We’ve touched on the subject before, but this month’s issue of Digital Transactions (available in pdf form) has an article by Mary Knich, a vice president at First Data Corp., about ways ATMs are becoming more than a simple cash-dispensing device.
She mentions in passing that many bank ATMs are becoming unprofitable, thanks to expense (bank ATMs can cost as much as $50,000, compared to around $2,000 for retailer ATMs) and a lack of surcharge fees. (Never mind that the main reason banks installed ATMs in the first place was to save money on teller salaries rather than make money on transactions).
Those factors don’t affect nonbank ATMs, which are cheaper, use surcharges, and offer other bottom-line benefits like increased customer traffic. But some of her suggestions could be adapted by private ATM owners to maximize the value their ATM brings to their business. The two main ones:
Make the transaction experience a pleasant one.
Modern machines and fast Internet connections can work together to make ATMs part of a customer-relationship program. Faster transactions are part of it; consumers are more impatient than ever before. But those same fast connections, coupled with the modern Windows-based operating systems used by newer ATMs, mean it’s easier to add off-the-shelf functionality to ATMs or serve up customized graphics and video to either advertise or entertain.
Advertise to a captive audience.
While you want the transaction to go fast, why not grab your customer’s eyeballs for the few seconds they do wait? Customized ad screens or even short videos give users something besides the walls to look at. For merchants it’s an opportunity to cross-sell products, offer personalized promotions or simply entertain their clientele. Then send them on their way with your own on-receipt advertising — a coupon, say, or an upcoming special — so they have an incentive to come back.
When you think of it, dispensing cash is only one small part of an ATM’s attributes. Consider: it’s essentially a PC with a color screen, hooked up to the Internet, sitting in a metal case that’s 2 feet square and four or five feet high. Think about what an Internet-capable PC can do. Think about how much advertising and graphics you could pack into 20 or 30 square feet of surface area. Now think what you can do by combining all those features into one package. It’s a cash machine! It’s a billboard! It’s a video player!
With the right machine, the possibilities are staggering.
