To close the convenience gap with banks that have branches on seemingly every corner, some credit unions are adding hours.
Numerica Credit Union in Spokane has expanded its weekday and weekend hours, with two of its branches open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the week and 9 to 5 on Saturdays.
Fourteen of its 17 branches are open at least half the day Saturdays.
"We realize that as a credit union we'll never have the branch convenience of a Bank of America or Wells Fargo," said Jennifer Lehn, an executive vice president at Numerica. "So the expanded hours do tend to level the playing field."
Members Cooperative Credit Union in Cloquet, Minn., has extended its hours of operation at all six of its branches, with some opening at 7 and not closing until 6 p.m. weekdays.
"We just felt that our membership was working at the same time we were open, so they couldn't get in to transact their business," said Tammy Heikkinen, the $253 million-asset credit union's chief executive. "We're primarily blue-collar workers with daytime jobs." During lunch hours, the branches would get "a lot of traffic, and I don't think we were really fulfilling our mission with members when our lines were too long."
Heikkinen said she does not expect the new hours to hurt the credit union's bottom line, because the back offices of the buildings that will be open the earliest and closing the latest were already up and running. Members Cooperative is not increasing staff to keep up the longer hours, either.
But Numerica added two employees at each of its branches with the longest hours. "Where the bigger costs lie, however, is in support functions that extended operations require," Lehn said. "Our call center is open all day Saturday to match branch hours; information technology must be staffed, same with collections and central loan underwriting. … We offer a full-service operation on Saturdays, so member expectations are fairly high."
The $925 million-asset institution said there has been some staff turnover directly attributable to its asking employees to work weekends.
"We have incurred these extra costs because we absolutely believe that the benefit increases membership and loyalty," Lehn said.
