Signage and WIFI
Also increasingly being used is in-branch signage and WIFI. A specialist supplier in this domain is Dayton, Ohio-based Stratacache, which works across vertical sectors, in 28 countries. The financial services sector is very much in catch-up mode, commented CEO, Chris Riegel. ‘They are quite far behind the curve, quite frankly.’ There is a degree of conservatism in banking, and there is also the fact that many banks are still shaking off the effects of the financial crisis, but he feels there is also the issue that many of the marketing managers in this sector are ‘of a different generational focus’ to many of their peers in other industries. Which is a polite way of saying that they are older. ‘The marketeers are not native consumers,’ he said. The overall trend is likely to be ‘fewer but better branches, making them more impactful’. In terms of conservatism, there are differences around the world. For instance, it is more acceptable to have
Costs and logistics
There are cost and logistical considerations with the new technology, of course. For one thing, the interactive tellers conjure up the vision of long queues of ever more frustrated customers while the person at the front chats away to a staff member, either in person or via video. And what if five customers press for video help at once and the bank has only one teller to answer?
One way to mitigate against this is to have more devices
and to make some of them specific to different types of tasks. There is also load balancing software that can manage the traffic and might, for instance, make a device self-service-only between 12pm and 2pm. And in practice banks have tended to tailor the use of video to specific scenarios, with service representatives able to respond quickly, using clear scripts, and with the ability to initiate a separate, more open-ended conversation if needed, such as by calling customers on their mobiles as soon as they step away from the ATM. One aspect that eases logistics is that there is no difference
between the technology needed by video tellers and their traditional call center counterparts, so typically the same CRM can support both. The call center assets are already there so the main investment is the video-enablement, including the necessary lighting (something that call centers often lack). Banks tend to set up a dedicated area and rotate call center staff in and out. It adds more variety to their jobs so tends to be welcomed by staff. ‘The cost of getting going is quite low,’ said Diebold’s Watson, as reflected in the amount of take-up from small banks.
While most call center 20 staff might welcome the technology, it must be said that the enthusiasm is not
targeted, personal messages in Asia than elsewhere. When an investor walks into an Asian bank branch, it might be that they are welcomed by name via an electronic display, whereas a bank in Europe would be more discreet. Signage can be used to complement other technology, including prompting customers to use ATMs rather than queue, and to emphasise cross-marketing messages, such as the enthusiasm among North American banks at present to push insurance.
One use of the WIFI might be to encourage the take-
up of banking apps. Most banks have built these but the adoption rates are very low. Using in-branch WIFI, customers can be encouraged to use these, perhaps through
signage or through roving branch staff,
potentially armed with tablets or other mobile devices to guide customers. This has been in place for around two years and there has been much more take-up in North and South America than elsewhere, although Asia is starting to move this way.
universal. Bank of America’s roll-out of video-enabled tellers (touted to reach 750 branches over the next few years) was greeted by an online petition to halt their introduction by one of the bank’s employees who felt that in-branch tellers would be replaced by lower wage call center staff with fewer benefits and without the ability to build the types of personal connection with customers that is possible when meeting face-to-face.
In terms of customer acceptance, this does not seem to have been an issue and, anyway, customers are becoming more and more familiar with this type of feature, through the likes of Amazon’s Mayday button, which allows Kindle Fire HDX customers to access 24x7 help from tech advisors. The telecoms infrastructure that supports existing
ATMs tends to be robust but, clearly, video does come with bandwidth requirements. This is becoming less of a problem, even in emerging markets, said Martin Shires, bank transformation manager at NCR. There are huge numbers of ATMs across the world that will need to move from Windows XP to Windows 7 (60 per cent in the US, for instance, according to industry estimates), despite the fact that Microsoft’s support for XP ended in April 2014. That shift might be the moment for other banks to opt to move to next generation ATMs. Moreover, increasing numbers of banks are no longer viewing the branch network as detached from their other channels but as an holistic part, so that increasing the adoption of e-banking, including apps, becomes part of the branch’s remit, along with cross-marketing. For many, the branch is now a focus, not an after-thought, with the emphasis on making them more efficient, more innovative, and more effective.
US Financial Services Technology Market Report |
www.ibsintelligence.com
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