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Banks are faced with various challenges, from cost pressures to customers’ rising expectations, and are struggling to adopt scalable strategies for delivering excellent service. They have a greater focus on self-service and automation, changing the shape and flow of traditional branches. For example, tellers have become consultants focused on selling value-added services rather than simple transactions, leaving branch staff to handle more cognitive customer enquiries.
Consumer expectations are shifting, with demands for more digital, personalised, and modern experiences; fewer people are turning to bank branches for their everyday financial needs. To engage with younger consumers, especially Generation Z, it is critical that banks provide an enhanced and seamless customer experience.
This highlights the importance of ATMs as a crucial financial service, allowing customers to access cash efficiently and easily on demand in a convenient way, bridging the divide between digital banking and physical branches. LINK, the UK’s cash access and ATM network, revealed an increase in the value of cash withdrawals at ATMs in 2022 as UK banking customers withdrew £83bn from cash machines compared to £79bn in 2021.
Market landscape
The ATM market offers new possibilities for financial institutions, with the right technological advancements; it is expected to continue growing through 2028. According to the Digital-First Banking Tracker, consumers are planning to conduct two-thirds of their banking digitally by 2024, with most expecting to use mobile apps or ATMs.
However, the analysis found that only 9% of surveyed bankers rate their companies’ digital user experiences as “excellent”. Keeping ATM networks supplied with the cash customers need has been no easy task for years and is our industry’s top priority. The challenges faced range from knotty problems about logistics to risk, from manpower to cost of cash.
Banks and ATM operators, who are pivotal to how access to cash is preserved, must therefore ensure their operating strategies prioritise efficient, nimble, secure, highly scalable, and continuously available service channels both physically and digitally. Otherwise, it will leave consumers feeling excluded from banking services, which will ultimately reduce the quality of customer service.
Why ATMaaS?
ATM-as-a-Service (ATMaaS) is designed to improve customer experience, security, and uptime to free up a financial institution’s resources and to minimise operating costs. It outsources the entire end-to-end management of the ATM fleet to a third-party provider from sourcing, distribution, and operation to installation, maintenance, security, compliance, and cash management.
Banking customers now expect an increased range of added value services such as interactions via mobile device and bill payment functionalities via debit card. Implementing these services in-house can be very expensive as it requires a massive development team. This makes ATM-as-a-Service options particularly appealing as ways to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty.
It also permits financial institutions to modernise their estate and accelerate migration of more transactions to the ATM; all with a renewed agility that will allow for quicker implementation of innovations in the future. This makes the roll out of future upgrades and new services quicker and more effective, which aside from the physical optics of the fleet is a core determiner of the banking customer experience.
Batopin
Auriga’s “as-a-Service” offering makes it easy for financial institutions to renew their central and local infrastructure. They can leverage new technologies and approaches in ATM and branch operations at a reduced cost and within a shorter timeframe.
Auriga is supporting Batopin (the Belgian ATM optimisation initiative supported by local banks Belfius, BNP Paribas Fortis, ING and KBC) with how ATMs are provided in the country. ATM pooling ensures 95% of Belgians have access to a modern ATM service within five kilometres of their home or business.
As the managed service provider, Auriga offers complete end-to-end management of the new ATM network including software development and management, maintenance, security and other managed services. This includes comprehensive monitoring of the ATMs, transaction processing, cash and asset management. Batopin’s new ATM infrastructure takes advantage of Auriga’s unique cloud-based concept for managing all channels consistently and with minimal effort, regardless of the manufacturer of the ATM or self-service device.
As result, Batopin is able to replace existing machines with the latest network neutral self-service machines, safeguard access to cash for each citizen, and fully leverage how Auriga WWS can enable the development of new revenue generating services alongside traditional cash withdrawal and deposit services.
ATMaaS is the answer for banks to respond to the challenge of ensuring access to ATMs while minimising the effort and cost of running them and maintaining a brand presence. The combination of a well-maintained fleet, the ability to launch new innovations and features quickly and securely, alongside the flexibility in meeting consumers at any touchpoint serve to elevate the end-to-end ATM customer experience.
