About a month ago, I visited my neighborhood branch office on a Saturday to open a few new accounts and was surprised to see the vast difference in customer traffic outside the branch compared to inside the office. More specifically, it was clear that the traffic outside the office was almost entirely for the ATM, since during my 30 minute visit only 3 people were served through the drive-up window while no less than 25 customers used the ATM. The manager even mentioned that she had offered the drive-up lane to the long line of ATM users, only to be told that, "we only need to make a withdrawal" (I guess many people don't remember the purpose of withdrawal slips).
While I realize the primary advantage of using an ATM is speed and convenience, are bank marketers missing an opportunity to expand communication through this channel? Having a captive audience, if only for a couple minutes, provides the opportunity to both target communications as well as collect insight.
