PREMIUM – When was the last time you went to your bank branch to deposit money? Still thinking? That’s because most daily banking activity has shifted from branches to the smartphone. But that’s not to say people don’t use bank branches at all. They do, but not for the same reasons as they did in the past.

In fact, according to a new study released yesterday, only 6% of adults preferred digital-only interactions with their bank. But these interactions are for “more substantive conversations,” according to the report, such as loans, financial advice, mortgage and large money transfers. About 77% of those surveyed said they prefer discussing these topics in person.

This report, titled “Delivering Excellent Customer Service. When and How Consumers Prefer Face-to-Face Engagement and What It Means for Banks,” was conducted by electronics mogul Samsung. Unusual, right? Not really. Samsung’s argument is that banks need to invest in technology and innovation for their branches, not just their digital platforms.

“Nothing in this report should be misconstrued to defend digital inaction; quite the contrary,” the report says. “Many banks should double down on digital transformation efforts. What this means for banks is simple — yet paradoxically difficult. Banks must do whatever it takes to deliver excellent customer service across all points of customer interaction, including the branch network.”

That has not been the case for a lot of banks. A Wall Street report released earlier this year showed more than 1,700 bank branches were shut down in the last 12 months, ending in June 2017, deeming it “the longest stretch of closures since the Great Depression.” These closures were attributed to falling foot traffic, the decreasing need of tellers thanks to ATMs and of course, digital banking.

But some banks are trying to use technology to improve the banking experience at branches. In fact, Bank Innovation has reported that banks such as Bank of America, HSBC Bank, DBS Bank and others have been incorporating new technologies to update the branch experience. These technologies range from using tablets and mobile phones to cut a customer’s wait time to using virtual assistants and providing customers access to chatbots on ATM screens.

Some banks are even exploring more advanced technologies like computer vision, automated teller machine maker NCR Corp’ s Raghu Rajah previously told Bank Innovation. Rajah, vice president of digital banking, engineering and product management at NCR, described computer vision as an advanced type of deep learning that uses data gathered from video cameras in realtime (more on this here) to predict the customer’s needs. This could shape the future of branch banking, he said.

Samsung’s report echoes the sentiment that poor customer experience in branches is a major reason why customers change banks or stop going to branches. The graph below shows the most common pain-points listed by those surveyed.

Read Samsung’s full report here.

It remains to be seen if technology will save the branch, as Samsung suggests, or will it do just the opposite, as many others in the industry suspect.

This report consists of data gathered from two consecutive surveys conducted in February and May. The audience was drawn from sample sizes of 2,360 and 2,450 people across a broad spectrum of age, income, and location groups.