LOCAL

Bank offers video tellers

KAREN SMITH WELCH
Chris Koop, president of the FirstCapital Bank of Texas Amarillo market, talks with teller Donella Grijalva via the bank's new TellerConnect technology. Bank customers can access 24-hour live teller service via the machine Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

FirstCapital Bank of Texas has redefined "bankers' hours" by providing 24-hour access to tellers five days a week.

TellerConnect stations at FirstCapital Bank's new location at 3900 S. Soncy Road connect users to live tellers through a video chat screen.

"It provides us the ability to extend to customers the live teller access outside normal banking hours," Chief Operating Officer Ted Awerkamp said.

The bank staffs TellerConnect around the clock, Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, he said.

"But our hope in the very near future is to extend that to 24/7 because we recognize that families and working professionals don't work 8 to 5 anymore," Awerkamp said.

The APTRA Interactive Teller units, manufactured by NCR Corp., can handle up to 95 percent of typical teller transactions - much more than a regular automatic teller machine, according to NCR. The interactive teller machines work like normal ATMs, but have the added feature of allowing customers to summon tellers by touching the screen.

During a demonstration last week, Donella Grijalva helped bank Chief Operations Officer George Reeves with a cash withdrawal in which he specified the types of bills he wanted, down to $1 denominations.

Tellers can cash checks, including dispensing coins. They also take deposits and provide several other services, Reeves said.

Customers can "show" photo identification, when required, by placing it facedown on a reader that displays to the teller, and sign for transactions, as they would at a retail register.

People who don't feel comfortable discussing transactions in the open have the option of using a telephone handset or chatting by text using a keyboard that will show up on the screen, Reeves said.

FirstCapital worked with NCR and FTSI to adopt the technology. NCR deals in consumer transaction technology, and FTSI is a financial services solutions company, a NCR news release said.

The bank's "enhanced and expanded service options will differentiate them as a service leader in their community, while lowering long-term operating costs," FTSI President Susan Napier stated in a news release.

FirstCapital's TellerConnect staff works from Lubbock, answering calls from the Amarillo kiosks and six other machines at branches in Lubbock and Midland, where the bank is headquartered, said Chris Koop, president of the bank's Amarillo market.

"It's something new and innovative, and I suspect you're going to see more of this," he said.

Through the kiosks, banks can deliver face-to-face service, replicate regular teller service and save money by locating and equipping a centrally based, specialized video teller team in a video banking call center, according to an American Banking Association whitepaper endorsing the APTRA Interactive Teller.

TellerConnect is designed as an enhancement to traditional face-to-face transactions with the bank's in-house tellers, Koop said.

It also augments the bank's round-the-clock mobile options, Awerkamp said.

"People still like the ability to access live help when they have a transaction that they'd like to take care of," he said.

TellerConnect went live in Amarillo with the opening of the Soncy branch on March 19, but it was just announced to customers on Monday, Koop said.

Two TellerConnect units are located just inside the bank's main doors. The other two are drive-up units outside.

The machines work like normal ATMs unless a teller is summoned, according to trendhunter.com.

The technology investment will help FirstCapital "transform customer service in local communities," said Jed Taylor, general manager of NCR Interactive Services.