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North Peace Savings and Credit Union finds delivery success with personal teller machines
Members of North Peace Savings and Credit Union may live in remote Northeast British Columbia, but their convenient access to financial services rivals and even surpasses that provided in many more populous and temperate regions.
Through NCR Corp. personal teller machines at their credit union’s “smart offices,” members can conduct a full range of transactions via video and audio contact with a virtual service representative from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. And they can use the same technology for sit-down interviews with personal and business lenders and investment counselors.
In fact, many members are so taken with this form of service delivery that they’ll stop at a PTM rather than head into the main lobby even during regular business hours, notes Mitchel Chilcott, CCE, CEO of the $360 million Fort St. John credit union serving 12,000 members.
North Peace Savings and CU was only the second Canadian financial institution to install PTMs—and the first to offer a full range of financial services via this technology. The latter accomplishment is what has won members over and earned the credit union accolades, including the 2013 National Innovation Award from Credit Union Central Canada, a Central 1 InNOVAtion Service Award, and an award of merit in the 2013 CUES Golden Mirror Awards “Innovation” category.
Three of the credit union’s four branches have PTMs, and renovations are in the works to convert the fourth, in Hudson’s Hope, to a smart office. North Peace Savings and CU also plans to add more teller machines and employees to staff them at its main branch to manage peak demand times.
The strategy of providing personal, convenient service helped the CU add members at double the provincial rate (just under 4 percent growth in 2013, compared to 2 percent for all of British Columbia) and increase wallet share with existing members, Chilcott, a CUES member, says.
The credit union’s technology solution is tailored to the challenges of serving a sparsely populated region, with 60,000 people living in an area roughly a third the size of England. The CU’s field of membership is youthful, with an average age of 30, but its service model is not reserved for the technologically adept: “Touch a screen, and you’re talking to a real person in real time. The seniors appreciate that as well,” Chilcott notes.
Credit union staff have also embraced the smart office concept, he adds. They especially like that they can provide personal service in extended hours at all the branches without having to brave a trip along the Alaska Highway in harsh winter conditions.
Karen Bankston is a long-time contributor to Credit Union Management and writes about credit unions, membership growth, marketing, operations and technology. She is the proprietor of Precision Prose, Stoughton, Wis.
