News

CRM is becoming a reality at the ATM

July 19, 2006

This article appeared in the ATM & Financial Self-Service Executive Summary, Summer 2006.

Financial institutions are finally realizing the full power of the ATM. From Wachovia and National City to Bank of America and Wells Fargo, FIs are exploiting new opportunities for personalization and advertising that a Windows operating system provides.

Jerry Silva, a senior industry analyst with Boston-based consultancy TowerGroup, said interest in customer relationship management at the ATM in the United States and Europe has gradually increased in the last 12 to 18 months.

"Banks are on the downside of the investment curve that had them spending money to comply with Triple DES, EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa standard) and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance," he said. "Now that many networks are seeing a significant number of machines upgraded, banks are looking to leverage that spending for something else more directly connected to service and revenue. Personalization and targeted marketing seem to be the most powerful new applications to apply to the new ATM."

Tying it all together

The move to Windows was the first step. But now FIs must turn greater attention to integrating backend solutions that tie channels - online, ATM, self-service terminals and branch - to customer databases.

This story and all the great free content on ATMMarketplace is supported by: Wincor Request free info from this company!

"We're seeing them think more holistically," said Bill Waugh, vice president of engineering for Paderborn, Germany-based Wincor Nixdorf International. "They're becoming more sophisticated, and they're realizing that they need to cross-sell services. No one really knew how to use the CRM data in the past, but now it's becoming relevant to them, and they understand why they have to move forward."

In the U.S., banks and credit unions are looking for ways to build stronger customer relationships. Overseas, especially in the United Kingdom, FIs are interested in building revenue at the ATM through upselling customers and running third-party advertising campaigns.

"I don't think Europe is that much further along than the U.S., but they are slightly leading the way in that non-U.S. banks tend to be more open to trying new technologies," Silva said.

Over the next two years, however, Waugh believes the U.S. perspective will change as banks get more comfortable and better understand the ATM channel's potential.

"(U.S.) Banks are still taking baby steps," he said.

Regardless of the interest, the technology is the same. With an integrated back-end, updates and changes can be made simultaneously across all banking channels. Companies are selling software solutions such as Wincor's ProClassic/ProSales package that help FIs get more from their ATMs and other self-service channels, but database integration is a major stumbling block for most FIs.

For that reason, CRM deployments work best for FIs that already have CRM implementation built into their infrastructure, Silva said. It also helps if the FI understands how targeted marketing works in other parts of the bank before applying the concepts to the ATM.