Self-service, available for some time at retail locations such as grocery stores, gas stations and credit unions, now provides more virtually-assisted capabilities, through interactive teller machines and mobile, than ever before.
By moving transactions from standard teller lines to an integrated self-service environment inside physical locations, drive-up stations, or through mobile interactions, credit unions can achieve operational efficiencies and cost savings.
Self-service banking continued to evolve. The broad acceptance of digital channels over the past decade changed accountholder interactions with credit unions and decreased the number of many routine transactions at branches. By 2020, Gartner expects customers to manage 85% of the enterprise relationship without human interaction.
An integrated self-service approach not only streamlines basic transactions by permitting accountholders to scoot past teller lines, or avoid them altogether via mobile, but frees up or spreads out representatives to help with value-added engagement such as account and loan originations, complex financial needs, or members seeking financial assistance.
Video is a key player for this multichannel strategy. Gene Pranger, CEO of Salt Lake City-based BankOn Mobile Video by Financial Town, personalized the interactive ATM experience at uGenius around 2005. Pranger said video banking at had two goals: to put it inside a teller line, as well as drive up lanes, and take all the tellers and consolidate them into a central call center. “It is a huge efficiency.” NCR purchased the uGenius technology in December 2012.
The $544 million, Nederland, Texas-based 5Point Credit Union sees video technology, along with microstores, under 1,500 square feet, as a big emphasis. The credit union intends to install NCR Interactive Teller Machines into a new membership market by next summer. “Convenience is important,” 5Point Executive Vice President Kenneth Miller, CU Times’ 2017 Trailblazer Award winner for IT Executive of the Year, emphasized.
NCR recently announced its new SelfServ 80 ATM solutions with video banking built-in as standard feature, and designed specifically for today’s mobile-first, omnichannel consumers. Users can swipe, pinch and zoom their way quickly through transactions.
Mobile capabilities now put self-service in everybody’s hands. “We are clearly seeing an upsurge in a variety of technologies, all related to self-service,” Ted Bilke, president of core provider Symitar, a division of the Monett, Mo.-based Jack Henry & Associates, said.
Read more about self-service and interactive video banking at credit unions in the March 1, 2017 print issue of CU Times.
