The Triple Threat of Enhanced Self‑Service

Banks and credit unions have spent decades looking for new ways to move complex transactions from the teller line to the ATM. As a cloud‑enabled platform that plugs straight into the core banking system, enhanced self‑service (ESS) has been a big step in that direction, letting consumers interact with every account they hold through a single screen. With ESS, the ATM doesn’t just see a single card; it sees the whole relationship.

What results is a fresh consumer experience with three major benefits: it gives consumers freedom of choice in how they interact with financial institutions, it offers drastically improved convenience, and it unlocks new avenues to efficiency for financial institutions.

Watch FTSI’s deep-dive webinar on the benefits of enhanced self-service on-demand. 

1. Choice

Turning the ATM Into a One‑Stop Branch

ESS supports transactions that normally require a teller: large withdrawals, multi‑account transfers, or even a string of chained transactions (“deposit, then advance, then cash back”) in a single workflow. For institutions, this breadth means they can offer retail‑level convenience without training consumers on half‑a‑dozen separate channels.

For consumers, the experience becomes significantly smoother: they can visit a branch when they want, carrying out transactions how they want.

Say a consumer arrives with a paycheck, wants $60 in cash back, and plans to knock $100 off her auto loan. In the context of a single interaction she can split the deposit, dispense the bills, and apply the extra payment without the need for new forms or a second queue. Meanwhile, associates are free to greet consumers or discuss financial goals instead of processing each of those steps manually.

2. Convenience

Banking When (and How) People Prefer

Enhanced self-service doesn’t just modernize traditional lobby or vestibule ATMs, its benefits extend to other touchpoints as well. Take drive-through service: Instead of three lanes backed up behind a single pneumatic tube, an institution can install multiple ESS lanes. Routine requests flow quickly, while niche questions get escalated to a remote human within seconds. Consumers spend less time idling, and branch teams spend less time juggling headsets and vacuum canisters.

If a consumer hits an unfamiliar prompt at an ATM, they can just tap an “Assistance on Demand” icon to work with a remote teller who can guide them through the next steps via two‑way video. No waiting for branch hours, no abandoning the transaction.

Convenience also carries over into funds availability. A cloud‑based Deposit Risk Review (DRR) engine can scan each check image in real time, flagging duplicates, threshold breaches, or out‑of‑balance totals.

In production pilots, DRR has cut check processing time by 50 percent and lowered IT costs by 41 percent by eliminating on‑premise servers and manual reviews. Consumers see money sooner, while back‑office teams handle fewer exceptions.

3. Efficiency:

Doing More With the Same (or Less)

Cost‑to‑serve drops every time a teller transaction migrates to ESS, but the platform also drives efficiency behind the scenes.

To boost efficiency across the board, financial institutions can consolidate regional call queues into an interactive contact center that sits on top of ESS. Calls and video sessions can route to the next available specialist, and every session can land in a common reporting dashboard for coaching and staffing analysis. This type of streamlining helps shrink the IT stack, standardize reporting, and provide supervisors with clean data on peak demand windows.

Fraud mitigation gains are just as impactful, as preventing even one high‑value counterfeit check can pay for months of ESS licensing. Because DRR pushes suspect items to reviewers before they hit the core, investigations can even happen while the consumer is still at the kiosk.

Adopting ESS doesn’t mean financial institutions have to abandon branches; it simply redeploys human talent toward high‑value conversations while machines handle the repeatable tasks. Whether reimagining a rural micro‑branch, upgrading a drive‑through, or adding off‑site kiosks in grocery stores, the value add is the same: consumers gain flexibility, staff gain breathing room, and financial institutions can do more with what they have.