LONGVIEW, Texas — East Texas Professional CU saw member sales increase at the same time average visit times decreased after implementing a new lobby tracking system.
"While member service had always been a primary focus, staff took more of an order-taking role versus needs-based selling," said ETPCU SVP-Operations Scot Haines. "Additionally, there was no sales tracking/reporting or accountability in place."
East Texas Professional CU serves 60,637 members in 10 branch locations. While members are turning to mobile banking applications, Haines said product and service opportunities still exist in branches. Following implementation of FMSI's Lobby Tracker solution, the CU's member sales increased 16.5%, even though the amount of time members were spending per visit had decreased.
Haines joined East Texas PCU in July 2012. He observed that employees had developed a good rapport with members, but felt that employees weren't providing members with all available products and services. Equally, many members weren't aware of the products and services that were available to them. As a result there were missed opportunities.
"We have to remain relevant to our members and increase our share of each member's wallet," said Haines. "Well-trained staff immersed in a positive sales culture is paramount to achieving this goal."
The Road to Tracking
Prior to joining East Texas PCU, Haines spent 23 years at another credit union. While there in 2003, he implemented FMSI's Omnix Lobby Tracker to great success. By November 2012, he determined the solution would be the right fit fpr ETPCU, as well, and launched the then latest version of the product at his new post.
FMSI COO Meredith Deen explained that the Alpharetta, Ga.-based financial management solutions provider currently has 79 credit unions using Lobby Tracker. The solution, she added, is scalable for credit unions of all asset classes.
Complete with 25 unique service and sales reports including employee productivity reports, account holder volume reports and cross-sell reports, the FMSI solution tracks and measures member experience and employee performance.
"Lobby Tracker runs on Windows PCs with Internet Explorer 9 or higher," said Deen. "Self-check-in kiosks can be run on an iPad or practically any other tablet with Internet access." On average, she said once a credit union signs with FMSI, it takes roughly 30 days to launch the solution.
From a technology perspective, FMSI offers two platforms to host the solution. The vendor can host the solution for the credit union or the credit union can maintain the system in-house.
"East Texas PCU chose to maintain the software in-house on one of our servers," said Haines. "Although my involvement was not significant on the IT front, I can say the implementation was fairly easy and the hardware requirements are pretty standard."
While Haines was familiar with the software, he said is it "easy" to use. FMSI does provide comprehensive, live web-training for administrators, which Haines augmented due to his experience with the solution.
"I developed training materials that were used in conjunction with the materials provided by FMSI. I conducted one hour training sessions with frontline staff and management to review the software," he said. "The majority of the training covered how we wanted staff to use the software to ensure consistent accurate tracking for reporting purposes."
Tracking Success Realized
In November 2012, prior to Lobby Tracker, East Texas PCU was averaging a member visit time of 27 minutes and 26 seconds. The following year, with the solution in place, that number dropped by two minutes. Year-end 2014 it dropped again to 22 minutes and 39 seconds. Over the course of the same time period, sales per member increased 16.5%.
Haines said that while the implementation and execution has been successful, getting employees onboard initially was a bit of a challenge. "As with any change, employees were a little apprehensive at first," he said. "The apprehension was certainly warranted given I was new to East Texas PCU, implementing change and measuring staff sales performance for the first time."
By positioning the solution as an "opportunity," Haines was able to bridge the gap. "I wanted them to get credit for the hard work they do every day. By tracking their sales performance, as well as a number of other previously untracked metrics, it would be much easier to objectively reward them when it was time for their annual merit increase."
For East Texas PCU members, little has changed. Whereas they once had their member information logged on a clipboard at the reception desk, now that information is logged into the computer.
"The member wins with efficient service and needs-based sales that improve their financial well-being," said Haines. "The employees win through objective recognition of superior performance."
Next month, East Texas PCU will upgrade to the newest version of Lobby Tracker. "It is a great product that allows us to provide efficient service to our members and track employee performance with a strong reporting system," said Haines. "And the credit union wins by gaining an increased share of each member's wallet."
