Case Study

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Wescom Credit Union Grows Membership with Exceptional Customer Care and Easy Access to Services

Industry Focus

Credit Union

Size

49 branch locations and $3.9 billion in assets

Networking Solution

High bandwidth network supports the multi-channel delivery of products and services; MPLS-based disaster recovery network helps ensure business continuity

Business Value

Premium service satisfies existing members while attracting new ones; generate growth opportunities through new acquisitions and products

About Our Customer

Wescom Credit Union is one of the largest credit unions in the country, with a growth trajectory accelerated by its continued focus on providing the highest possible levels of service and convenience to its members. Since 1934 when 13 individuals pooled $65 to create an alternative to banks, Wescom has grown to more than 300,000 members, 49 branches and $3.9 billion in assets. As part of a non-profit financial cooperative, Wescom members benefit from lower loan rates, higher savings yields, reduced fees and an expanding network of branches and ATMs. In addition to working to serve its members, Wescom is very community focused, contributing to causes such as the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and Habitat for Humanity.

Situation

Wescom has become the essential banking alternative for its growing number of members by going above and beyond the basic levels of customer service common in the financial services industry. Wescom officials view their relationships with members as “a constant state of opportunity,” and want to be prepared to move quickly, whether it’s to open new branches, introduce leading-edge services or find new ways to meet member needs. The company places paramount importance on protecting members’ financial and personal information and providing continuous access to their accounts. Wescom also offers its web-based home banking software and a turnkey service bureau to other credit unions.

Solution

Ensuring a constant state of readiness requires an efficient IT environment that can scale quickly to meet ever-changing member demands. Wescom’s network reliably supports dozens of products and services and new delivery channels to deliver “banking you just can’t get at your bank.” Its online banking website is powered with the bandwidth and access required to connect more than a million log-ins per month. Wescom maintains business continuity with an MPLS-based backup network that transports all mission-critical financial data from Wescom’s branches to the company’s dual operations centers in Anaheim and Pasadena.

A Commitment to Customer Service

For nearly 75 years Wescom has experienced steady growth by listening to its members and being prepared to meet their needs. As a result, its service offerings have expanded to include insurance and discount brokerage services. “When members manage their personal financial services they are looking for complementary, tightly integrated products,” said Rob Guilford, Senior Vice President of Information Technology.

When coupled with unparalleled customer service, Wescom’s resolve to introduce new services and delivery channels continues to strengthen member loyalty and satisfaction. For instance, Wescom recognized before many other financial institutions the importance of electronic delivery methods that enable members to bank and pay bills online from home and work, services that are vitally important to computer-savvy Baby Boomers and the generations that followed.

“Twenty years ago, most people would check their accounts once per month when their statement came out,” Guilford said. “Today we find members logging into their accounts three and four times a day to see what activity is taking place. The velocity of activity has grown astronomically and that equates to a need for bandwidth and access.” Just three years ago, Wescom’s online banking site attracted about 500,000 log-ins per month; it now generates more than 1.3 million.

Despite the soaring popularity of Wescom’s online banking services, traditional branches remain Wescom’s top delivery channel. The credit union continues to expand its branch network in Southern California and recently introduced Sunday hours at all branch locations that increase its level of service to members. In addition, Wescom expanded its weekday and Saturday branch hours for member convenience. And for those who prefer it, customer service representatives are always available during business hours to handle phone inquiries and transactions.

In order to gauge member satisfaction, Wescom surveys about 2,000 members each week. “We ask a few simple questions, the most important of which is ‘Would you refer a friend or relative to Wescom?’ and we measure that very closely,” Guilford said. Going beyond what banks offer their customers “helps to catapult our growth through positive word of mouth and awareness,” he added.

Best in Breed Technology Supports New Lines of Business

With its increasing number of services and proliferation of distribution channels, Wescom’s networking needs have grown “exponentially” since the mid -1990’s. “Our hallmark is that we never have to play catch-up,” he said. “We are constantly developing technology plans to grow our network beyond what we need today.” Typically, Wescom aims to run all its operations without using more than 50 percent of network capacity. Once operations begin to exceed that mark, Wescom expands its infrastructure.

In keeping pace with bandwidth demands, Wescom has gained significant expertise in the process of growing its network. As a result it now offers two dozen different products and serves nearly 100 credit union clients, from home banking software that allows credit unions to brand and run Wescom’s home banking platform on their networks to complete turnkey service bureaus for smaller credit unions that don’t want to make large investments in IT staff and equipment. This business line wasn’t something Wescom set out to develop, but it began offering the services in response to numerous requests. “We found that we were so successful in what we were doing within Wescom that credit unions began asking for help,” Guilford said.

