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Tucson Federal Credit Union

Tucson Federal Credit Union (TFCU) was formed in 1937 by a group of teachers with a vision who came together to form a financial cooperative that could better serve the financial needs of Tucson’s school employees and their families. In 2006, the credit union was granted a community charter which allows them to serve anyone who lives, works, worships, volunteers, or attends school in Pima County and their immediate families and household members. Today, TFCU has grown to more than 50,000 members and $353 million in assets. This growth is fueled by a dedicated group of volunteers who are elected by their members to represent them, and a great staff who are committed to exceeding members’ expectations. To ensure that every member and visitor has a great experience at every branch visit, TFCU has implemented a state-of-the-art branch visitor queuing and appointment handling system: Better Lobby from Better Branches.

One part of TFCU’s strategic plan called for them to find ways to improve that branch visitor experience. The senior managers at the credit union formed a team that include Krystal Adams and Nathalie Adams (no relation). Krystal, TFCU’s Assistant Vice President of Member Experience, explains that “it was a top priority for us to find ways to improve the branch experience so that we can provide an exceptional interaction to each and every member on every visit.” The team narrowed down their vendor search to three prospective visitor queuing providers, and these three were vetted by extensive interviews, demos and reference checking. Nathalie, an IT Project Manager, recalls that “Better Branches really stood out in many ways. Their references all said that they were easy to work with, nimble and very responsive so we felt very comfortable choosing them.”

Once the contract was signed in late 2014, both the credit union and Better Branches got down to work quickly. According to Krystal, “our weekly meetings with their implementation team went great – they are super organized and knowledgeable.” Nathalie adds that “from an IT side, we had no issues whatsoever. Everything went according to plan and quite smoothly.” Tucson Federal Credit Union chose to implement two of their seven branches as a pilot. The team was pleased to find the system so user friendly that “tellers could literally be trained in under a half hour to use the scheduling software.” Members also found the system intuitive – they simply sign in on iPad when they arrive at the branch. Krystal points out that “Better Branches really made us more efficient because MSRs now know who is waiting and why they are visiting – it has improved both the speed and quality of our branch service. The MSRs are now completely prepared to meet and greet the member.”

The senior management team back at the headquarters also is reaping the benefits of the new platform. The software helps management monitor employee performance standards, while simultaneously providing in-depth service metrics in real-time. Krystal notes that “we are all about relationship banking and this system really helps us get a handle of what is happening in the branch for our staff and members.” Nathalie concurs and says that “reporting is very important for us and this system provides a whole range of helpful reports without having to do any programming. We can extract lots of hard, useful data right out the system with just a few mouse clicks.”

With the Better Lobby system in place and functioning flawlessly, TFCU is looking to expand their calendar system from their staff out to their members to allow them to book appointments online or via mobile devices. They are also fine-tuning their setup as they go with the assistance of Better Branches’ highly experienced development team. Nathalie states that “their support is just amazing. They make changes quickly and they always work the first time. They are the model for a perfect vendor relationship.” Krystal is also very pleased with the partnership and concludes that: “they are very focused on personal service and it is great to work with a company that goes above and beyond to help us achieve our goals.”

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