Self service technology: Providing value in a challenging economy

Without much fanfare, self-service technology has evolved to become the de facto standard in so many aspects of consumers’ lives. Americans have easily adapted to pumping gas, paying for groceries, checking in at the airport and performing any number of other retail tasks on their own. For most, the transition has been so positive that they now feel inconvenienced when forced to wait to receive service from an attendant.

In the financial services industry, the shift to self-service technology has been just as allencompassing. Automated teller machines first made it possible for consumers to conduct transactions 24/7, and the concept has been further enriched through banking by phone, the Internet and mobile devices. Self-service has become such an integral part of retail banking that customers no longer view it as a distinct component of their total experience. Many times, it is the experience.

All too often, unfortunately, banks do not deliver the experience customers expect. They have tacked on delivery channels over time as the technologies have become viable, and now manage each separately. While customers are doing their part by avidly jumping in to use every method of self-service technology available, banks often are letting them down with experiences that are disconnected, cumbersome and ultimately, unsatisfactory.

Analysts agree that banks should get on the same page as their customers. They should embrace self-service technology as energetically as their customers have, by viewing it the same way customers do: as a crucial set of services that are part and parcel of interacting with an organization. As TowerGroup put it in a recent report, “The time has finally come for financial institutions to realize that customers are multi-channel creatures and they will no longer tolerate inconsistent experiences across a financial institution’s delivery channels.” The fact is that consumers have yet to meet a channel they don’t like. They continue to be avid users of the branch, even as they embrace new methods of conducting transactions.

This reality presents an opportunity for banks that adopt a clear strategy to connect, interact and transact with their customers through all possible channels. These banks will get the benefit of extremely loyal customers who will be pleased at the ease and convenience of doing business with a multi-channeled institution. These banks also will be able to grow relationships and generate revenue by making it easy and intuitive for customers to open accounts and purchase new products through many avenues of access. Finally, they will enjoy operational efficiencies by being able to migrate low-value transactions to less expensive channels.

It may seem counterintuitive that the time to make major investments in self-service technology would be in the midst of a bruising economic crisis. The reality is that tough times have a way of forcing the most pressing issues to the top of the agenda. The gloomy economy will require banks to studiously focus on those initiatives that will contribute most to their ongoing profitability and stability. A holistic and comprehensive approach to self-service delivery channels fits this bill. Meanwhile, any spending plan that perpetuates the model of multiple, siloed delivery channels is becoming increasingly untenable.