who shares ASB's commitment to technology and innovation in banking.

Tell us a bit about your time at ASB Willis Street?

"I’ve been the Branch Manager since the branch opened in September 2012. I have also just taken on the additional role of the Manager of ASB’s new Wellington Premium Banking Centre which is based within ASB Willis Street. This is an exciting new offering for our Premium Clients in Wellington."

Has the branch changed much over the past few years? If so how?

"The branch was previously located around the corner on Manners Street. In September 2011 we moved to our Willis Street location, which encompasses all the exciting new banking technology ASB now offers to our customers in a wonderful open plan environment. Our customers and staff love the new style branch. Willis Street itself has been transformed over recent years, with a range of exciting new shops and cafes opening. 10 years ago it was a bit of a dowdy area, but it’s now a really exciting part of Wellington. It’s wonderful to have one of our two Wellington CBD branches located right in the middle of this vibrant area."

How does your branch celebrate success?

"Celebrating success is an integral part of what makes ASB great, and we do it in style at Willis Street. In particular we start and end the week by celebrating. For example we all get together on a Friday afternoon after the branch closes and everyone nominates their colleagues for any magic moments they have observed over the week. The person with the most nominations is our 'Star of the Week', and also receives a huge block of chocolate and of course the requisite high fives all round! It’s a lot of fun and a great way to head off to enjoy the weekend."

Have you noticed any major changes in how your customers bank over the years?

"More and more customers are choosing to do their daily banking themselves. The technology we provide really helps enable this, through specialised ATMs and self-serve coin counters in branch, to the internet kiosks and our amazing mobile apps. This means that more of the customers we see in branch have more complex requirements. The line-up of tellers doing solely deposits and withdrawals all day have gone, and our Customer Service team are now far more skilled to help with the more complex requirements."

What’s the most unusual customer request you’ve ever had?

"Being in the CBD we do have some characters that come in from time to time. We once had someone who came in wanting a loan to buy a piece of outer space!"

Check out our previous Branch Spotlights here, have we visited your local ASB?

Will we put the spotlight on your local ASB branch? Be sure to check the ASB Blog regularly for our next Branch Spotlight.

Viewing your statements online is also a much more secure way of reviewing your accounts, as they are protected by the full strength of ASB’s FastNet Classic security. And if you really need a physical copy, you can download your statements and save them as PDFs for emailing or printing.

Our innovative interface also allows you to set up notifications for when new statements are available. You can choose between an email or text message notification to help you stay on top of your finances.

So in summary, Document Centre in FastNet Classic is an efficient way to keep track of your statements, save paper and cut down on clutter, making it easier for you to review your accounts and be successful with your money. We’re confident you’ll find it handy as well, so we’ve made it easy for you to stop your old paper statements and view them online instead, whenever you need them. No more having to wait for the paper copy to be delivered to your home.

Simply click on Notification Settings within Document Centre and click on the Paper icon to turn on our Statement Stopper service. This will stop paper statements being delivered to you. If at some point in the future you’d like to turn Statement Stopper off and receive paper statements again simply click the Paper icon with the red line through it and you will be taken to the Statement Stopper page where you can select which of your accounts you’d like to receive paper statements for. It’s that easy!

You can find Document Centre on the main menu in FastNet Classic.

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