Many ATMs around the world dispense whole numbers and yet when a user wants to perform a withdrawal transaction at the ATM and chooses to enter a withdrawal amount, they are usually met with a screen that forces the user to enter the full value of the withdrawal amount including decimal numbers as part of the transaction.
For instance a user who wants to withdraw 120 will have to key 120.00; two additional zeros to cater for the decimals. This seems to be a needless operation for a withdrawal transaction unless the ATM dispenses anything apart from whole numbers. Entering decimals for withdrawal transactions causes users to make mistakes and spend more time at the ATM. Instances of a user entering for example 1.20 instead of 120.00 for a 120 worth transaction and being prompted by the ATM to re-enter the correct amount is not uncommon.
A case study for bank ATM queuing models published in the IOSR Journal of Mathematics established that the average time a customer spends at an ATM is around two minutes. On the average queue lengths are around 3 people per ATM which translates to an average waiting time of 2.5 minutes. Financial institutions should be looking to reducing the wait times and improving the quality of service of the whole ATM withdrawal experience by ditching the decimals.
Apart from the wait times; if every user that chooses to enter an amount during a withdrawal presses the zero key an avoidable two extra times; assuming the correct amount is entered the first time, then the average time it takes for a keypad replacement or servicing can also be reduced by ditching the decimals.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.