Personalization Is Focus of Wells Fargo's New ATM Design

The new automated teller machine design Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) announced Monday is meant to provide a more customized experience for customers, an executive at the bank says.

"I think what you'll see slightly different is that we have really customized the entire experience," says Alicia Moore, Wells' head of ATM banking. "We set favorites for customers, but in the new design we have really taken what customers have told us." For instance, customers have asked for larger ATM buttons and faster performance.

Wells Fargo, which creates all its own ATM software, formulated the new ATM features over the past two years in concert with its customers, Moore adds. "It's not just about putting colors together and putting a design together," she says. "It's about creating, and continuing to create, an experience."

As abstract as that sounds, the San Francisco bank's new ATM design shows an intense attention to detail. For instance, a YouTube video shows that every screen is personalized to the customer.

There are options for emailed ATM receipts. There are also highlighted green transaction buttons that sit at the top of a person's ATM screen, indicating what folks are most likely to use the device for.  

One additional new tool that Wells bank customers can soon expect is an ATM Cash Tracker. The utility gives users a view of their ATM activity, including how much they withdrew in the last month and the average amount they've taken out of the machines over the past year. (This feature was originally rolled out in 2010 as a service customers had to sign up for; now it's incorporated in the basic ATM interface.)

Although Wells Fargo is providing customers with more data about their own transactions, Moore adds that the bank is not using this customer data to cross-sell financial services products, nor in its own business intelligence efforts.

The new system is now being tested on roughly 500 of the Wells Fargo's 13,000 machines. A wider rollout is planned for May.