RED BANK, N.J. — Life is about to get a little bit easier for the 22,000 members of United Teletech Financial.
The $287-million CU recently introduced its UT Xpress service, with seven kiosks in its four branch locations. These kiosks, said VP of Operations Shireen Davis, "are very similar to an ATM, but give additional functions and services to shared branching members and to our members."
While UTFCU already offers e-statements and other online banking features, Davis said that one of the key attractions of UT Xpress is that "our members can come into any one of our branches after hours and do certain transactions they would not have ordinarily been able to do at a regular ATM," including cash deposits, loan payments, transfer funds and more. Those services, along with traditional ATM functions, will also be available to shared branching members.
Davis reported that more than 17,000 transactions have been performed via UT Xpress in just over two months, and said that they planned to deploy another kiosk in a branch by the end of March. The service was initiated in partnership with CO-OP Financial Services, and Davis said that the expense of the new system will be recouped by being able to transition tellers into member relationship coordinator positions.
Convenience The Guiding Principal
While the credit union will reap the benefits of going green, most CU members are still more interested in convenience, which Davis said was one of the project's guiding principles.
"It's all about letting them do business when they want to do business," said Davis. "The theme of this was 'Your life shouldn't revolve around bankers' hours.'"
Another service the CU is rolling out is its 24/7 member care center, which was also coordinated with CO-OP. After business hours, Davis explained, members' calls will be directly re-routed to CO-OP's shared branch network call center. Overflow calls during normal business hours will also be directed there.
Davis said that United Teletech was the first CU in New Jersey to utilize the type of technology the kiosk system entails, but she predicted that based on member and shared-member reactions, many others will quickly follow suit. In addition to UT Xpress, Davis said that the CU hopes to roll out mobile banking and loan e-signatures during the second quarter of this year.
While e-signature loans will still only be approved during regular business hours, she said that such digital autographing will speed up the loan approval process, enabling them to approve auto and personal loans in as little as two hours.
