Self Banking Units (SBU)

Self Banking Units (SBU)

People’s Bank introduced Self Banking Units (SBU) along with Digital Banking in place of traditional scenario of hybrid operation for customers, operate their respective accounts with the Bank by present themselves to a Branch counters to open, deposits, fund transfers, or getting others services such as applying for internet banking, SMS banking, debit cards, cheque books etc... Where, they used to stand in front of ATM only for withdrawing cash. When this setup introduced in late 2016 several other competitive banks had already in the business of Cash Deposit Machines (CDM). However, it was experienced that they too never been able to attract our customers base unless for adhoc deposit at request where beneficiary party maintain their accounts with these competitive banks. Even though it is depositing cash or use of CDM for depositing cash on the surface, real technological part had happened in the background was Electronic Fund Transfers(EFT).

Therefore, in this paper it is intended to discuss adoption to EFT rather than adoption to SBU, CDM, or Digital Banking because potential and prime  requirement of the customer was remote depositing or transfer of bulk money to third party or their own accounts at a late time of the day.  However, in addition to banking competitors, other potential set competitors emerging in the market for Remote Deposition (RD), not only in Sri Lanka but also in entire globe, which could have been identified as potential threat to entire banking sector. They were none other than Telecom Operators (Telcos) who are known threat in European Union, Africa and Eastern Asia.

Here in Sri Lanka in the given time only two Telcos were operating and potentially gained some stake of the market, products namely were EzCash and mCash where they have been able to compete with us who boasted for biggest network of customer touch points.   Biggest advantage People’s Bank entertain at that time was these service points operated all over the island even during the time of war and the amount of customers counted on us for their fund transferring requirements not only by the means of ability to transfer them into any corner of the country but also reliability and swift transfers virtually happen within the same day. However, the biggest disadvantage it of the scenario was the operating time, generally bank had never gone beyond 8:00PM in the evening which had identified as the maximum. Since it was located in the city of Borella, which have been famous for huge traffic jams, customer convenience were very low for approaching the location. Again it provided the facility to limited number of customers in neighboring cities. With the presence of Telcos like EzyCash or mCash they too competed with extended hours of operation and scattered serving points they had were comparatively larger than entire banking sector. Where they transfer funds from one mobile to another without having a bank account their EFT was preferred mostly by lower class earners who only concerned about their requirement rather than the way of operation.

How People’s Bank attracted customers for EFT

1.      By the attraction of the Self Banking Units: Even though few other banks operated SBUs prior to us, they did not focus on attraction where many people fallen love with first impression. These colourful units were well attracted by almost all sectors of the customers even though it had great criticism for cheaper look which said to be not suitable for a bank mostly by our own staff and unions. But User Experience (UX) shown it was otherwise. The

size, number of machines at a point (2 ATMs, 1-2 CDMs, 1 Kiosk).  In parallel, bank had been changed the corporate colours and its logo. This was a radical change where most of our internal parties started criticizing. However, management did not allow any public criticism to staff.  After gone through Research Papers on Technology Acceptance Model(TAM), it seems easiest way attracting customers  these developments would be introduction of  better user interface, vibrant euphoria at SBUs with our experience had played a major role. .

2.      Effective Marketing efforts in Parallel:  If bank let word of the mouth or attracting customers who travelled or walked by these few units, it would not work where our competitors at that point had more SBUs than ours will easily beat us. When these SBUs were in the media, customers had been started to ask about when they could use these facility. In videos usually use of the new technologies show very much easier than real. Therefore, user’s enthusiasm towards this has enhanced even before they really used them. Actually it did some physiological part changing the mindset of the customers. 

