get a second chance.

ATMs are all things that customers expect to be working and working well. Where you exceed customer expectations, and therefore drive greater customer satisfaction, which ultimately drives customer advocacy, is in face-to-face interaction. That's why branches are so important."

A pleasant experience with a bank employee in a branch - no matter how minor - has a much larger impact than an ATM working fine.

"That's the key, that's why the branch network has to be relevant for customers," says Besant.

"They have to be in the right location - seven-day openings, the convenience in malls, those elements all have to come into play."

He admits that the banks have learned from the past.

"I think one of the lessons banks have learned, particularly during the 1990s, is that the branches are really important to customer satisfaction. From my perspective the branch network will continue to be a big driver of customer satisfaction and advocacy."

But that doesn't mean banks can stand still. "The lesson that the industry has learned is to make sure that our branches remain relevant. "

Chris Bayliss, BNZ's general manager of retail banking, is coy about pending changes to its branches.

There are, he says, "some new initiatives rolling out this year."

"While we've seen an increase in online banking, we still have a large customer base who want a face-to-face experience in the form of friendly fast service in convenient locations," says Bayliss. "The branch network will always be a critical part of the business and an important part of meeting customer needs."

Westpac's chief operating officer, consumer banking, Graeme Sayers, says the number of branches in its network has stayed steady in recent years, with a slight rise from 195 in 2005 to 198 now.

There has, however, been a "subtle redistribution" with new branches opening at the big malls, such as Sylvia Park and at Albany in Auckland.

"Bank branch use has shifted, with more smaller transactions being completed via ATM machines and through online banking," says Sayers.

"Online banking use for Westpac is growing at a rate exceeding 20 per cent but we are still finding that branches have a major role to play in people's lives.

"The conversations held at branch level are also very important and valued by customers, and enable the bank to build levels of loyalty."

The branch is also a useful channel for selling other products, such as KiwiSaver accounts.

In overall terms, transactions are reducing slowly, but there is still a steady demand for personal "money in and money out services".

"Although the predictions several years ago were about customers migrating all or most of their banking from the face-to-face channels to the internet, this has not occurred, the internet remains a value-add product and has the potential to be even more functionally rich," says Sayers.

"The strategy at Westpac is to remain with a distributed branch network that can continue to service customers' day-to-day transactions but also focus on the more complex, specialised and personal requirements that all customer segments continue to request."

So once knocked around, consigned to a slow and dreary death, the bank branch is back - with a flash new look and a better appreciation in the boardroom of how a person can do things no ATM ever can.