PEOSTA, Iowa—In a first-of-its-kind experiment, Dupaco Community Credit Union has started a tellerless branch intended as a learning lab to teach its members how better to manage their money at the same time it teaches the CU how better to run its operations.
There’s a third learning opportunity involved, as well. The cooperative hopes to capitalize on its proximity to Northeast Iowa Community College–its Peosta campus is right across the street from the “learning lab” branch–both to add members from college ranks and to train students there to counsel fellow students on financial literacy. It plans to run promotions with the college, including providing a $1,000 scholarship, and hopes to have its first student interns in the branch this fall.
The interns would greet members, show them how to use the auto teller, and help other students learn about their finances.
Dupaco CU's new video teller branch in Peosta, Iowa, opened as part of initiative with local college.
Dave Klavitter, senior vice president of marketing for Dubuque-based Dupaco, said the idea of having a branch that uses video teller machines isn’t to have offices without human beings. Three employees work in the branch, which opened in the last week of May. The idea is to free up those employees from the humdrum of everyday transactions to allow them to focus on bettering their members’ financial positions.
Located in a building with a convenience store, the Peosta branch has entrances from both outside and the retail store, as well as a drive-up window. The two video teller machines are in the lobby and in the drive-up. They are manned by remote employees at a call center 10 miles from Peosta.
The VTMs will allow employees to spend more time talking to members about their money, Klavitter said. That would include budgeting, money makeovers, credit histories, consolidating debt, and teaching them how to use the branch technology to better manage their finances.
Take What's Learned to Other Branches
“Transactions are the largest part of our business,” he said. If Dupaco can automate that part of the business it will be freed up to focus on higher-value services. And, as the branch can be easily customized and reconfigured, “we can take what we learn at the lab and use it at our other 18 branches.”
In addition to the video tellers, the Peosta Learning Lab features iPad training counters to help members learn how to use Dupaco's mobile services, built-in electronic wall displays to aid in consultations about money, and LED-powered signage and lighting that conserve energy and reduce electricity costs up to 35% annually, the credit union said.
The VTMs “can do pretty much everything a physical teller can,” Klavitter says, with the exception of cashiers’ checks or money orders. He said they are “easier to use than an ATM. You’re dealing with a live person.”
The machines are made by NCR and cost between $50,000 and $100,000 apiece. The branch design was done by Refinery Design Co. of Dubuque, a longtime partner of Dupaco.
The branch opened at the end of May, and “most people have responded positively,” Klavitter says. “We have a few members who don’t like it. They can do transactions in another branch.”
Taking A Little Risk
The new branch will be open 30 minutes earlier and remain open 30 minutes later than the full-service branches.
Dupaco, which started as a small credit union for employees of a meatpacking company, now has $1.3 billion in assets and 86,000 members in Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois.
Klavitter gives credit to the CU’s board for the idea to start the VTM branch, which he said is the first for an Iowa credit union and only the fourth for the entire state. After consideration the directors decided “we may be able to take a bit of a risk,” he said.
–Mark Fogarty
