Window Ensures New CU Branch Can Stay Open

One lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic for Sharonview Federal Credit was that an open branch concept works best when branches are open.

Like most credit unions, the Charlotte area credit union ($1.6 billion in assets, 94,527 members) shut down lobbies when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic March 11, 2020. Things were made worse because several branches did not have drive-thru tellers.

Its solution was to install walk-up windows last summer at five branches lacking drive-thrus.

And when Sharonview decided it was time to move its branch in Shelby, N.C., it picked a strip mall shopping center with a Starbucks and dental office, just a mile down U.S. 74 from the old branch in the town, which is 45 miles west of Charlotte.

The new location wasn’t suitable for a drive-thru teller, so the credit union decided it would have a walk-up window from the start.

“We learned a lot from the pandemic,” President/CEO Bill Partin said. “We factored in those lessons learned into designing a branch that will serve us and our members well for years to come.”

“You’ll be greeted by someone from our team the minute you walk in – so we are continuing the personal touch we’re known for,” Partin continued. “At the same time, we’re ready for another extraordinary, although unlikely, event such as a pandemic. If the lobby is closed, we can still serve our members’ financial needs.”

EVP/COO Ricky Otey said Sharonview moved from the old site near a Wal-Mart because traffic had made it difficult for members to get in and out of the location.

“This is one of our busiest branches,” Otey said. “We had simply outgrown the location we were in.“

The new location has a detached drive-up ATM on the outside, and continues Sharonview’s open lobby concept on the inside.

The open concept was launched in 2015 as part of a strategy for developing its presence both online and on the ground.

“Members want both,” Otey said. “They want a very robust digital strategy, which we offer. We actually get about 12-15% of our new members from a digital channel.”

But Otey said members still want branches.

“Part of building our retail strategy was redesigning what the interaction was like inside our brick-and-mortar retail locations,” Otey said. The open design supports the credit union’s strategy “to focus on customer interactions, and not transactions.”

Employees carry iPads, so they can walk around the branch freely and still be able to help members wherever they move. The new architecture of the branch gets rid of traditional queues to approach interior teller windows.

Instead, the credit union stations an employee near the entrance who serves as a greeter, who finds out what they need and directs them to the appropriate place in the branch to meet that need.

Often it’s a transaction station – an island stand in the lobby with a teller on one side and the member on the other. Or it might simply be the interior ATM.

If they’re opening a loan or have some other more involved need, they’ll be taken to an office.

The new 2,940-square-foot Shelby branch has two “member experience pods” – private spaces in an otherwise open office – five offices and a conference room. It also has an interior ATM and detached drive-up ATM outside.

And, of course, it has a walk-up teller window.

Sharonview has 11 branches in North Carolina, eight in South Carolina and its headquarters in Indian Land, S.C., 20 miles south of Charlotte and just across the North Carolina border.

The number of credit union branches had been rising slowly from at least 2016 to 2019, but NCUA data showed a drop last year. It lists 21,515 branches (including headquarters) in December, 449 fewer than a year earlier.