First, he cited a high spirited staff. And that didn't just mean employees who smiled more – the energy was more tangible. Beginning in the summer of 2012, employees began introducing theme days as a way for members to make their visits to the credit union more interesting and enjoyable. The summer themes, for example, focused on vacation destinations, and staff decorated the lobby and dressed in appropriate attire to fit the theme. Examples included Las Vegas, where employees dressed as casino dealers; Yosemite National Park, where employees dressed as hikers; and Disneyland.

"These theme days created a buzz," Watters said. "In fact, several members went back to where they worked and shared their experiences with their coworkers, some of whom actually visited our credit union just to see what was going on."

The credit union will continue to hold these theme days, Watters said.

"The idea is to keep the energy and excitement levels high," he said. "You can't generate that in a sterile environment."

The second strategy involved making improvements to existing technologies and introducing new technologies. What resulted was the ability for members to conduct all of their loan activities online, including filling out applications, closing loans and making payments.

Watters admitted that while the technology has been an integral part of the credit union's loan growth success, with about 75% of all loans now being closed online, it was not easy to implement. First, Watters himself trained each employee on the new system one-on-one.

Then, employees worked with individual members who were giving the new process a try.

"It wasn't uncommon for staff to be on the phone with members who were using the technology for the first time, explaining how to get signed up, how to acknowledge the documents they were looking at, how to sign them and so on," Watters said.

In fact, it took exactly the same amount of time for staff and members to go through the process the first time online as it had traditionally taken to do everything in person. By the second time members took out loans, the process moved much faster.

However, there were some members who really struggled with the technology, and some who simply preferred to ignore it and continue to utilize the in-person process.

"Any time there is a change, it makes some people nervous," Watters said. "For example, some of our older members still prefer in-person, while younger people and those who are very busy with their careers prefer online."

The third step was to generate targeted marketing and advertising campaigns based on comprehensive, consistent monitoring and analysis of the loan portfolio. That is, the results of the portfolio monitoring and analysis helped to dictate a steady flow of promotions and email marketing, each of which was created to promote selected loan products that the monitoring and analysis had uncovered as being particularly relevant.

Watters said TCCU Vice President Alicia Quezada created graphs to segment the credit union's loan portfolio. She studied home equity and auto loans, tracking how they had been moving over the last five years in cyclical nature. For example, if the cyclical analysis showed that the credit union could anticipate a drop in auto loans in the next two months (based on previous years' data), the credit union would launch a marketing campaign focused on auto loans before the drop was expected to hit.

"Every two weeks, we had a different marketing piece that went out to members, which compared what we offered with what others offered," he said.

Quezada added, "Conducting loan analysis, market research, and I mean really dissecting our loan portfolio, has helped determine the direction the credit union needed to take to reach its loan goals."

The fourth strategy, introduced in September 2014, was to implement incentives designed to reward employees for their efforts and successes, such as opening new accounts, generating loan originations and even talking to members about loan opportunities.

Each employee has a checklist of activities that are encouraged, and they keep track of their involvement in these activities each week.

"Each step of the process has a point value," Watters said. "For example, if someone comes in to get a teller check to pay a car note at another credit union or bank, our employee may suggest that the person look at our rate. Taking applications and closing loans also have point values."

Each week, each employee turns in his or her report to Quezada, which includes two vital pieces of information. The first and most obvious is the total number of points the employee has earned so the employee can be compensated for his or her work. Compensation is given in the form of cash bonuses to the employee's paycheck. The second is to provide coaching opportunities.

"Alicia reviews the reports each week to make sure that everyone is building their skill sets, such as engaging in more loan discussions than they did the previous week," Watters said.

If there are signs that an employee is struggling in a particular area, Quezada then provides coaching for that employee.

The fifth and final component of the loan growth strategy was for the credit union as a whole to make improvements to its process, based on the employee reports as well as feedback from employees, members and marketing campaigns.

"What it has taught is that we all need to continue to work together more than we have in the past," Watters said. "In the past, for example, loan officers knew what their loan goals were, but may not have seen where that fit into the big picture."

Now, everyone at TCCU sees that every interaction has an impact on other processes.

"These days, we all look at the big picture together," Watters said.