July 21, 2010

This is bonus coverage from “Complementing Core,” in the August 2010 issue of Credit Union Management magazine.

Suppose a long-time member walked into a CU with her father’s death certificate, an insurance check for $100,000 and papers showing she was the executor of the estate and asked to open an estate checking account. How would an alert CU with good core systems and CRM integration respond?

If she were a member of $2 billion Bellco Credit Union, “many triggers that we’ve established in our core system would be activated,” says Georgeen Goodell, director of system operations for the Greenwood Village, Colo.-based credit union. Since the core system and the CRM platform are fully integrated, once she opened the estate account and that data was entered into the core systems, it would immediately show as part of the member’s relationship with Bellco CU on the front page of the member profile. Anyone working with that member could see that it was there, she explains. “Our people could see that it makes more sense to cross-sell investment services rather than loans. That member might be eligible for an upgrade to enhanced services.”

But people, not systems, make the decisions. “The facts are all there, but it takes common sense to interpret them and act on them in the best way,” Goodell says. “We’ve also established protocos that trigger a notification to a Bellco CU person who works with estates, she adds.

If the estate executor belonged to $750 million San Francisco Federal Credit Union, San Francisco, opening the estate account would be captured by the core system and flagged as an unusual transaction and included in weekly reports to the branch manager and the SVP/operations. 

“They would see it as a significant activity,” explains Steve Stapp, president/CEO and a CUES member. “They probably would call the member to make sure the account was opened satisfactorily and inquire about other needs the member might have,” he reports. “We might mention notary and gold medallion services. We might suggest investment services.” 

At $783 million Credit Union 1, based in Anchorage, Alaska, the recognition of the event and the offer of collateral services would occur at account opening between the member and a well-trained CU employee, not through a system-dictated follow up. 

“After a conversation to find out more about the purpose of the account, our staff would gather appropriate documentation and we could put messages on the account to help staff recognize what is going on with the account so anyone could provide the member with the same level of service as the first person who helped them did,” says Rachel Ramsey, VP/marketing and communications.

$2.8 billion Mountain America Credit Union, based in suburban Salt Lake City, systems wouldn’t trigger alerts if a member came in to open an estate checking account, but the customer service rep would be trained to ask questions and offer investment, notary, gold seal medallion, wire transfer, cashier’s checks or other appropriate services on the spot at account opening, notes Bret Skousen, SVP/sales, research and development and Web applications.

At a CU using an advanced Harland Financial Solutions application, the unusual transaction would be flagged and sending a sympathy card might be suggested, says Chris Braccia, director of product management  at CUES Supplier member Harland Financial Solutions, Lake Mary, Fla. If the CU offered notary services for a fee, the system, based on the size of the balance, might prompt the employee to offer free notary services for that member. If the estate account balance grew with additional deposits, the system would prompt staff to consider calling the member to set up an appointment to discuss investment options, he adds.

Richard H. Gamble is a free-lance writer based in Colorado.Core-CRM Integration 1