The National Australia Bank wants more account holders to use the Internet, with staff coaxing customers out of queues to be coached in online banking.

From now until September, more than 150 branches in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne will feature computers for customers to 'test-drive' the Net.

Operation First Choice is described as a 'customer education program' and includes personal instruction for customers to use other electronic banking forms such as phone banking and new-model ATMs. The program was trialed for three months in 21 branches Australia-wide and is being copied in NAB branches in New Zealand.

Cost-reduction is the number one motive for the project -- just as savings lured transactions away from over-the-counter to ATMs years ago.

Quoting a 1997 Booz, Allen & Associates report, Julie McBeth, Group Manager, Business and Media Relations, National Australia Bank, said it costs an estimated $1.50 for a bank to process an over-the-counter transaction. This compares to 35 cents for an ATM transaction or one cent for a transaction carried out over the Net.

However, "electronic banking is better all round," she insists. " It's more cost effective for us and more convenient for customers. It also frees staff up to do more value-added transactions."

-We had very good responses," to the education pilot McBeth said. "Customer satisfaction was up by seven percent," she said, citing an internal survey carried out during the program.

To highlight customers' willing adoption of e-banking methods, McBeth said NAB's registered online customers presently stand at around 200,000. "That has increased dramatically over the last six months... (previously) we were sitting at around 50-60,000," McBeth said.

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