Quote from Maro Elias on April 19, 2020, 7:59 PM

I'm about 6ft 2in (1.88 m), what that means is I'm on the tall side when it comes to height. Some days back I visited an ATM stand in Delta state Nigeria to withdraw money. It was a fine day, except for all the roadblocks, and restrictions on the road due to the state wide lockdown, it was a normal day, Until I got to the ATM.

The first thing I noticed was that the people ahead of me on the queue were having a prevalent issue pop up on the machine screen, it said something about a failed facial recognition operation. It felt a bit strange, owing to the fact that I have seen all sorts of ATM queries; from Issuer or switch inoperative, to Card expired to temporarily unable to dispense cash, and to the often dreaded Insufficient funds, but never have I seen a query based on facial recognition. I waited till it was my turn, and lo and behold, the ATM kept rejecting my card because it couldn't recognize my face. The camera was positioned in the wrong place, and owing to my height, I had to keep bending and shifting before it finally recognized my face and paid me the first tranche of money, I started the drama again, came down for someone else to try, tried again a couple of times, came down again for someone else to try, and tried again before it finally paid me the second tranche. That ATM probably rejected my card at least fifteen times. I wasted a lot of time at that stand, it was a horrible experience.

Banks need customers to survive, Customers need Banks to survive. In most cases where a company serves in a red ocean kind of business (a business with many competitors), the business has to invest in a different strategy to succeed. That strategy needs to be its product experience.

The experience consumers glean from your products will determine how likely they are to both patronize you and stay with you. So there are many car dealers, but you're more likely to patronize the dealership where you feel treated well, and the experience in your opinion is top-notch, even though they all sell the same kind of cars.

Most banks in Nigeria understand the value of product experience, and they have utilized it in the design of their digital products. So most banking websites and mobile applications are designed to be as easy and as intuitive as possible. Whether they properly employ the Jobs To Be Done Theory (JTBD) is a topic for another day. The point is their digital experiences are well-designed. But there's a problem, their well-designed digital platforms can only retain customers, they can't add them. Let's put that into context. The only people that really interact with a banks mobile applications and websites are really their customers. You're unlikely to see a person just go to the Google Play store or Apple app store to download a random banks mobile application and try to use it for a transaction except he already has a bank account with them.

Most people who walk into banking halls are either already customers or prospective customers coming to make inquiries.

The only other asset that banks have that can help their customer acquisition strategy are their ATM stands.

When a customer (from another bank) uses your ATM stand, and it gives him/her a tough time, it is highly unlikely they will walk into your banking hall, smile at the relationship officers, and ask for an account opening form. They're more likely never to want to come back if they can.

The truth is although most bank users would prefer to use ATMs from their banks, due to proximity, most have to settle for ATMs from other banks and depending on where they sit on the economic ladder, be annoyed about the #65 deductions from using another ATM.

Most banks have ATM stands scattered all over the country, and even though a lot of those who use them may be the banks customers, chances are a good number of users are from other banks and use your ATM based primarily on proximity. This is one of the most viable customer acquisition strategies that most banks have largely ignored.

The major interaction most people will have with your bank is through your ATM. Every time a customer from another bank uses your ATM, and it gives him/her a tough time, that's one more customer who is unlikely to open a bank account with you.

I have seen the frustration people have faced at ATM stands to withdraw money that belongs to them. It's a horrible experience and one that will not abode too well for your bank.

How to increase Customer Acquisition through your ATM stands.

1. Invest in Availability

The difference between a designer and an Artist is constraints. An Artist has little or no constraints, a designer has. I understand that it is easier said than done, and there may be a lot of constraints, both technical and otherwise in making sure all ATMs at every or at least a large majority of your bank branches are working, but its a worthy cause to pursue, owing to the fact that more customers see your banks ATMs as being consistent and reliable, the more likely they are to keep coming and referring others to come, for example; John could be looking for an ATM to withdraw money, Mark would tell him to go to so,so-and-so Bank, why? Because they ALWAYS have money.

2. Create a Constraint

Its true that having to pay #65 after three transactions with another bank is inconvenient, but a worse constraint is having to withdraw money in small tranches just because it is not your banks ATM. So, for example, if you could ordinarily withdraw 40 pieces of #1000 notes from your banks ATM, another Bank would limit your withdrawal to 20 or even 10 Pieces, what this does is to encourage people, especially those who use your ATM based on proximity to open bank accounts with you, and ACTIVELY use them to avoid both the #65 bank charge, and the withdrawal limit.

3. Simplify your Process.

When people step into your banking hall to finally open an account, as much as possible, make it as easy and as seamless as legally possible. If a customer can walk into your banking hall and get an active account with very little hassle in less than two to three hours, that would be commendable. If the process for opening an account is too complex, people may get discouraged, and you may defeat the purpose of your customer acquisition strategy in the first place.

Conclusion

As a Bank, your ATM stand is a major customer acquisition strategy that you cannot afford to ignore. Banking is largely a red ocean business, with lots of competition, one of the few ways of standing out and gaining the upper hand is investing in your customer acquisition strategy, and one that involves elevating your customer experience.

The Corona virus pandemic may have put some parts of the economy in a standstill, but this is also a period of preparation to begin investing in initiatives that could give your company an upper hand and an advantage when this pandemic is over and the economy is back in full motion.

I believe strongly that any forward thinking bank will not take their customer acquisition strategy lightly and begin working on designing a customer acquisition strategy built around their ATMs that they could execute on when this pandemic is over, or begin execution on while the pandemic is ongoing.