Four years ago, the $488 million, East Moline, Ill.-based Vibrant Credit Union, formerly DHCU, decided to make some big changes in order to stand out from its competitors, and throughout the journey, the credit union made a big impact on member engagement by implementing new core, online and mobile technologies.

Formerly DHCU, the credit union officially changed its name to Vibrant Credit Union on May 4, 2014. The financial institution began in 1935 when eight individuals at the John Deere Harvester plant chartered the credit union with $40 in assets. Over time, the organization grew and became known by its acronym, DHCU, which turned into its actual name in 2005.

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

The credit union discovered it needed to transition from thinking about member service to member experience, and called in Lombard, Ill.-based Raddon Financial Group to dive deep into its relationships with members.

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

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

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

McCombs pointed out that at the archetypal credit union, over 50% of the member base has only one service. Vibrant Credit Union managed to whittle that statistic down to 36-37% out of nearly 41,000 members. It also drove the average number of services per member from 2.12 to 2.5.

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

What became apparent in the last year and a half to the credit union is that it had an engaged team that was committed to its philosophy of creating a better member experience. But before moving ahead, the credit union had to unbind itself from a nearly 20-year-old core system.

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

Vibrant did its due diligence by requesting sales presentations from its existing provider along with two outside vendors. As a result, Vibrant made the decision to convert its core accounting system to Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv's DNA platform.

“A lot of the things that Matt [McCombs] was doing at the credit union [lent itself to] a very unique culture and a very unique way of approaching the business, which is very focused on the member experience,” Mark Sievewright, president for Credit Union Solutions at Fiserv, observed. “It seemed like an opportune time for them to talk to us.”

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

Read more: CRM provides tellers with complete member views …

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

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

“We're excited about having a tool that will provide information and knowledge right away for building that relationship,” McCombs said.

Once Vibrant Credit Union decided to change its core system, it created an execution team focused solely on the conversion. DNA goes 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, a new accounting system launching in the fall and a consumer loan organization platform rolling out by late winter.

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

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

Second, the CEO said content drives sales leads.

“Although we are interested in giving information, we believe we are in the business of action, not just information,” McCombs revealed. “Ultimately, the information we show that is not sales-focused is culturally related to showcase what makes Vibrant surprisingly different.”

Mobile banking needed a major overhaul as well at the credit union, according to McCombs. Vibrant will upgrade its mobile and online banking products in June, with Alkami in Plano, Texas providing both digital banking solutions.

“This will create a seamless environment for our members from online 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. Once Vibrant Credit Union completes the move to DNA, members will have P2P payment capabilities as well.

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

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

Its emphasis on member experience extends to branches, and Vibrant Credit Union views them as sales centers with employees hired to engage members.

“We staff them with people who will create opportunities, not wait 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 and creating traffic to come in,” McCombs added.

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

McCombs pointed out that he is very proud of what the credit 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 use social media to sell; we use social media to showcase our people and our culture.”

To make sure the credit union starts each day right, it begins with a “motivational moment.” Every morning, each employee, including the CEO, spends about 10 minutes doing something fun and not related to work. It could be a game like cornhole, or a putting on hot dog eating contest.

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

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

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

Instant Insights /

Extreme Credit Union Makeover Drives Sales, Engagement

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