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Omnichannel doesn't mean identical

When it comes to the ATM market or any tech area, 'Creating an identical customer experience across all channels is impossible. And here's another thing: It's not necessary, either.'

November 2, 2015 by Richard Buckle — Founder and CEO, Pyalla Technologies, LLC

An article posted to ATM Marketplace on Oct. 7, "Breaking down silos: The new cross-channel ATM management," had a storyline I could not let pass without comment. FIs have for some time now unabashedly promoted the integration of channels, and for many the concept has moved into the mainstream vernacular.

When it comes to payments solutions, the one sure thing is that the channels available to consumers are only going to get more diverse with the passage of time — who knows what device will we use next to check the balances of our accounts? Wearables? Certainly! Auto infotainment centers? Most definitely! The Netflix menu? Why not?

However, the main point is one that resonates strongly with all of my clients:

"A surprising number of respondents strongly agreed that 'omni' means 'identical.' But here's the thing: Creating an identical customer experience across all channels is impossible. And here's another thing: It's not necessary, either."

Do we as users even want them to be the same — branch banking the same as mobile banking the same as ATM cash withdrawal? I don't think so. We know that "omni" is a Latin prefix for "all" or "every," but there's nothing to suggest that they must be alike.

And for a good reason that has to do with our ability to remember things. We walk up to an ATM knowing the sequence to follow to check our account. A lot of this takes advantage of buttons alongside screen menus ablaze with prompts and secondary information.

On the other hand, when using a mobile device, we want a minimum of dialogue and anything of a secondary nature only creates confusion — even as sitting at home facing our desktop screen, we want visibility into everything that's happened with our account. ATM, mobile and online banking experiences take into account our following of routines and for that, I am thankful. I can only imagine the "exception prompts" generated with the widening of the real estate needed to support the presentation of services.

The "Breaking down siloes" article also made the observation that, "We know from various studies that when consumers adopt a new banking channel, they don't necessarily abandon the others they've been using. And there's a reason for that: They get a unique and — to them, at least — necessary benefit from each channel they use."

The article quotes Bob Meara, senior analyst in the Celent banking practice, who said, "[T]he objective with omnichannel should be to create a consistent but not necessarily identical experience across channels, optimizing the unique strengths of each in a way that lifts revenue, mitigates risk and reduces cost."

With this in mind, I turned to one of my clients, OmniPayments Inc., whose CEO, Yash Kapadia, told me that in part, "We chose the product and indeed the business name, OmniPayments, to convey just this message — consistency across every channel. While we couldn't name our core product OmniChannel we did come up with what we think is every bit as good with OmniHub. This has proved successful for us in several marketplaces and is the foundation for a number of other products, including OmniMessaging and most recently, OmniCloudX — the X signifying our support of the new NonStop X systems within our cloud offering."

His enthusiasm for omnichannel didn't stop there. "The world is talking omnichannel where each device a customer interfaces with is having a unique UI," Yash said. "That's not where the commonality or consistency lies necessarily. It's about the backend where the payments processing is performed — you just don't want to have different backend processing for each device. With common backend routines available to each and every imaginable channel, the effort needed to support something new is usually just the creative side of figuring out how best to exploit the device. Talking to something like Apple's Siri via your auto's infotainment center or even to your television shouldn't be a problem when you have such consistency in your backend processing."

In the ATM Marketplace article, Meara was asked whether ATM management solutions need to change to accommodate the self-service experience. His response was illuminating:

"In today's environment, consumers are conditioned to have access to near-instant help — anytime, anywhere. Video is emerging as a customer engagement mechanism, too, and it's going to be an omnichannel capability, not just at personal teller machines. When problems occur, staff will need to be in a position to help. Monitoring solutions, therefore will have multiple users in the bank going forward — help desks, remote tellers, branch staff."

Yash confirmed that this, indeed, is a further demonstration of the inherent flexibility of a well-architected omnichannel backend processer to further benefit all customers.

"There really isn't any limit to the number of channels we may end up supporting," he said. "In time, it will only be our limited imagination that curtails further development and I don't see our imagination exhibiting any such restraint at this time."

For me, commentary from different, very knowledgeable, sources within our ATM community who are so much in agreement can raise a red flag. Too much happiness can cover a multitude of sins, so I have observed on many occasions.

However, given the widespread takeup of omnichannel and its having slipped into our language as it has, I don't hold quite the same degree of reservation that I might.

Get the backend processing correct, and it doesn't matter all that much where the channels head or what device is on the other end. It might have all started with ATMs complementing branch banking, but now, with video in play, changing our financial channels may prove to be no less difficult than changing our television channels! 

photo istock

About Richard Buckle

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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.

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