Page 5 - Finex ITM Implementation Case Study

people in our organization to visit Coastal. They went, they saw it for themselves, and we
ultimately received approval to move forward.”

Member reaction to ITMs was going to be unpredictable as members had not been exposed to
the technology before, and Woodward saw a chance to soften the blow.

“We had an opportunity at the time as we’d just purchased a new branch in a town where we’d
never had any presence in the past. We decided this was the perfect location to open our first
teller-less branch, because the members had not been accustomed to anything else and would
receive this as a new benefit. Traditionalists will initially believe that a teller-less branch isn’t

handling their needs. Others will think it’s absolutely incredible, and have a, ‘Wow!’ moment.
It takes some time. There’s definitely a transition period.

“As time went on we improved the way we handled this. We took note of the reaction and
commentary of members who decided to go to the branch. A few complained, as they
expected something more traditional, others adapted with help from staff in the education of
the new machines. Without “hand holding” period, the transition would have failed. By the
time I was at Finex knew how to prepare for the reaction and we were able to soften things a

lot quicker. We knew what to expect, though each reaction was handled separately and with
the same enthusiasm.

“At Finex we worked with Mark Charette and his team to build the first ITM branch in Vernon.
We fed off prior experiences and incorporated new ideas. Aesthetically, we nailed it, but we
soon realized it’s difficult to create a staging or cueing line for this technology. ‘Where do
people go when they walk in, where do they wait when the ITM is occupied?’ are big
questions.” Stanchion ropes helped with cueing, but also provoked a lot of thought on how to

use curved walls in future designs.