Blog

Coloring outside the lines of ATMs

We expect every ATM to offer a traditional level of service. But perhaps, we can color outside the lines and produce a unique picture of ATMs.

May 18, 2016 by Richard Buckle — Founder and CEO, Pyalla Technologies, LLC

Walking through a mall this week, I caught sight of an ATM and immediately identified the financial institution by its color scheme — a predominantly blue color scheme that I recognized  as being owned by Chase.

Another, with lots of red splashed around it, I associated it with Bank of America.

Similarly, there is a row of ATMs at Heathrow Airport and I can tell whose they are by how they're painted. It was the color scheme of each FI, visible from a distance where the colors helped identity them, and it just seems as though all FIs want to continue coloring between the lines!

Turning into an upscale retail store in the same mall, I was surprised to see adult coloring books. Their pages were filled with incredibly fine detail requiring considerable skill to keep the colors between the lines. If you did, you were assured of a pretty result; stray over the lines and the image might be lost behind a flurry of abstract blotches and squiggles.

However, if you must color something, you don't need real pencils and real coloring books. As with almost everything else today, there's an app for that.

As an article in The Guardian, "Adult coloring books? Inevitably, there's an app for that," explained, "The theory behind coloring books for adults is that they relieve the stress and anger of our daily lives. … [But] this being 2015, inevitably there are now apps for that."

Staying between the lines requires only a firm hold of your smartphone. Now that we have these devices affixed to our hands, why not try our hand at coloring pictures?

In an article in USA Today, "These apps can help you survive moving mayhem," the writer described the apps that played a role in her move to San Francisco. She was able to pull up an app to help her pack and unpack, to ship a mattress and some furniture to her new residence and finally, to introduce her to new friends, "matching up people who would get along."

Moving to a place known to be expensive calls for creating a new budget and there was an app for that too — LearnVest. The writer described "color-coded folders for categorizing spending and graphs that tell you what percentage of your income you're using on essentials like housing and transportation vs. lifestyle expenses like eating out." 

At no time did she mention a need for cash, though FIs will likely tell us there's an app for that, too.

This is where the more creative aspects of life begin to surface. How often do we hear the expression "color between the lines"? And yet, for most of us — particularly those with careers in IT — our very choice of careers reflects our inability to stay within the lines. It's simply the way we elected to express ourselves.

When it comes to ATMs, cards and cash, and those rows of colored ATMs lining the walls of airports, malls and arenas, we expect a very traditional level of service. But does every ATM need to be the same?

Are we better served by a "family of ATMs," each with capabilities attuned to where we are and what we would like to do?

With so much discussion these days about branch transformation, will we see ATMs not only colored by brand, but also by the functionalities they support? "If you just want cash, step up to the green ATM!" With new initiatives constantly rolling out — cardless ATMs, no PIN required, etc. — might the color palate for ATMs stretch to include every known hue?

An article in the Daily Mail, "Say goodbye to your ATM card: Chase to introduce new machines that only need an app to withdraw cash," is perhaps the case of one FI beginning to color outside the lines.

According to the article these "new ATMs don't require ATM cards, will triple the withdrawal limit to $3,000, and dispense $1, $5, $20 and $100 bills. The machines have already been tested in states like Washington, but a wider rollout in the thousands is planned for later this year. The upgrade to eATMs will allow customers to ditch the magnetic strip and instead log into an account using an app."

For many, coloring outside the lines is just another way to describe innovation — it takes initiative to leave the safety of the lines and project something far removed from the usual picture.

According to the Daily Mail, "the linking of ATMs to mobile phones has become a natural next step for transferring money and split[ting] bills when cash isn't available. 'Ultimately, banks have to continue to innovate or somebody else is going to eat their lunch,' Greg McBride, an analyst at Bankrate.com, told The New York Post."

Perhaps, in the case of Chase, it wasn't so much about innovation as it was about something more basic and far easier for any FI to understand.

"The push toward mobile and automatic banking also saves the bank money," the article continued. "It costs the bank 65 cents to make a deposit with a teller and eight cents at an ATM. It only costs 3 cents through a mobile app."

Green ATMs provide cash, red ATMs extend credit, yellow ATMs interact with mobile phones, and so on — stress free and soothing while encouraging us to interact.

One day when you walk through your neighborhood mall, you might not be looking for the color of ATMs you associate with your FI as much you will be searching for the color of the device you associate with the transaction you wish to make.

And rest assured, there will be at least one app available to point the way!

illustration istock

About Richard Buckle

---

Richard Buckle is the founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies, LLC. He has enjoyed a long association with the Information Technology (IT) industry as a user, vendor, and more recently, as an industry commentator, thought leader, columnist and blogger. Richard participates in the HPE VIP Community where he is part of their influencer team.

Connect with Richard: