News

Study examines consumer use of self-service banking

June 19, 2013

Mercator Advisory Group has announced the release of "Self-Service, ATM and Other Channel Banking: Omnichannel Experience Needed," the eighth and last in a series of reports based on consumer surveys conducted in late 2012.

The report reviews consumer trends in self-service banking adoption, including check deposit methods, use of self-service channels compared to traditional channels, and interest in new self-service technologies.

The report found a self-service banking segment that is growing rapidly as the result of consumers' desire to carry out more banking transactions by themselves at their own convenience.

"Consumers are taking advantage of the variety of self-service banking options at their convenience with more frequent engagement using more banking channels than ever before," said Karen Augustine, manager of the CustomerMonitor Survey Series at Mercator Advisory Group and the author of the report.

"Consumers using multichannel banking expect more from their banks in the form of faster processing and a consistent user experience across all channels that reflects all the customer's activities performed in any channel," Augustine said. "This seamless channel integration, an "omnichannel" experience, will require financial institutions to develop new methods and tools to support and nurture customer engagement."

Highlights of the report include:

year-over-year trending of self-service banking channel use by U.S. adults;
frequency and use patterns of ATM deposits — envelope vs. envelope-free, cash vs. check;
shifts in methods of receiving cash and depositing checks;
importance of financial services, coupons and rewards offered at the ATM;
trends in use of/interest in video conferencing.

The report findings are based Mercator's CustomerMonitor Survey Series, drawn from data obtained from 1,008 online consumer surveys completed between Oct. 23 and Nov. 2, 2012.