SALT LAKE CITY — In an era of credit union consolidation in the name of "Bigger = Better," one CU is showing "Smaller = Full Service."
Local Union 354 IBEW CU, based here, was ranked No. 2 in Total Return of the Member for the $10 million to $20 million asset class in Callahan & Associates' Q4 2008 ratings. Linda Perschon, the CU's president and CEO, said a big part of its success is the personal connection between the field of membership and the CU.
"My philosophy is treat people right and then they'll want to come in and join the credit union," she said. "We are a closed field of membership, so we don't have to market to the community in general. When we do charity work it is focused on the things that are important to our members, who are electrical workers."
LU 354 IBEW serves the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Its staff is union, too, and in Perschon's four years she has hired zero new employees. "They are paid well, we get along well, I inform them of what my goals are and they do a fantastic job with the members.
"When someone walks in, we know them as a person, not just as a member," she added.
That close-knit atmosphere helps achieve remarkable share of wallet, as the CU has $14.7 million in assets despite just 2,222 members. With just one branch, it also is a member of Credit Union Service Network, which she said is "big for us getting business from outside the area."
"We have been doing shared branching since before I arrived four years ago," Perschon explained. "I came from a much larger credit union with a lot more staff, and coming here I am impressed with how much one person can do. It makes me feel the former credit union was overstaffed."
LU 354 IBEW CU's success is not due to any particular thing, just "working at it," Perschon continued. She said the goal every day is to give members the best value possible. With that said, Perschon is proud of the slate of products and services available.
"Even though we are just barely hitting $15 million, we are pretty much full service. We offer bill pay, online services, Visa, home equity and mortgage loans, auto loans and more. Being a small credit union we sometimes are a little behind in the times, so we did not get involved in construction loans-which allowed us to avoid the high losses that happened in our area.
"We are pretty conservative in what we pay for," she added. "We don't have a lot of frills as far as equipment and limit our expenses so we can return to the members."