Wescom compares itself not to other credit unions, but to multi-billion dollar banks and financial institutions. “We have always felt that best of breed applications and technology were absolutely what we were striving for and we always set our sights at the very top end of what is out there,” Guilford said. “That has already served us very well, allowing us to expand our capabilities and leverage what we already had built.”

Wescom was recently recognized for technology innovation when Guilford was honored by The Credit Union Times with the prestigious IT Executive of the Year Award. “I think Wescom has very much been a leader in technology,” Guilford said. He credits Wescom’s board of directors with providing the impetus for this technological superiority.

Dual Operations Centers Ensure Continuous Access

Since members rely heavily on technology to maintain continuous access to their accounts, Wescom places a premium on business continuity. Because it operates in a region that routinely experiences earthquakes, wildfires and power interruptions, Wescom must go to great lengths to guarantee uninterrupted service. In addition, Guilford said, the Federal government conducts stringent annual audits of financial institutions’ disaster preparedness and business continuity planning. “To support our branches we have to make certain that we have 100 percent network reliability,” said Guilford. “Without access, staff can’t see balances or complete transactions, so we had to build a network that was very reliable with plenty of bandwidth.”

For added redundancy, Wescom opened a new 133,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art network operations center in Anaheim to work in tandem with its existing center in Pasadena. The resulting load-balanced environment has sufficient capacity to enable either location to support 100 percent of network traffic in case of a problem.

Wescom also maintains an MPLS-based disaster recovery network to facilitate immediate recoverability. In the event of any network interruption, the MPLS network will transport all mission-critical financial data from Wescom’s remote branches to either operations center. “We almost don’t even track network downtime any more,” he said. “The redundancy with MPLS is so seamless and transparent that we seldom if ever see an outage at a branch due to a network failure.”

To support its bank by phone operation Wescom also needs backup for voice communications, including its interactive voice response (IVR) and call center operations. With agents working in both operations centers, Wescom installed two PBX systems in each location to ensure uninterrupted flow of business calls. “Our voice traffic flows in at both locations and it can be picked up by the next available agent in a seamless manner between the two sites,” Guildford said.

Satisfied Employees Lead to Satisfied Customers

Despite its commitment to maintaining cutting-edge technology, Wescom recognizes that its employees are the primary source of customer satisfaction. The credit union works to ensure a comfortable work environment and an atmosphere of mutual trust among employees and also provides workout facilities, ergonomically designed cubicles and state of the art seating. Many members of the IT staff already telecommute and Guilford said the credit union’s eventual transition to a 24 × 7 contact center schedule will be made possible by enabling customer service representatives to work from home.

“We go to great extremes to measure the climate within our organization and ask a lot of very hard questions about work environment and salary,” Guilford said. The executive team strives to improve any areas not given top ratings by staff.

These efforts to satisfy employees have been recognized by staff and by The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and The Great Place to Work Institute, which named Wescom in 2006 as one of the top 50 best small and medium-size companies to work for.
“We go to all this effort not so that we can get an award for being the best place to work, but because for us to provide absolute top-level service to our members, our employees need to be happy,” said Guilford. “They need to be smiling over the phone and serving our members in the branches in a way that’s second to none.”

Wescom recognizes the importance of maintaining an open dialogue with its employees and uses technology to facilitate effective communication. The CEO, Darren Williams, takes advantage of the credit union’s videoconferencing capabilities by conducting monthly meetings with the entire staff. “Our CEO covers important topical issues and spends a part of each staff videoconference answering questions from employees and recognizing their community service contributions,” Guilford said.

Looking Ahead for the Next Opportunity

Never content to rest on its laurels, Wescom continually works to develop new services that will enable members to check bank balances and make payments and transfers from their cell phones. “Mobile banking is probably the fastest-emerging technology we’re looking at right now,” Guilford said.

Another service under development is e-Deposit, which will give members immediate credit for checks that they have scanned in or sent to the credit union by fax. “Again it’s an issue of convenience and service,” Guilford said. “We’re trying to make our members’ lives a little better.”

For Wescom’s IT department the mission is clear. “We’re in a constant state of opportunity”, said Guilford, “and when new ideas come along we want to make certain that we on the IT side can say, ‘no problem, bring it on.’ We want to be prepared to handle whatever acquisition, new product or service that will bring in new members and new growth opportunities for us.”

Voice of the Customer

“Today we find members logging into their accounts three and four times a day to see what activity is taking place. The velocity of activity has grown astronomically and that equates to bandwidth and access.”

– Rob Guilford, Wescom Senior Vice President of Information Technology