During the past five years, Wright-Patt Credit Union in the Dayton suburb of Fairborn,Ohio, has gained almost $1 billion in assets and 100,000 newmembers.

To accommodate its rapid growth and prepare for futureexpansion, the $2.6 billion, 250,000-member WPCU recently becamethe first financial institution in its area to roll out

Working with Atlanta-based NCR Corp, the CU installed APTRA InteractiveTellers at two newly built branches in Springfield and Springboro.Members use a touch screen to activate the machines and interactwith a video teller. For more private conversations and increasedsecurity, members can use the touch screen and phone. To withdrawcash, members must show an ID.

The machines speed transactions by roughly 33% compared with anin-person transaction, according to Brian Bailey, vice presidentand general manager at NCR, who said the machines can perform 95%of typical member transactions.

“What you're seeing at Wright-Patt Credit Union through theiruse of Interactive Tellers is more than just branch transformation,it's a transformation of their entire retail network,” Bailey said.“By incorporating interactive video into their network, they aretruly innovating in the area of customer experience, expandingtheir reach and making their members' everyday lives easier.”

To facilitate the use of PTMs, WPCU is providing conciergeservice in which employees are assigned to show members how to usethe new technology.

“Members are discovering that the Personal Teller is really nodifferent from a service standpoint than using a WPCUrepresentative located in the member center,” said Darrick Weeks,WPCU's chief operating officer.

“Members are saying the experience is easy, convenient andenjoyable. Comments range from 'It's like a live ATM' to 'wild,cool experience.' Members also appreciate the feeling of security aPTM offers when making deposits and the ability to withdraw amountsover the standard ATM cash withdrawal limits,” he said.

“What we're really trying to do is to be able to continue tomeet the member's expectations of growth at a lower overall cost,”the WPCU COO added.

The tellers serving the PTMs are housed at WPCU's Fairbornheadquarters, allowing them to work virtually in multiple branches.Not only does that bolster operational efficiency, Weeks said, itimproves accuracy and security. Another big benefit of PTMs, hesaid, is that the technology enables CU employees to focus onmeeting with members, closing loans and selling other products andservices.

Weeks said the PTMs do not replace tellers. To oversee the newservice, WPCU, which has about 550 employees, created a newdepartment – the Personal Experience Center – and added seven new(full-time and part-time) positions.

“We spent a lot of time making sure we hired the right peoplefor these unique positions,” Weeks said. “We knew our PersonalExperience Representatives would have to be our 'best of the best'because they would need to delight members through a live videofeed, which is not always easy to accomplish. To hire staff, weconducted video interviews and incorporated scenario role-playing.We also spent three months preparing staff for their debut on thePTMs, which involved team-training components.”

Other operational changes included upgrading bandwidth to ensureWPCU could manage the video and transaction capacity and creatingprocesses for rolling out and testing the PTMs and servicing themachines.

Since the NCUA announced last fall that it would allow video tellers tocount as service facilities, the new machines can help WPCU expandits field of membership and serve underserved areas.

(At left, This bank of personal teller machinesawaits do-it-yourself members who will interact with staff at thecredit union's headquarters.)

To qualify as a service facility, a video teller must bephysically located in the service area, provide real-time,face-to-face video access to credit union or shared branchingemployees during regularly scheduled hours, and allow the member toconduct all transactions, according to NCUA guidelines.

Weeks said WPCU's investment in PTMs is an important part ofstrategic plans to expand its geographic footprint. Recently, WPCUannounced plans to move into the Columbus, Ohio, market.

“Our goal is to roll additional PTMs out in areas where weplan to expand or fill in our service delivery footprint,” Weekssaid. “This is not a cost-saving initiative for us. It is aninitiative to better serve our members convenience needs in a moreefficient way. We will gain a return on our investment as wecontinue to roll out more PTMs out and gain economies of scale.

“We will also be able to cut down on member wait times fortransactions by more efficient deployment of our PersonalExperience Representatives. Any cost savings that come as a resultof this initiative will be redeployed in effort to continuallyexceed our members' expectations.”