Matt Phillips, VP Sales and Systems, Diebold Nixdorf UK/I

Access to cash is a staple requirement for the on-demand generation of consumers. Cash is still relied upon as a payment option and as such the general public want to be safe in the knowledge that they are never too far away from access to our favoured notes.

The biggest challenge for banks is making sure their supply of cash meets the demand from customers. The ability to recycle cash – using notes that have been deposited at an ATM or at the counter, and then recycling this cash for consumers to withdraw – has significant benefits for financial institutions, saving time and reducing operating costs.

Instead of spending time counting and then re-counting cash, staff are freed up to focus on customer service, helping to satisfy one of the biggest challenges in the financial services industry – enhancing the customer experience.

Here are a few top tips on how to recycle cash effectively:

• Focus your operational objectives

Cash recycling can help support the delivery of strategic branch transformation plans and redesigned branch networks. With customer service a key differentiator in an increasingly competitive market, cash transactions should be simple, safe and reliable. Whether this is at a pop-up branch where fast and convenient transactions are fundamental to effective service delivery or in a busy-high street branch where footfall is high – cash availability is essential to delivering the level of banking services customers expect. An empty ATM is not an option. 

• Choose the right locations

Make sure you assess the usage of your self-service systems in specific locations and analyse data to look at peak times for withdrawing cash.

For high street branch locations, the need for cash recycling is naturally likely to be greater, with availability of cash an important part of the in-branch journey. Assessments can be made to look at which branches turnover the highest volumes of cash, as well as then drilling down into which systems within the branch would benefit most from cash recycling solutions. By ensuring that cash is readily available when the customer wants it, a greater number of transactions can potentially be supported, delivering additional value in each location.

• Security

Cash recycling reduces the requirement for manual intervention and the need to continually count and re-count cash within the branch. With the notes safely stored and moved around within secure cassettes, security of the cash cycle is naturally enhanced.

• Educating staff

It’s important that staff understand the benefits of cash recycling and the efficiencies that can be realised from stripping back the manual side of cash replenishment. New technology should empower staff and allow them to focus on customer service and driving growth for the organisation.

• Reputation

Providing a positive consumer experience is crucial and in order to deliver effective banking services in today’s environment, change is needed. With a focus on the optimisation of operations alongside enhancing customer journeys, remaining competitive requires a new way of thinking. As technology becomes increasingly intelligent and more and more services are offered to customers, availability is extremely important to the end-user experience. Customers have more choice than ever before and therefore maintaining a favourable brand reputation and positive net promotor scores is vital.

As operational effectiveness and the need to drive down day-to-day organisational costs become increasingly under the spotlight, cash recycling is a topic which should be given key strategic focus. With an opportunity to completely reengineer the cash journey – in line with redefined customer and staff journeys – banks can achieve quantifiable cost savings.   Tied in with positive knock-on effects on reputation, security and customer satisfaction – cash recycling makes a compelling business case for consideration.