MOLINE, Ill.-Nothing runs like a Deere, and perhaps the same can be said for its credit union, too, which has committed itself to running wherever the sponsor runs.
Strong times for manufacturer John Deere Co. have translated to good business for Deere Employees CU here, which continues to see growth in membership and loan volumes.
DECU was recently named a winner of one of Raddon Financial Group's Crystal Performance Awards for CUs with assets of $500 million of less. This is Deere Employees' second consecutive year to be recognized by Raddon.
The credit union's Moline headquarters is its only brick-and-mortar facility, yet it serves more than 25,000 John Deere employees and their families online and at John Deere facilities throughout the country. The CU has more $450 million in assets.
"Ever since we've adopted this philosophy of 'Wherever John Deere goes, we're going to be there,' we've had membership," said CEO Bill Stangler, citing membership growth in 2011 of between 5% and 6% (more than 1,000 new members). The CU has grown at a similar pace for the past four years, he added.
Raddon ranked DECU particularly high for its products-per-member, where it fell into the 97th percentile, with 2.67 products per member. The credit union tracks those numbers monthly and has a team of more than 20 member service reps (five in its Moline branch and 16 in various John Deere facilities) working on member satisfaction and increasing product penetration.
"We're very much of a relationship company versus a pricing company," said Stangler. "We try to show members the advantage-all of the products that we offer, everybody else offers, so why would they take ours? We offer them and focus on explaining the benefit of being a full member. And we follow up so that in the first 90 days we make contact a number of times with the new member so that they have the same feeling that a long-term member would have with us."
Stangler credited DECU's sponsor company with helping fuel its recent successes. "John Deere is having successful times, and we have a very good loan business as a result of that," he said.
The credit union currently has more than 23,000 loans and leases on its books for a total of $378 million. "We started [2011] at $325 million in loans," said Stangler. "We're going to end the year at $389 million."
Achieving PFI
The CEO said that word of mouth from members has helped boost loan volumes. "We obviously market, but our greatest marketing is word of mouth among employees," he said. "If you know that you will get the best rate, then you come here."
DECU offers auto loans with terms as long as 72 months starting at 3.24% for new vehicles and 3.74% for used. It also offers mortgages (including a popular 5-1 ARM product) starting at 2.875%.
The credit union's real focus, however, is on getting PFI status with members. "Then they experience the credit union the best," said Stangler. DECU measures its accounts weekly and surveys the competition both nationally and locally to ensure that it maintains top-of-market pricing for both deposits and loans.
DECU pays .25% "across the board" on deposits, said Stangler, with the same rate for Money Market accounts. "The ones that are most interesting to people is our longer term CDs," he said. "People can still earn 2.35% for a 60-month CD and 2.10% for a 48-month CD."
Stangler added that the CU was not concerned with net worth ratios; it currently is well-capitalized at 8.85%.
"We've been growing well," said Stangler. "We're not trying to turn down deposits, because that just doesn't make sense for us. Our earnings are strong, so it keeps up with the size of our growth. We aren't running into the challenge you've seen with some people of turning away money."
Because DECU's members and employees are spread across the country, Stangler said the credit union does extensive testing to ensure that new hires have the right sales and service mentality. Beyond the human factor, DECU's board has made technology a priority. The CU has an app for smartphone users and can make decisions on online loan applications within a minute. First mortgage apps can be completed within 15 minutes, and mobile RDC is expected to debut within a few months.
"One of our key success factors is that we make sure that we have equal member interaction whether you're in person, on the phone or online, so that they feel like they were taken care of as if they were talking to somebody live."
