Members and staffers of the 112th Congress of the United States got more than a new Speaker and offices when they showed up for work–they're getting a chance to join their "local" credit union via iPad.
Turnover is rampant any time a new session of Congress convenes and that's particularly true this year with the large number of new members and staff. Congressional FCU serves House members, staffers and their families with four branch offices on Capitol Hill, but now also is sending a staffer door-to-door with an iPad in hand specially outfitted to sign them up remotely.
The TotaliEnroll application from Integrated Media Management accommodates opening a range of checking, savings and loan accounts, along with e-signature capability so the deal can be done on the spot.
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"TotaliEnroll makes the enrollment process more practical for us. It also allows us to have a more casual interaction with all the new folks settling into their new offices, much more so than if we tried to use a laptop or had to just invite them to stop by one of our offices," said David Hufnagel, Congressional FCU's vice president of information technology and operations.
"Now we have a great opportunity to make it happen right now by sitting down with them and then walking away with them as a new member," he said.
The credit union began using the iPad a couple weeks ago during the slow recess period and expects activity to pick up considerably now that Congress is in session.
"This is kind of an unprecedented year for the number of new people coming in, both for new congressmen and their staffs and for new committee staffers," Hufnagel said. "The initial reaction has been positive so far and we really expect to see the biggest response in the next few weeks coming up."
Congressional FCU is based in Oakton, Va., and has 17 branches, including the four on the Hill. About 8,500 of its 43,000 members work on or around Capitol Hill and the iPad and other online and mobile enrollment and banking options are designed to help meet those staffers' demanding schedules and banking needs, IMM said.
"Banks and credit unions cannot limit their ideas of what 'mobile' encompasses," said Chuck Klein, CEO of IMM in Linden, N.J., a provider of Check 21 and electronic document management and enrollment services to more than 600 credit unions.
"Rather, they should push the bounds of can be done to improve the members' experience," Klein said. "TotaliEnroll takes a key component of the enrollment process and allows it to be fulfilled outside of the traditional branch setting."
Hufnagel of Congressional FCU said loans done through the staffer's iPad are handled through CUNA Loanliner documents integrated with the IMM software and that while ID photos can be taken with an iPad camera connection kit, his credit union hasn't exercised that option yet.
"There's probably going to be a camera in the next generation of iPads and maybe we'll do that then," Hufnagel said. "And only one of our three or four people walking the Hill right now has one, and we're only using it to sign up for new members.
"But we're really very early on in our use of this. We think it has tons of potential."
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