The cafe features the operation of a bank and becomes a cafe.

In response to consumer finance networking, banks in the United States have reduced their cashier manpower and even converted branches into cafes, but customer response to innovative marketing methods has been mixed.

■Firms across the country are tossing out their tellers, adding salespeople and remaking their drive-through lanes.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Capital One Financial Group is scheduled to open a new branch in Boston this summer, but this branch will not have any teller counters, but will operate as a coffee shop, like Starbucks selling various coffee drinks and providing free Wi-Fi.

The in-store staff are all Capital One business people, but their purpose is not to encourage customers to open accounts or apply for loans on the spot, but to introduce customers to the various functions of online banking and to answer customers 'problems in using the website.

In addition to Boston, Capital One coffee shop branches in other parts of the United States also offer "alcohol-free drinking hours" from time to time, which servers use to promote mobile apps launched by banks in partnership with local merchants.

Cashier replaced by PR

A spokesperson for Capital One said that this new type of cafe branch helps the company promote the brand and saves the staff cost of a large number of cashiers. Bank of America plans to do the same, replacing 9,000 tellers with "public relations service personnel." Rather than letting tellers handle business themselves, banks would rather use manpower to coach customers on ATM and mobile apps to improve customer service efficiency.

According to the Federal Deposit Protection Corporation, there were 95,000 bank branches nationwide last year, the lowest number since 2005. Despite the industry's ongoing downsizing, one-third of its branches are still losing money, forcing the industry to take extraordinary measures.

In addition to making change, the latest ATMs currently in use in the banking industry also allow customers to video chat with remote customer service personnel through screens, thereby reducing the personnel costs of physical teller counters. Some banks have even reduced or closed drive-thru lanes to encourage customers to switch to mobile phones for general financial business.

Wells Fargo recently launched a new online feature that allows customers to get a one-time authorization password online before leaving the house, and then quickly complete identification in the drive-through lane to shorten business processing time. PNC Bank launched an app that allows customers to enter a predetermined withdrawal amount on their mobile phone before leaving the house, and then scan the QR Code of the mobile phone directly in front of the ATM to receive cash.

However, the implementation of such cost-saving strategies has not been as smooth as the banks expected, and has sometimes been counterproductive. Robert Meara, an analyst at Celent Consulting, believes that "most banks lack clear direction for branch business strategies," leading to customer dissatisfaction caused by labor savings.

Take Grace Raymond, a 79-year-old grandmother, for example. When she went to the counter of Bank of America to pay the guarantee a few days ago, she got angry because of the shortage of service personnel. The lobby was crowded with customers, and she was first taken to the financial officer's line, and finally told to go to the cashier's counter when it was her turn, thus wasting an entire afternoon.

Banking services should focus on fast service

When Bank of America held its shareholder meeting in May this year, shareholders questioned that some branches had caused long queues for customers in order to save cashier manpower. Brian Moynihan, chief executive of Bank of America, said at the time that the company was still experimenting with new strategies to respond to changing consumer behavior.

Jennifer Oliver, a customer who recently walked past Capital One's New York branch on business, also said that while she liked the special coffee they offered, she admitted that she wouldn't go to the branch specifically for that.