2023 Annual Report
Growing & Evolving to Benefit Our Members & Our Team
Our growth in assets and members in 2022 was a direct result of many other areas of expansion and evolution throughout the year.
Expanding into Central Indiana
Perhaps our biggest announcement of the year was our plan to expand our footprint into Central Indiana, opening branches in Fortville, Muncie, and Pendleton. We shared this exciting news in June, and the work to make it happen began straightaway. Our team quickly began building connections with local business owners, non-profits, and other community partners. Throughout the remainder of the year, we made our presence in Central Indiana known by fostering these new relationships, sponsoring local events, and beginning the search for local residents who would make a great addition to our team.
Our Fortville branch opened its doors in mid-December, and we were thrilled at the outpouring of support from the community and the eagerness of our Fortville branch team to dive right into providing our new members with the highest level of service from day one!
We carry our enthusiasm from our Fortville experience into 2023, as we continue to establish relationships and invest in the Muncie and Pendleton communities ahead of opening these locations later this year.
The investment in these three new facilities will be approximately $7.5M. We’ve partnered with Fort Wayne-based Strategic Growth Advisors to design and build the branches. Each open-concept building will be around 3,000 square-feet in size, and will feature separate rooms for business, mortgage, and investment services, separate drive-thru lanes, and ATMs.
Learn more about our expansion into Central Indiana at 3riversfcu.org/centralexpansion.
Growing Regional Membership & a New Look for Richmond Central
Our Richmond, Liberty, and Hagerstown branches continued to see membership growth in 2022, increasing members by 4% over the course of the year (this outpaced the annual population growth of Wayne and Union Counties)! Our regional Net Promoter Score was positive in 2022, and we ended the year with our highest monthly score to-date.
Team members and members alike were delighted with the completion of our Richmond Central branch remodel, which wrapped in October. The building received a top-to-bottom renovation, completed by local contractors. The branch now reflects the look and feel of 3Rivers, featuring modern cosmetic updates, local artwork, and layout changes that allow our branch, mortgage, and sales teams to collaborate more efficiently and make for a better member banking experience.
Updating & Enhancing Products & Solutions for Our Members
Our team is constantly looking for ways to provide our members with the best products and services and improve upon our existing offerings in order to ensure our members are getting the most out of their banking experience with us. In some instances, this may result in a complete overhaul, but more often, we’re able to make quick and simple tweaks that have a major impact.
In 2022, we made several minor updates to our online and mobile banking services, our website navigation and online processes, our live chat feature, and more, all with the goal of creating better self-service experiences.
Early in the year, we surveyed our membership to determine whether the consumer checking accounts we offered were providing the most sought-after benefits. In doing so, we found that our members were most interested in higher-dividend and cash back checking options. We spent the remainder of the year designing products that would meet our members’ needs and that we could operate internally. From this, Dividends+ Checking and Cash Back Checking were created, and members began transitioning to and opening these new accounts in January of 2023.
Our debit and credit cards also got an update in 2022, with the addition of contactless, tap-to-pay technology. This, paired with our EMV chip technology and the ability to add our cards to mobile wallets, makes using 3Rivers debit and credit cards not only easier to pay with, but more secure, too.
While the rising interest rates weren’t always ideal for some borrowers, they were positive for savers. Though we already had several Share Certificate and money market options in place, we took the higher rates into consideration to develop several limited-time savings offers, featuring some of the most competitive rates in our service areas. Both existing and newly-acquired members benefited from taking advantage of our Share Certificate specials and targeted bonus deposit offers to end the year.
In 2022, we implemented Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and the 16 bots in production saved our team 190 hours of manual labor per month!
Streamlining Internal Processes to Work More Efficiently
The more efficiently we can work, the more we can focus on higher-level priorities and better serving our members, and 2022 was a year of finding opportunities to evolve our workflows. We tested and implemented several process automation and project management software options that proved to save our team members hundreds of hours of manual work. Additionally, the consolidation and automation of systems, processes, and efforts saved the credit union thousands of dollars. With an updated project intake process, we were able to complete 11 enterprise-level projects within the year.
Integrating more technology into our projects and workflows also allows us to create deeper relationships with our membership by getting a more detailed look at their overall financial pictures and level of engagement with the credit union, helping us to identify and predict their unique needs so we’re better equipped to meet them at the right place and time, with the most valuable messaging, solutions, and support.
With much research and consideration being done on this front in 2022, we’re excited to keep the momentum going by creating even more efficiencies and strengthening our members’ experiences with the help of technology in the years ahead.
