Listerhill Credit Union in Muscle Shoals, Ala., went high tech with its latest branch.
Management hoped that the change would help increase business, anticipate the future needs of members and ensure it was adapting to a changing financial marketplace. The result included a new branch with ATMs, lowered costs and strong member satisfaction.
Because of their success, Credit Union Journal has honored Listerhill with a Best Practices Award for branch modernization.
In 2016, the $786 million-asset Listerhill picked a location in Killen, Ala., a former bank building, that they would convert into their new branch to test out the new strategy. (Listerhill’s existing branch in Killen operated until the opening of the new location in early 2018.) They broke ground on the new property in March 2017.
Under the new model, everything about the 4,000-square-foot branch would be centered on the member. A team of employees from management, facilities, operations, marketing and IT formed a “retail task force” to make sure the highest standards were applied all the way from employee training to the last coat of paint, Listerhill said.
The 4,000-square-foot branch features an open floor plan, enabling employees to assist members with any of their financial needs.
The branch also includes a tubeless drive-thru area with state-of-the-art smart ATMs that allow members to make deposits, payments or withdrawals anytime, even without a debit card. These ATMs offer members an optional video link to connect with an employee inside the branch in case they need assistance.
The Killen branch had a soft opening that wasn’t announced to the public in January before a grand opening in February.
Kristen Mashburn, chief of staff-retail at Listerhill, said that as of September, 97 percent of all transactions at the Killen branch are done without the assistance of a teller. More than a quarter of transactions are done after hours, and more than 60 percent of transactions at Killen are being done with smart ATMs.
It seems like members have responded positively to the change. The overall satisfaction score at the branch has remained at or above the average Listerhill branch, according to Member Loyalty Group, a credit union service organization that tracks this for the institution. The new Killen branch has also generated 20 percent more loan volume for the year through September, compared with the former location for that same period.
“Our Killen branch has led the credit union in products per household as well as loans for most of the months since we opened,” Mashburn said.
Each staff member at the Killen branch makes more per hour than employees in the traditional model but Listerhill has been able to lower overall salary expenses.
“We have been able to keep the same amount of staff, but have been able to cut back on total branch hours [and] late shifts because of the availability of the smart ATMs both inside and outside the branch,” Mashburn said. “Also, all of our employees at the Killen branch are able to open accounts, do loans and complete any transaction for the member.”
Given the success at Killen, Mashburn said Listerhill plans to roll out this strategy to all of its other branches.
“We are installing smart ATMs at some of our busier branches to facilitate the migration of members from ATMs to our smart ATMs,” she said. “At the beginning of 2019, we will begin transforming our second branch. Each quarter we will transform a new branch until all of our 17 branches are similarly transformed.”
