What came first, the customer or customer service?

Tom Asaker, at A Clear Eye, asks this question:

Should banks and credit unions try to develop a community of like-minded people by creating a more personal and aesthetically appealing experience, al la Starbucks and Barnes & Nobles. Will customers forgo the percentage points - however small - required to create such an experience? Or should the value innovation be to reduce the emphasis on people and place and focus instead on information, choice, hard cash, and value for time, a la Amazon.com and Progressive Insurance? Perhaps the market could sustain both? Or neither? Something in the middle? Please let me know what you think/feel?

In one of the comments to the post, a woman named Susan writes:

i think its interesting that people discount the need for branches by saying that they "only walk in there once a year." this may not be a cause but an effect. it is the RESULT of bad banking practices not from lack of necessity to speak with a human being related to your financial needs.

Is this the same reason people don’t go to lawyers more often?