PARKERSBURG, W.V.-Loan volume is up by $2 million since January of this year at West Virginia Central CU, on the way to a goal of $8 million in growth by the end of Q3-a targeted increase of 14.5% over 2011.
WVCCU employees have plenty of motivation to keep the loans coming in-if the staff reaches its goal, the entire team (approximately 30 people) will take a trip to Disney World this fall. PR Coordinator Lisa Collins explained that West Virginia Central has been studying "some of the biggest service providers in the world-the people who do the very best service and are known for that," including Nordstrom and Ritz-Carlton, but the name that kept coming up was Disney.
The credit union had in the past taken staff on trips to study superior service providers, but a trip to Disney seemed out of the question. "We decided that if they could increase the loans, we could afford it," said Collins.
Staff at the $93-million, 18,000-member credit union have been divided into three teams of eight to nine employees of various positions, including tellers, loan officers and more. Teams compete against each other to meet certain dollar amounts each week, with smaller prizes (including gift cards and tech gadgets) awarded weekly to the winning team. Additionally, there are bigger incentives for each quarter, including "Disney dollars" so team members have money to use for the trip.
"The ultimate goal is to get everybody down there," said Collins. "We'll spend two days and two nights at a Disney resort and do a little training while they're there-if they meet their loan goals."
Getting Closer To Mickey
So far, things are well ahead of pace. Loans are up 3.67% since January, according to Mark Greenlees, VP of lending and collections. In that same period last year, loan growth shrank by 1.05%. In July 2011, WVCCU started a focus on referrals and cross sales, said Greenlees, but the reception was only lukewarm. Adding the incentive plan has been a major driver of growth.
"It's member service," he explained. "We are stressing that on a daily basis. ... Tellers, collectors, call center operators, all of them are doing referrals, and we've seen the pace pick up."
As of its December Call Report, WVCCU had 5,899 loans and leases on its books totaling more than $55 million. More than half of that was in auto loans, which Greenlees said continues to be a major driver of growth. Indirect loans count toward the Disney challenge, but Greenlees said most of the CU's auto business is direct used lending.
Pricing and underwriting guidelines have not changed for auto lending. Some discounts are in place-such as a quarter-percent discount for members with checking and e-statements at the CU, or better rates for lower LTVs-but referrals and cross sales are driving the results. The credit union is offering specials on 5-, 10- and 15-year mortgages, with loans starting at 2.75%, and Greenlees said those low rates and short terms have helped bring in some business as well.
Teams Develop Own Ideas
Each team was given $500 in marketing money and challenged to come up with their own strategies. Collins explained that one group pulled a list of members who had been turned down recently for loans and reached out to them about using their tax refund as collateral or downpayment on a loan. Similarly, another group pulled a list of members in good standing that did not currently have car loans and reached out to them about car loans and other products.
One strategy that WVCCU is also relying on is its new Financial Physical program, wherein members can work with MSRs to improve their credit score and overall financial picture. Naturally, said Collins, that gives credit union staff a good opportunity to cross-sell and get some of those members' business.
Greenlees said that WVCCU does not currently have statistics on how many Financial Physicals have been performed or how much business has resulted from it.
"We've done quite a few, but I don't have exact numbers," he said. "One of them, off the top of my head, resulted in two loans being closed." He added that the credit union will dig down into those numbers at a later date, but has not yet determined when it will do so.
Collins acknowledged that it's hard to top a trip to Disney World, but said that now that CU officials have established the precedent of rewarding success with this kind of prize, it will likely continue to offer some sort of incentive promotion.
"One thing we hope is that this will create new habits," she said. "It's already doing that. Tellers are automatically asking questions and cross selling and doing things they were not in the habit of doing, so that's a huge side benefit."
