ANCHORAGE, Alaska-Credit Union 1's new sales technology and culture is a success: each member has an average of five accounts.
"Our CRM has been a very useful tool-there's just so much you can do with the program," said Olympia Lewis, marketing manager at the $752-million CU here. "We've also changed our sales culture. We are not focused on making a sale-we are focused on putting our members in the right product or service to best fit their needs."
Loan volume has grown by nearly 5% since 2009, and checking accounts are up 30% for new members, said Lewis. "We're leading the pack."
The five-account-per-member average includes deposits, loans and services.
The key technology is Ultradata Enterprise CRM from Harland Financial Solutions, which draws account data from the CU's core system. Before the data is fed to CRM, it is refined by Touché Analyzer, the business intelligence system from Harland Financial Solutions.
CRM helps staff rack up sales relatively easily, Lewis suggested. When staff logs into a member's account, CRM triggers a pop-up that tells the employee which additional products and services to discuss with the member.
"CRM is a tool that provides clues to the staff," in the form of a summary screen indicating which products the member has, she said. "Staff uses these clues to identify opportunities to cross-sell additional products and services that would benefit the member." The CU's 180-employee branch staff begins and ends each day in CRM, Lewis said.
An enhanced summary screen is coming in June, she continued. "The Summary II screen will provide additional loan detail, insurance information, overdraft privilege limits and more. Staff said that if we gave them more detailed information, they'd be able to better help our members."
About 85% of staff is reaching cross-sales goals, up from 50% before Credit Union 1 began using Ultradata Enterprise CRM in 2010, said Lewis. Employees can check Excel spreadsheets to see how close they are to meeting sales goals, and they get points for each sale.
CRM call queues are helpful, she added. "Whenever a new checking account is opened, staff is prompted to call the new member and make sure that the checking account and passwords are working well." In turn, the employee gets another opportunity to discuss products.
CRM tools only work if employees use them doggedly, said Lewis. "You have to be dedicated to learning how to use the program every day and have employees who dig into the program and teach others how to use it."
Prior to actively working with CRM, Credit Union 1 staff used Touché Sales & Service, the previous iteration of the Touché CRM tool, but progress was slower. "CRM is more user-friendly than Sales and Service," Lewis explained.
