Where you see a traditional teller line, Level 5 sees an unnecessary barrier between you and your members.
Level 5, a consulting firm for financial services, gets its name from the five levels of service it offers: 1) strategic consulting; 2) real estate; 3) integrated design; 4) construction management, and 5) branding.
"Credit unions are moving from a transaction environment to a retail environment," suggested J. Michael Colvin, SVP at the Atlanta-based firm. "If you go into a facility we worked on, you can't find a teller line. You'll find cash dispensers in pods or towers. Eliminating the teller line breaks down the physical barrier between you and your members, allowing you to offer more personal service whereby you can have an actual dialogue with the members instead of just being order takers."
This gives credit union personnel the opportunity to learn more about the member and offer other products or services that may be of interest to the member, and educates the member about the full spectrum of offerings at the credit unions.
"I dare say credit unions have members come in to cash a check and then go to the bank down the street for a loan or other services," Colvin suggested. "The key is to allow staff to focus on members by using technology to handle transactions, such as the cash dispensers instead of having a teller count out money three times."
