Inside Wells Fargo’s Customization of the ATM Experience

What’s the real story behind Wells Fargo & Co.‘s roll out this week of its automated teller machine interface?

The updates aim to tailor the ATM experience to the individual user, based on that user’s transaction history. Alicia Moore, Wells Fargo’s head of ATM banking, told Bank Innovation, “Customers gave us feedback, and we continue to evaluate, are we doing the best we can? What are consumer electronics doing? We’re looking at smartphones.”

Moore said that one effect of smartphones is that, “Customers do expect more out of technology.”

Customers using these updated ATMs will see screens that highlight their two — or more, up to six — most common transactions. For most customers these buttons will be for viewing account balances and getting cash. “While most customers will see 2- or 3-button transaction set,” Moore said, “some customers use ATMs more intensively.” These are the customers who will see the six-button set.

“Many customers like to look at their balances before they make a deposit,” Moore said. For these customers, their balance will displayed in the upper-left corner beside their common-transaction buttons.

Wells Fargo has made steps toward ATM personalization for years now, as have other banks such as US Bank. The mobile-inspired interface aims to speed up ATM transactions and uses an interface customers are comfortable with. Customers want their ATM transactions to happen quickly, and Moore and her team have listened.

Another aspect of this ATM update is making Wells Fargo’s ATM Cash Tracker, which was previously an on-demand item, available to all customers. Cash Tracker is a personal financial management (PFM) tool for the ATM customer. This is another example of mobile and online banking influencing technologies in the brick and mortar world. The ATM screen above, for example, looks something the Start screen in Windows 8, itself a mobile-influenced interface.

Wells Fargo moves cautiously. Their ATM development team is based in-house, and the company as a whole favors the iterative approach to product roll-outs. Wells Fargo has made small moves into social media with its ATMs, helped cut down on waste by introducing e-receipts. Innovation happens in small steps.

The updated interface is now live in about 570 of Wells Fargo’s more than 12,000 ATMs.

Learn more about this and other new industry developments at Bank Innovation 2013.