Spanish lender BBVA has
rolled out a new generation of ATMs to appeal to customers not
using the self- service channel to its full potential. Ignacio
Villoch, BBVA’s manager for communication and branding, strategy
and innovation, discusses the bank’s marketing and multi-channel
strategy with Duygu Tavan.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Spain’s
second-largest lender, BBVA, has launched a next generation ATMs
with the aim of maximising the use of its self-service
channel.
At the heart of BBVA’s
strategy is a belief that it can gain a competitive advantage from
making banking simpler.
Speaking to RBI at
the end of November, Ignacio Villoch, BBVA’s manager for
communication and branding, strategy and innovation, said that the
bank was concerned that many customers only used ATMs for cash
withdrawal.
“So we decided to become
really customer-centric and make the ATM experience simple, human
and interactive,” he said.
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By GlobalData“Our new ATM is called Abil
and is a totally new concept of ATM. It looks like an iPad (but was
invented two years before Apple launched its tablet device) and has
a very big touch screen and pad.
“Every transaction is guided,
so it is very simple for anybody who has never used it or is not at
ease with it, such as older customers.
“In the last 40 years,
technology has changed a lot. But ATM design and technology has not
changed. ATMs still look more or less the same. So we thought
something had to be done.
Villoch said that the bank
wants to help customers “regain their trust” in self-service
terminals, which is why they placed the Abil sideways, “so that the
customer has a view of what is around them.
“Abil is a very important
product for us in 2011. It can be very iconic; it is very symbolic
and very tangible.
“With this new self-service
terminal, the customer can see every step of the transaction. We
make the process transparent. If you are transferring money, you
will see your account and the other person’s account and see how
the money ‘travels’.”
The bank has already placed
10 ATMs across Madrid as part of a pilot and will install another
200 within the next year.
But Villoch said that the
software is more important than the actual design and added that
not all traditional ATMs will be replaced with the new
design.
BBVA partnered with
US-headquartered design consultancy IDEO and manufacturing partners
NCR and Fujitsu to create the ATM. The developer’s designers
interviewed and observed ATM users at BBVA and other bank branches
in Spain, Mexico and the US, and also examined self-service
experiences, such as those at gas pumps, supermarket checkouts, and
train-ticket kiosks.
BBVA will also roll out Abil
outside its home market in Spain, with the US slated for a launch
next year.
The bank is also planning to introduce a drive-through
self-service branch and is examining possible locations for such
outlets.
Social media
Villoch said that BBVA is
keen to explore how it can improve customer communications by using
social media.
“Twitter is a great way to be
very close to our customers, to the segment of more innovative and
tech-savvy ones. It is quick, it is immediate and it is
simple.”
The bank’s online banking
subsidiary une-o in Spain and its US-based subsidiary BBVA Compass,
have their own Twitter pages on which customers can contact BBVA to
receive help and advice with banking.
“The idea is to listen and be
in touch with clients,” Villoch said.
He added that the bank’s
priorities for 2011 will be to “continue consolidating BBVA’s
international growth plans, especially in China and the US, but
also in Turkey via its newly acquired stake in Garanti.
“We will keep on doing
profitable business and keep on going in the direction of becoming
the best bank in the world.”
Villoch said that BBVA does
not necessarily want to the biggest bank, but that BBVA defines
‘best bank’ as “the bank that makes banking the simplest experience
and the one that is recommended by people to their
peers”.
“Last week, we signed an
agreement [with CNCB] to develop private pension plans. Until now,
we were very much focused on auto finance.”
The collaboration will
initially last 12 months, during which the two banks will consult
on the structure of pension schemes, product design and customer
service.
The two banks aim to
decentralise China’s rapidly growing pension system, “so for BBVA,
there is huge business potential for private pension plans in the
country,” Villoch said
He added that sports
sponsorship will continue to play a key role in BBVA’s customer
centric strategy from 2011 onwards.
“We sponsor team sports that
reflect our values, sports that can be played by everybody,” he
said.
“BBVA has sponsored the
Spanish football league for four years and has now taken this
marketing strategy abroad, to the US with sponsorship of the NBA
basketball.”
Villoch said that all other
parts of the business are re-focusing on a customer-centric
relationship, including a revamped website and online
service.
“Nowadays, people differ between the online and offline
world. But people do not behave differently online and in the real
world. There is no online/offline world in banking. The services we
offer will depend on the customer and how they want to bank with
us, whether it is on the phone, mobile, internet or
in-branch.”
