Pic Credit: Totally Money

The issue of man vs. machine has been debated about across all industries for some time, since touch screen technology was created.

Since kiosks, ATMs, digital signage and touch screen PCs were deployed into banks, retail stores, and hospitals etc. many have argued that the installation has caused demise in staff employment.

But why does one have to choose a man or machine, cannot society have both?

That is one bank in Australia is trying to overcome by offering customers a mix of traditional human services with a teller as well as ATM services.

Bank customers who still want to use a teller but are tired of queuing up will have a faster option by using a video automatic teller machine. The video ATMs are to offer a ‘human touch’ in that they are still machines but that have an automatic link to a teller via a video screen. A teller will be available 24 hours a day to approve loan applications and accept cheque deposits in an aim to help customers and business people who find it difficult to get to a bank branch during the day.

The banking service already uses ATMs to enable a customer to make cash withdrawals but this new technology means that the customer can have both a technological service as well as a human, in one.

The technology takes into account security and the live teller can reportedly spot if a customer had someone behind them attempting to look at the PIN details. Further aspects are that there is no cash lying around on counters.

The video service allows a customer to hold up a form of ID to the scanner and once the live teller has verified the customer’s details, the loan application or cheque deposit is started. A printer feature enables all documents to be printed out, signed and then scanned back into the machine to be approved.

And if an ATM card has been lost, as long as the person has another form of ID, the teller can view it and approve for cash withdrawals.

Touch screen technology reaps tons of benefits to a business as well as the customer but people will always want some form of human interaction.

So why do we have to choose one or the other? Surely we should take advantage of the brilliant technology of a touch screen kiosk of what we have created and use it in conjunction with each other to make an enjoyable and efficient service for all!