3.      Deliberately Changing the Way of Operating: With introduction of SBUs all customers waited at the counters for deposits were diverted to these SBUs where well trained staff was at their help. Initially bank never let any customers operating CDMs where with different level of cognitive ability it would result big queues at SBUs where same would play a negative effect attracting potential customers. At counters deposit slips were not available unless customers with special needs insisted them, they were hidden behind. Since customers getting their service done faster at their second or third visit they themselves involved in the operation at will after experiencing the easiness of operation. After 2-3 weeks customers for deposits never preferred counter operations ahead of CDMs. Pilot CDM bank introduced needed the support of staff few months. With introduction more units all over now UX have been increased and they no more need help for CDMs. Towards  the rapid UX our competitors who operated CDMs also attributed where hardware used are same and provided by same vendors while only User Interface was the different. After introduction 100 units, it was ensured no more helped needed for 90% of the customers while some foreign (other bank customers) only insisted for support. However, still one agent there for support of the customer.

4.      Bundle of Facilities Kiosk at SBUs loaded:  Paying utility bills, Internet Banking Facility, Phone reloads are few widely used facilities out of many to name. Specialty here is customers with a card can directly transfer funds or pay for services they wish using this touch enable unit.  Kiosk even reduced the queue at the ATMs as it could use for balance inquiries. Bank had been able to reduce losing customers for Telcos by providing reloads to their mobiles where even if they used their facility to transfer funds, make sure customer would still maintain their account with us as they could transfer their money to mobile.

5.      Involvement of Specialized experts in different Areas: From beginning to end of introducing these SBUs, staff involvement are only at supervision and testing levels. Bank had identified experts in areas like interior/exterior designs, vendor for ATM, CDM, Kiosk unit’s hardware, software & interfaces, new background operation system like switching, etc make sure lesser number of failures. In short number of parties involved into these project were divided into many areas and let them handle their part effectively. Costs involved into these developments were not considered much.

6.      Effective Project Plan :  While one unit fully operated, few another locations were under construction, when they are near finish staff of the are trained at operating SBUs. When interior/exterior part is over, next teams (communications & commissioning of hardware) are in business. When these things happening at two three locations teams ended their parts are moving to next selected locations. Once the model is identified operations went very smooth way.  Frequent review meetings were held to make every location looks operated at the same level.

7.      Introduce Digital Banking along with SBUs : After SBUs have been able to gain trendsetters place at the market even though some pioneers were in the business, bank had introduced Digital Banking units coupled with SBUs. It would identify as an extensions to these units.

8.      Post implementation Reviews: After installation of every unit, all the parties involved either from technological involvement or operational involvement, got together and discussed what went wrong or right. Outcomes of these meetings were automatically become inputs to next implementation. Therefore, after each step, it was ensured that experience of previous attempt was streamlined. Any ill efforts were addressed correctly.

 Conclusion

In this effort it would quite evident that ‘intention’ of the user had been changed in many possible ways. Either it was from TV commercial or support of well trained staff, user’s impression to use of technology had been changed. It has been discussed that it would play a major role Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975 in their paper about TRA. However, bank had effectively addressed it, even without knowing about it. It was an unintentional adoption of TAM. Davis (1989) discussed “The main purpose of TAM is to present an approach to study the effects of external variables towards people’s internal beliefs, attitudes, and intentions. TAM proposes the perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) as the most important factors for explicating technology acceptance”. All points are discussed above had worked towards changing the attitude of the customer by changing their mindset in different approaches.

In this effort there were many External Variables either from negative perspective or positive perspective. However, they all contributed towards the success of the project. They are user experience and awareness of other banks,  Telcos involvement of the subject, where because of their radical approaches towards EFT, banks had to innovate new ways of approaching it. Therefore, it also contributed towards the success of the project. Other emerging technologies such as use of touch phone and applications like facebook also intangibly contributed towards TAM. For the success of those technologies countries pioneering approach of introduction 3G/4G also contributed. There were huge amount of criticism from staff and unions as well. It was experienced that with the success of user’s feedback of these technologies their grief had fade away merely. In fact now everyone has great enthusiasm about the project. Therefore, this project could be considered one of the best for use cases for TAM.