Customers want banking transactions to be digital and simple
but expect customer service to be interactive, said Simon Powley, head global
advisor consultant for Diebold Nixdorf.
“I think what a lot of financial institutions struggle with
is there’s a lot of technology and opportunity out there so the question becomes
how to begin to prioritize,” he said during an interview with ATM Marketplace.
See below for the rest of the interview.
Q: Do you think, post-pandemic, there will be a call for
more self-service kiosks?
A:I think if anything [the pandemic] has advocated for a lot
of the things we’ve been talking about in regard to our products and services.
The prioritization around self-service has never been more important, and we’re
very excited about developing new conversations and helping financial
institutions transform all this chaos into something good for their
organization.
Q: Do you think, in terms of branch transformation,
financial institutions post-pandemic should go to a self-service platform?
A: I think it’s important to look at the entire ecosystem,
especially with COVID right now. We know that self-service is playing out at
the ATM, but whether a branch needs to consider tablet integration, cardless
transactions or how mobile technology integrates with their ATM and other
channels, I think it’s a major concern moving forward. All these options are
important because people want to be safe, they are trying to be safe. Even
though options such as self-service capabilities and technologies have been
available, I think it’s more important now that ever before that financial
institutions look what they are doing. I think we’re going to see a lot of
changes happening with branch transformation where maybe it wasn’t really as
important before as it is now. Financial institutions have to really look at
what they’re doing, what channels they have available and how it all is going
to impact their customers.
Q: Do you think the customers post-pandemic will look to
their bank to offer an omnichannel approach?
A:We’ve been talking about this and developing road maps for
all different financial institutions prior to the pandemic. We deal some of the
largest most complex financial institutions in the world, as well as the
smallest credit union that operates in a local entity. The conversations are
happening, but this isn’t a one-size fits all process. Maybe [post-pandemic]
that one branch credit union where everyone knows everyone else, omnichannel
banking won’t work. We have to look at the entire ecosystem, of what they’re
doing and what kind of products and services their customers are asking or
expecting to have.
Q: What do you think financial institutions struggle with
in terms of branch transformation?
A: I think what a lot of financial institutions struggle
with is there’s a lot of technology and opportunity out there so the question
becomes how to begin to prioritize? You have to know what things come first in
order to look at what you want to do. You really have to break that down based
upon your customer base or member base for a credit union. Financial institutions
have to determine what are the priorities? What are they looking to do? How do
they want to impact not just the customer, but the community? What is their
propensity to really adapt to technology, and is bringing in technology and
adapting important to them and to their customers? One thing we do know
definitively, which was true even before COVID happened but has certainly
become amplified, is that customers really want to transact digitally, but want
to interact physically. They want self-service, but they want it simple. They
want great customer service, but they want to stay safe.
Q: So how can you make all that happen?
A: It’s really a matter of all the channels playing together
in terms of safety and service. From a safety perspective, we’ve seen a lot of
banks and financial institutions making changes. They have changed their hours,
brought in people to manage traffic flow and in some cases, checking
temperatures. They have brought in more cleaning people and outfitted them with
personal protection gear. We have seen branches and retailers with ATMs marking
off floor space in six feet increments to adhere to social distancing.
In terms of what we’re doing, we are very proud that those
people servicing our ATMs are considered essential workers. We are supplying
them with personal protection equipment and ensuring that they are disinfecting
the systems both before and after maintaining the [machine]. We’re looking into
antimicrobial coatings that can help reduce the spread of germs. We are looking
at what the CDC is recommending in terms of touching equipment and keeping our
staff informed.
Q: What is the biggest challenge you’re facing?
A:We don’t see challenges, we see opportunities. One area is
automated deposits. There are still many financial institutions out there that
don’t have deposit automation on their ATMs or haven’t fully deployed it yet.
In this kind of environment, you have to look at doing automated deposits. Financial institutions may want to be more
efficient, but they also want to cut costs. They have to look at ways to
supplement tellers since coming back from the pandemic they may have staffing
changes.
Everything a financial institution is planning on doing
needs to be looked at on how they are interacting with their customer and are
they doing it in the most efficient manner? If they have touch screens, how do
they keep people safe if they need to touch the screen? How can you make things more automated and
adjust your business rules so they stay simple too? How can you drive adoption
within your customer member base to help support them? What are your next
steps? Should you offer cardless contact since we believe that’s going to be
very important moving forward?
There is no question that people are being especially
careful right now, but those trends are probably going to continue at least
over the next several years. You want your customers to be safe. You want to
leverage devices that can be kept clean. You want to set up contactless
transactions at an ATM or pre-stage them through a mobile phone.
Retailers and financial institutions need to consider cash
recycling and denomination selections at an ATM because it is more
efficient. Denomination selection has
been one of the most desired attributes of an ATM. What kind of small
businessperson can stand in line for long periods of time at a bank branch?
Q: Are financial institutions concerned if they consider
self-service kiosks, the customer experience could be altered?
Whether they’re a medium-sized bank or a regional bank,
financial institutions want to connect with their customers. That’s where they
can differentiate themselves and where they can really stand out. Large
institutions are always looking for ways to innovate as a result of their
technology capability, but they still want to interact with customers. And even
when you don’t see many customers in the branch, it doesn’t mean that you won’t
be seeing them through another channel technologically. Customers are going to
transact in the way they prefer now, but financial institutions need to keep
customer connections alive.
An ATM can do several bills and checks at the same time.
That helps a bank be more efficient. More efficient makes for a better customer
experience. There are larger screens, the ability to use multi-denominations
and functionality that can drive contactless transactions. From a software
perspective, there are teller video self-service systems that can be
implemented quickly.
A financial institution needs to empower their customers.
They can do it with core integration and create a great experience. Customers
can still utilize self-service technology, but the overall experience still
needs to be a good one. If you integrate and leverage all your technology, the
customer will see how you are not just focused on efficiency, you are focused
on experience. And that’s what we want to do. We want to help financial institutions
become more efficient with self-service technology but still keep a positive
experience. By doing that we can help our customers run a more efficient and
effective organization for their customers.
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