Rewarding Customer ATM Usage
Union National Bank, Little Rock, Arkansas

by Bill Abernathy, Ph.D.

Automated Teller Machines (ATM) were first applied in banks in the 1970’s. When Union National installed them they found that customers refused to use them. The ATM’s reduced bank expenses significantly so it was desirable to get customer usage up. They tried having people stand next to the ATM and show them how to use it with little effect. I was asked to design a program to increase customer usage of ATM’s. We basically turned the ATM’s into “slot machines.” When a customer used the ATM he could press a key that would cause the ATM to present a row of spinning numbers. When the customer hit the key again the numbers would stop. If it stopped on the prize number, the ATM would inform the customer they were a winner and immediately place prize money in the slot (the winning prize amounts were $5, $10 or $50).

ATM usage tripled in the first month. The ATM’s were programmed to only pay out a set total each day. Further, a record was kept of plays per account and the lottery was terminated after the third transaction in the same day. When the lottery was terminated around a year later, usage did not suffer since the convenience of the ATM was sufficient to sustain the customer behavior. When the bank opened new branches and added new ATM’s the lottery was put into effect for six months.

Dr. Abernathy is founder and CEO of Abernathy and Associates Learn more about Abernathy and Associates at http://www.abernathyassociates.com/