Four years ago, the $488 million, East Moline, Ill.-basedVibrant Credit Union, formerly DHCU, decided to make some bigchanges in order to stand out from its competitors, and throughoutthe journey, the credit union made a big impact on memberengagement by implementing new core, online and mobiletechnologies.

Formerly DHCU, the credit union officially changed its name toVibrant Credit Union on May 4, 2014. The financial institutionbegan in 1935 when eight individuals at the John Deere Harvesterplant chartered the credit union with $40 in assets. Over time, theorganization grew and became known by its acronym, DHCU, whichturned into its actual name in 2005.

“We continued to evolve and grow, but there was a lot ofconfusion over who we were,” Matt McCombs, president/CEO forVibrant Credit Union, stated.

The credit union discovered it needed to transition fromthinking about member service to member experience, and called inLombard, Ill.-based Raddon Financial Group to dive deep into itsrelationships with members.

“You hear credit unions talk about the things they do from aservice standpoint,” McCombs emphasized, who also draws from hisprevious experience as a Raddon consultant. Usually, credit unionstalk about data being their strong point, he said, but in general,they only capitalize on about 2.1 services per household, whereasthe typical household utilizes six or seven services total.

Vibrant Credit Union, like Raddon, counts a service as anyproduct that can hold a balance – such as checking account, savingsaccount, auto loan, home equity loan, or mortgage – and eachproduct can count only one time (for example, if a member has fiveCDs, he or she only has one product). In addition, a savingsaccount won't count at all if a member has a second product and thesavings account contains less than $100.

“Think of savings as just the ticket to entry [to membership],”McCombs explained. “Basically it is the exact calculation thatRaddon utilizes in its client base.”

McCombs pointed out that at the archetypal credit union, over50% of the member base has only one service. Vibrant Credit Unionmanaged to whittle that statistic down to 36-37% out of nearly41,000 members. It also drove the average number of services permember from 2.12 to 2.5.

“The depth of our relationships is growing at one of the fastestrates in the country,” he said.

What became apparent in the last year and a half to the creditunion is that it had an engaged team that was committed to itsphilosophy of creating a better member experience. But beforemoving ahead, the credit union had to unbind itself from a nearly20-year-old core system.

“We needed to get a system that moved with us instead of againstus,” McCombs recalled.

Vibrant did its due diligence by requesting sales presentationsfrom its existing provider along with two outside vendors. As aresult, Vibrant made the decision to convert its core accountingsystem to Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv's DNA platform.

“A lot of the things that Matt [McCombs] was doing at the creditunion [lent itself to] a very unique culture and a very unique wayof approaching the business, which is very focused on the memberexperience,” Mark Sievewright, president for Credit Union Solutionsat Fiserv, observed. “It seemed like an opportune time for them totalk to us.”

Sievewright noted that the Oracle relational database model andopen technology of DNA really resonated with Vibrant Credit Union.The Fiserv president also said DNA provided a real-time systemdesigned around relationships, not accounts, and an openarchitecture in a service-oriented architecture (SOA) frameworkonto which clients can add or customize products.

Read more: CRM provides tellers with complete memberviews …

McCombs explained that CRM (customer relationship management) onthe front-end drives member engagement, whether at the teller line,online, or over the phone, and provides the member service rep witha complete member view.

“The way DNA integrates with the solutions, the transactionprocess is seamless regardless of channel,” Sievewright explained.For example, a branch teller can see complete information about amember, and if they identify a sales opportunity, they'll have theability to begin that sales process and hand it off to aspecialist.

“We're excited about having a tool that will provide informationand knowledge right away for building that relationship,” McCombssaid.

Once Vibrant Credit Union decided to change its core system, itcreated an execution team focused solely on the conversion. DNAgoes live in March 2016.

In the meantime, the credit union will continue to transform,with new online and mobile banking platforms coming out in June, anew accounting system launching in the fall and a consumer loanorganization platform rolling out by late winter.

There are two primary drivers for the success of the creditunion's new digital banking experience, according to McCombs.First, it is responsive. As use of mobile and tablet devicescontinue to draw website views, Vibrant Credit Union wanted to makesure it provided an exceptional member experience across alldevices. So, the credit union removed extraneous informationalpages to narrow the interactions.

“We want to have less, yet higher quality content,” McCombssaid.

Second, the CEO said content drives sales leads.

“Although we are interested in giving information, we believe weare in the business of action, not just information,” McCombsrevealed. “Ultimately, the information we show that is notsales-focused is culturally related to showcase what makes Vibrantsurprisingly different.”

Mobile banking needed a major overhaul as well at the creditunion, according to McCombs. Vibrant will upgrade its mobile andonline banking products in June, with Alkami in Plano, Texasproviding both digital banking solutions.

“This will create a seamless environment for our members fromonline banking through mobile,” McCombs said.

Members will be able to make remote deposits, transfer payments,pay bills and check balances, all via the mobile channel. OnceVibrant Credit Union completes the move to DNA, members will haveP2P payment capabilities as well.

One area of notable exception for the credit union is how itviews branches.

“I absolutely believe there is a place for brick and mortar,”McCombs said. “I think the purpose of a branch has changed. Vibranthas three that will open this summer to fall, and three that wewill probably open next year as the credit union rolls out the newcore system.”

Its emphasis on member experience extends to branches, andVibrant Credit Union views them as sales centers with employeeshired to engage members.

“We staff them with people who will create opportunities, notwait for opportunity,” McCombs said. This seems to be working,since traffic at each branch is up, he said.

“We expect that to continue because we're engaging members andcreating traffic to come in,” McCombs added.

Read more: Wellness is an important part of thecredit union's culture …

McCombs pointed out that he is very proud of what thecredit union does from a culture standpoint as well.

“Everything we do is geared toward organizational health,including employees and members,” he said. “A lot of people usesocial media to sell; we use social media to showcase our peopleand our culture.”

To make sure the credit union starts each day right, it beginswith a “motivational moment.” Every morning, each employee,including the CEO, spends about 10 minutes doing something fun andnot related to work. It could be a game like cornhole, or a puttingon hot dog eating contest.

“It's an opportunity to get our employees to engage one anotherand create a little energy right away,” McCombs said. “We've beenon a pretty high growth spurt, and we've been able to buildmultiple branches in a year and handle multiple projects in ayear.”

What's just as impressive is to go through that much change andstill produce strong financials and lead a team of people who areexcited about coming to work every day, he said.

“We've created a culture that is extremely dynamic,” McCombsconcluded.