For reasons ranging from mergers to seeking growth in members and loans, credit unions increasingly find themselves operating branch networks in multiple counties, states and even across one or more foreign countries. Two of those – Global Credit Union and Alaska USA FCU – have become particularly adept at making members feel at home in their branches, no matter how far that branch is from the home office.
For $392 million Global CU, headquartered in Spokane, Wash., its name says a lot. Abigail Franklin, VP of marketing and strategy, told Credit Union Journal the institution began as a military CU serving 16 installations all over Europe. Today, it has three branches in Italy and nine in America, spread across Washington and Idaho.
Franklin said communication is the biggest component to ensuring consistency across all of Global's branches, including a consistent level of service, consistent member experiences and a consistent philosophy. She listed several methods the CU uses, including a system called "Connections."
"Our management team uses Connections to clearly express our goals and our core values to all, and it allows our managers to work with all of our employees," she explained.
Each of Global's departments meet once per month with their managers. The branches in the U.S. meet in person, while the Italian branches meet via phone. "All that communication helps with consistency," Franklin said.
The CU also utilizes an intranet, Global Answers, which has a page for every department. Users can search by topic or by keyword to find any information they need. Global posts a weekly newsletter it calls "The Insider" on the intranet, along with employee success stories, compliance articles, sales notes and staff birthdays.
"Having both Connections and Global Answers allows us to have consistent communication," Franklin said.
Global's VP of branch operations, Yvonne Holland, said the credit union's No. 1 priority is to serve its members by providing free and discounted services.
"Communication and training are the keys to keeping remote branches working together to provide a consistently high level of member service," Holland said. "We hire military dependents and do a lot with community involvement to support families of the military.
Global CU serves more than 6,000 members at its three Italy locations.
According to Franklin, hiring military dependents has allowed Global's management to gain insights into what those folks need as a mobile population.
"We participate in shared branching because we know these people will end up somewhere else and we want to keep them as members, even if they are in the middle of Texas," she said. "This has inspired us to be more active on social media, which helps in communicating to members. All the branches post pictures of their events, which is very helpful reaching members serving in Italy. We have a social media strategy just for our Italy branches."
When CUs are working with branches that are far away, Franklin advised, communication is crucial – especially when dealing with different time zones. "Be aware of time zones. We have three clocks in our operations center: European Time, Eastern Time and Pacific Time."
Frequent Management Visits
There are challenges to operating branches in Italy from a headquarters in Washington state, Franklin acknowledged. She said Global does its best to address these challenges by sending representatives from management at least twice a year, if not three times a year – usually its CEO, chief operating officer or the manager of operations.
"They multitask when they are there – doing training, holding meetings, and touring the facilities, which are on military bases and have security. One of our people in Vicenza won a major award, and last month our CEO presented it to her in person. That helps people in our Italy branches feel connected with the rest of the credit union."
Sometimes having branches far away can have hidden benefits. Franklin said since Global employs military spouses, management gets more input into member needs.
"They are not in the military, so they offer great insights," she said. "They move every three or four years, so we started a relocation loan program to address one of the biggest stressors for military families. It helps them, and it gives them a reason to stay with our credit union instead of closing their accounts when they are transferred.
"There also is the obvious advantage of opening our perspective compared to seeing just one region or location," she added.
Alaska USA FCU – Now In Arizona!
Anchorage-based Alaska USA Federal Credit Union has "pursued a path of steady growth for more than 68 years," said Brian Wolf, chief operations officer for the $6.4 billion CU that currently serves more than 595,000 members.
"Early on, our growth was within the state of Alaska, but after the economic crisis of the 1980s, the credit union sought to diversify by expanding outside of Alaska," Wolf recalled. "Expansion into Washington was a logical next step, due to the strong business activity ties between the two states."
After steady expansion across Western Washington, "varying opportunities" presented themselves for growth into California and Arizona, and more recently Eastern Washington, Wolf continued. He said one group that has benefited from all of this growth is Alaska USA's current members who have relocated or spend much of the year in these other states.
"Once we expand into a new state, we pursue new members through our convenient branch locations and auto lending," he noted.
As is the case with many credit unions, Alaska USA says it has a long tradition of providing "best-in-class service, value and convenience." Wolf said all through its steady growth, the CU has "consistently focused and delivered on our members' needs."
"This focus on consistency has allowed us to build out a strong infrastructure and regional management team that understands the importance of best-in-class service," he said. "Alaska USA strives to provide our members with a familiar look and flow in our branches, the products and services we provide, and our rates and fees."
In addition, Wolf said the CU's upper management team allows local management to make decisions and get involved in ways that are most relevant to their communities. These managers also provide feedback to the Anchorage headquarters on what the local members are needing and wanting from Alaska USA, he said.
Lessons Learned
Managing remote locations "has always been a part of who we are," said Wolf. Because Alaska USA is based in a state where many of its major cities are not accessible to each other by roadways – and a good number of its in-state branches are 500 miles or more from the headquarters – it is used to dealing with distance.
"As we have expanded, we have looked for markets that are similar to Alaska and or have significant ties to the state," he explained.
Once management identifies a state as an expansion target, the CU follows a "standard process" to assess the feasibility of success for its lines of business in the prospective markets, Wolf said. For example, a "significant number" of Alaskans snowbird in Arizona, he noted, resulting in management prepping a move into the Grand Canyon State.
"Once we deem a market to be a good fit through a standard analysis process, we dig deeper to truly understand the differences of that market and allow these intricacies to influence the way we go to market," he said. "It is important to evaluate each market's understanding of and openness to the credit union difference; to not only evaluate the branch location and hours of other financial institutions, but the preferences of the community; to understand differences in ATM usage, such that in some markets drive-ups are a must have and in others they are seldom used; and lastly to understand the desire for and uptake of technology in each market."
Based on its in-state history and its multi-state expansion, Wolf said the management team at Alaska USA believes the credit union is better able to serve its members' needs in an ever-changing financial industry.
"Not only are our members able to access Alaska USA online, through our member service center and at more than 55,000 ATMs worldwide, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, members are now able to access branches across the West Coast in many of the places their life has taken them," he said. "All the while this growth has enabled us to be more efficient in our operations, and thus give more back to our members, through enhanced technology, increased services, higher rates and lower fees."
