Article

'In the middle of the action': The ATM in an omnichannel world

The ATM should be central to the omnichannel experience. Here's why.

June 5, 2015

by Bethan Cowper, Head of Marketing and Public Relations, Compass Plus

Omnichannel is our new best friend. Marketers across the globe, regardless of industry, are desperate to add it to their cache of buzzwords, casually thrown around alongside "innovative," "revolutionary," "cutting edge" and "leading" to prove they know what's what. Unfortunately for omnichannel, its use doesn't always do it justice, and it is often used incorrectly and interchangeably with multichannel.

First things first

Multichannel refers to a consumer who uses more than one channel. To use a banking example, someone who banks in-branch, via an ATM and checks her balance online is a multichannel user.

The evolutionary partner of multichannel is cross-channel, whereby a consumer uses more than one channel to perform one action — ranging from browsing on a mobile device and making the payment over the Internet to actively using two channels to perform a transaction. An example might be an emergency cash initiative, receiving a text message and then cardlessly retrieving cash from an ATM.

Omnichannel is less about actions and more about experience, "the customer journey," and in essence, brand marketing. Omnichannel is about delivering a consistent experience across all channels for both the multi- and cross-channel user with clear design, homogenous messaging and user-friendly interfaces, seamlessly, across all touch points.

This requires an element of integration, capturing consumer data and behaviors and using all of the available information to create an informed relationship with the customer regardless of the channel they use next.  

In the financial services industry today, mobile and Internet banking are intrinsically linked and show the most development toward an omnichannel strategy. However there is a long way to go before the customer journey is truly informed and seamless. As service-oriented architecture is being utilized to integrate the back end of payments systems, omnichannel strategies should be implemented to unite the front end.

Enter the ATM

The ATM is primed to bridge the gap between product silos and a more holistic approach to payments.

One of the most successful modernization strategies to date is to start with the technology you already have. As a self-service channel that increasingly is being used for much more than just dispensing cash, the ATM is fast becoming a mini-branch in a machine, essential for bank branch optimization and a key accomplice to the mobile device. 

A recent independent survey of 650 U.K. residents carried out by Compass Plus found that 95.8 percent of consumers regularly withdraw cash from ATMs, but only 15 percent of those interviewed used the self-service terminal to perform additional actions.

As the oldest and most trusted self-service channel, the ATM is one of the most important ways for FIs to interact with their customers. In fact, regular use of this channel expands beyond an FI's customer base into their competitors' territory, as consumers tend to use the closest terminal rather than traveling a further distance to visit that of their own card issuer.

The ATM is therefore the perfect platform for FIs to best demonstrate their brand, their functionality, and the potential experience that a prospective customer might have. Making this self-service device the starting block of an omnichannel experience that differentiates is therefore an incredibly sensible strategy.

According to a recent Gallup study, branding continuity across channels aligns customers to their FI, netting the institution twice as much share of wallet as customers with no brand recognition.

As the go-to channel for the majority of consumers, ATMs could and should serve as a podium for marketing messages, whether to increase brand awareness or to cross-sell and upsell other financial products. Encouraging the use of the other available channels and then offering a consistent graphical user interface and brand message across the board breeds convenience resulting in increased customer loyalty.

The gateway

With ATM functionality expanding to include Internet banking capabilities, live teller video options, cash-in facilities and even loan applications, this self-service terminal is the gateway between traditional channels and more innovative payment initiatives.

No other channel offers the breadth of actions that the ATM can perform, putting the terminal at the epicenter of channel convergence and, with the shifting of service delivery across channels, significantly reducing an FI's costs and driving change.

The evolving relationship between the ATM and the mobile device is certainly one to watch. The mobile device is increasingly being used to reproduce the ATM's keypad and GUI, and as an additional layer of authentication. This is also known as prestaging, the goal being to provide a cardless way of getting cash from an ATM. The evolution of this functionality with NFC is highly anticipated in the near future.

It is clear that the entire payments landscape is changing and as channels converge and the lines between the services they offer become more blurred, offering consumers an omnichannel experience can only help make the transition to both new functionality and new products easier.

While the industry claims that the ATM is the new branch, the mobile is the new ATM and payments are channel agnostic, one thing is clear: The ATM is right in the middle of the action.

cover photo istock