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Everything I needed to know about web self service I learned from my ATM.(Column)

Customer Interface January 1, 2002 | Jones, Shilo Do you remember the last time you walked into your bank to make a withdrawal or deposit? I can’t even remember the last time I talked to a bank teller. That’s not to say I’ll never need the assistance of a teller someday, but I’ve become so comfortable with the automatic teller machine (ATM) that I can scarce tell you what the lobby of my bank looks like. In fact, when you think about it, the ATM has to be one of the greatest self-service applications ever invented.

We all know that the Internet has the potential to be the next revolutionary self-service tool. Companies are spending millions of dollars to position the Internet as a primary service channel. But before you jump on the do-it-yourself bandwagon, let’s explore the success of the ATM so that we might mimic and transfer its strengths to the Web channel.

[subhead]Attributes of a Great Self-Service Application What makes the ATM such a great self-service application? It strikes a perfect balance between two sometimes conflicting needs – those of the consumer and those of the producer. For consumers to adopt and embrace self-service applications there are four core attributes that must be present.

Convenience: With more than 800,000 ATMs in the world, access to service is very convenient. If use of an ATM required a 20-mile drive to an obscure location, most would probably never use an ATM. The odds of using an ATM would also decrease if you had to wait in line for 15 minutes each time you needed $20. To be successful, self-service applications must be accessible, fast and available 24×7.

User Experience: Did your financial institution train you on how to use its ATM? Probably not. You walked up, slapped down your debit card, entered your PIN and took the $20 bill from the slot. It is just plain easy, and that’s exactly what self-service applications need to be – they’ve got to be intuitive, easy-to-use and require little to no training.

Confidence: If the ATM spits out a $5 bill when you’ve requested a $20 bill, and this happens more than twice in one month, your confidence in the ATM will quickly wane. More than likely, you’ll think about going back to the bank teller for assistance. Occasionally ATMs run out of money or are broken, but this seems to happen maybe once in every hundred or more attempts, which most gladly accept for the value they feel they receive. Every successful interaction with a self-service application breeds trust. Self-service interactions that match our expectations deposit credits in our trust accounts. Traditionally, it doesn’t take much deficit spending until we stop using them altogether. Self-service applications must be reliable.

Value Received: This last attribute is less obvious which explains why many people put up with frustrating self-service applications longer than they should. Take for example online banking and bill payment services. The benefits this offers in terms of time savings and convenience are tremendous. A user can avoid licking stamps and envelopes every month, which to some is well worth the nominal monthly fee. However, online banking and bill payment services are much less intuitive and are down for maintenance much more often than the sturdy ATM. It is the value received from the interaction that keeps users coming back for more. As the perceived value from the interaction increases, users are willing to endure more inconvenience, unintuitive interfaces and even error-prone applications. this web site adp self service

Thanks to the example of the ATM, we now know what is needed to make self-service attractive to users. Here is what is needed to make it attractive to the organization extending the self-help tools:

Ability to Automate: Interactions that are highly repetitive and require limited interpretation are excellent candidates for self-service. Financial institutions realized that the overwhelming majority of transactions tellers helped facilitate were simple withdrawals and deposits requiring very little human assistance. Thus, a few brave souls embarked on the journey to create a self-service application designed to perform two very basic banking transactions, introducing us to the ATM and revolutionizing the way we get our cold, hard cash.

Return on Investment (ROI): Before those brave souls moved away from the drawing board, they made sure the introduction of the ATM would actually save the financial institution money. As one might expect, every time we take money out of the ATM it costs the financial institution less because we are not taking up the teller’s time. Employees are expensive; they must be paid, given benefits, trained, then they don’t show up for work, get sick, go on vacation and have bad days. Overall machines are much cheaper per transaction. When a transaction is performed over and over the financial institution saves a lot of money because they can do more with fewer tellers. Bingo! That’s the equation for a positive return on investment.

Ability to Commit Funds/Resources: On paper, the ATM had a great ROI story, but here is the kicker – someone actually had to come up with the money to pay for it, and even more importantly, find the people who could execute the grand plan. If you’re like me, you probably think the decision to create the ATM was a no-brainer. But more than 25 years ago, when the ATM was first introduced, the technology was extraordinarily expensive. In the beginning, when people didn’t line up to put their checks into a machine slot rather than a teller’s hands, there were some pretty nervous bank executives. Commitment is critical.

[subhead]The Ultimate Self-Service Application — The Internet We’ve learned how the ATM successfully provides value to users and financial institutions. Now, let’s move to the Internet. In keeping with the banking analogy, let’s look at how a credit union is leveraging the Internet as a self-service channel.

My credit union, we’ll call it First Union, clearly has a commitment to self-service. With everything from online calculators for buying a new or used car to a sophisticated decision-tree that lets me find the perfect mortgage, they seem to have self-service nailed. But upon closer inspection, there are a few areas where they fall short. see here adp self service

Fortunately, First Union makes it easy to find the phone number on its Web site, and I didn’t have to wait on-hold too long. I ask the agent my question, and she has the answer, Turns out, it is a very simple process. I fill out a form with the routing information of the account I want to transfer the money to and fax it back with my signature to complete the transaction. Because the call center representative is able to answer my question so quickly, I assume she gets this same question often, or she has access to a knowledge base that I don’t.

Based on the four core elements of successful self-service discussed above, here’s how my credit union rated:

Convenience: Of course getting to the Web site is convenient as most are, but unfortunately that is where this story ends. I was not able to find my answer using the self-help tools that were provided.

User Experience: The site is pleasant to look at, but finding the resources to answer my question was akin to an Easter egg hunt.

Confidence: I was not able to successfully complete my task, but I was able to escalate the interaction to the contact center for assistance. I will probably still try to use the Web site in the future, but it won’t take many more unsuccessful attempts before I abandon the channel altogether.

Value Received: Unfortunately, I did not receive value from the site for this particular interaction. Hopefully, the credit union will continue to work with its agents and customers to determine how they can add more self-service applications such as a knowledge base of questions and answers designed to provide their members with a more efficient way get answers to questions.

While they’re on the right track, there’s certainly more that could be done to enhance the available Web self-help features. Certainly, I am not advocating that every interaction becomes a consumer-to-computer interaction. It is simply not possible or necessary. However, I do look forward to more experiences that achieve the level of success that the ATM has enjoyed.

Shilo Jones is the founder of Fuze Technologies, an Internet-based self-service application development firm based in Seattle, WA.

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Jones, Shilo