Our article about why Financial Institutions should look to implement universal tellers, has been very well received. But we still get asked the question about whether or not universal tellers are a right fit for their environment.

The presence of self-service and assisted self-service devices (think touchscreen kiosks) throughout the modern consumer marketplace is growing at a rapid pace. We’ve all seen or used these devices when we travel or purchase goods at the grocery store, home improvement store, even when we park our vehicles. Reflecting on the self-service world even further, we can think of two long standing self-service devices that have been a part of our everyday lives for decades: the vending machine (soft drinks or snacks) and the Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Both have established levels of familiarity and comfort, focusing on the convenient and rapid delivery of specific items (or “transactions” in more formal economics parlance).

We work with a variety of financial institutions to identify ways to gain efficiency through automation in the retail branch setting. After over 30 plus years of consultation, we’ve often heard from our customers and industry peers alike that the currency management aspects of retail branch banking are about ‘everyone (i.e. Banks and Credit Unions) managing the same foundational currency processes differently’.

In today’s banking environment, the non-interest expense is a major concern for most CFOs we work with. Costs, Regulatory Compliance, Security, ROA, ROI, Stress Testing, Portfolio Stability, Efficiency Gains…. the list is constant and the pressure unrelenting. The CFO’s in today’s world not only have to manage the institutions investable assets, but also ensure that new investments and technology are driving costs down for operations as well. In this article, we focus on one of the key expense lines: Tellers.

With the increasing presence of the Omnichannel environment (a.k.a. technology) across the financial institution landscape, the role of the teller in the retail bank branch is frequently being examined closely. The goal is to shape on-going roles and responsibilities when introducing various automation channels to the retail branch environment.

We are observing increases in consumer and commercial loan activity and new branch growth and ‘coming out of the downturn’. So how do you plan to capitalize on the changing customer desire? What percentage of product and relationship growth still happens at the branch versus other channels? The answer is still that most relationships start at the branch before migrating to other channels and they typically grow at the branch as well.