OGDEN, Utah — After nearly two years of covert planning and design, America First Credit Union has launched its first tech-forward Innovation Center automating nearly all traditional teller tasks.
"We saw this space as a strategic advantage over our competitors and we did not want word to move outside the project team until necessary. When we build a new branch, there is a very well defined process and workflow that we have perfected over many years," said America First CU Executive Vice President of Branch Delivery Randy Halley. "This project and our desire to limit the number of people involved required some changes to the process."
With 117 branches, America First CU supports 787,028 members and 2,600 employees. Halley explained that the initial concept was to design a branch that featured "expert-at-a-distance" devices.
"We saw a need to expose several new technologies to our members and potential members and to find out if they would be willing to use these new ways of providing service," he said.
And while the credit union has 436,344 active online banking members and 242,941 active mobile banking members—both of which continue to grow at fast rate, Halley said—branch traffic also remains high. In May 2016, 39% of all members completed at least one face-to-face teller transaction.
"This space provides a means to show our products and teach people how to use them," said Halley. "The marketing information in this space is also very visible, and the members will be able to use some amazing devices to pull up details about products and services."
After careful deliberation, Halley and his team selected the City Creek Center mall, which is located in downtown Salt Lake City and features more than 100 stores and restaurants, for the site of AFCU's Innovation Center.
"The primary reason we chose this location was its ability to provide strong foot traffic in front of our store. This traffic also is a great mix of various demographics that will provide us with information about who would be willing to use each of the different channels available," said Halley. "We think we can then apply this knowledge as we locate, design and build new branches."
Getting Technical
In order to pad the Innovation Center with all the tech bells and whistles, America First CU called on existing and new partnerships with Cisco, Diebold, Downstream, Financial Town and HKS Architects, among others. Over the course of the coming year, representatives from these companies will provide on-site presentations on related technologies to members and employees.
"We solicited the very best in technology from the most advanced and well-known companies to bring this unique space to life," said Halley, adding that the most obvious difference with this branch is that there are no teller lines.
Members are greeted by large tactile screens, which allows them to either touch a screen and have various products presented at their fingertips or the screens will feature 3-D models demonstrating products such as automobile loans or mortgages.
"Once the information is placed on the screens, members can activate information about those types of products," said Halley. "Multiple users can be using the same screen at the same time without interfering with each other."
Halley explained that the In Lobby Teller (ILT) device is capable of handling almost any transaction a live teller can. Other branch differences include no in-person loan officers or loan originators.
"These activities, along with new account openings will be handled by the expert-at-a-distance devices that allow members to have a conversation with the employee who is best trained to address the service requested by the member," said Halley.
Upon entering, there is a front table that hosts various mobile devices that allow floating staff members to demonstrate how members can use, for example, their phones or tablets to access products and services.
Since the Innovation Center opened in June, Halley couldn't provide statistics that speak to increased efficiencies. However, he has high hopes that operations will be streamlined.
"We think the staffing levels will be a significant improvement to a standard branch staffing level. Using the self-serve devices like the ILTs and ATMs should show strong increases in efficiency," said Halley. "And the information gathered will determine what devices we can move into either a new branch or a remodel of an existing branch."
