Banking Delivery Services: Better than Branches?

Mark Crawford - CUNA Councils
March 16, 2005

Does your CU provide delivery service? If not, maybe you could be the first on the block that does. Sending one of your representatives to your business customers to pick up deposits saves the customers time and boosts their productivity. If you can help your business customers eliminate a daily trip to your credit union, that saves them about five hours a week, or over 250 hours a year, that can be spent on more important work.

Getting Around Town

Banks have been providing free courier services for years. “We do everything except transport sizeable quantities of cash,” says assistant vice president and deposit officer Jim McNulty with Oak Bank in Madison, Wisconsin. “We pick up deposits, deliver or pick up loan documents, copies of statements—basically whatever the business customer needs. The courier service is one more way we can provide high-touch service to our customers, especially those who are across town.”

Mike Daniel, senior vice president for Wisconsin Community Bank in Madison, agrees. This bank’s fleet of three courier vans serve customers in two counties. “It’s a faster and more convenient way of expanding our reach, compared to building new branches,” he says.

Operating the Routes

Maintaining a courier service isn’t cheap. It means purchasing and maintaining vans and hiring personnel (salary, benefits, and insurance). Yet running a courier service is far less expensive than building a new branch. It is also a unique way of getting to know your customers on a daily basis through their interaction with the drivers.

“Two retired gentlemen are our couriers,” says McNulty. “They know all the customers by name. They get to understand the customer in a way that we in the bank cannot, because they interact with them in their office environment every day.”

“Our couriers love what they do,” says Michael Van Handel, courier supervisor for First Business Bank in Madison. “They really get to know the clients and become friends. Recently one of our couriers was stricken with cancer. Many of the clients on his route called, sent letters, or delivered flowers—that really shows the kind of relationships the couriers can develop on the front line.”

Extending Their Reach

It’s impossible to say what percentage of business-customer growth is a direct result of courier services. “About 50% of our overall growth is from the business sector,” says McNulty, “and a number of those clients rely on the courier service.”

Besides allowing financial institutions to service more distant clients without building branches, the courier vans are also a great way to advertise. Wisconsin Community Bank has decided to brand its Business Express Courier Service by decorating the vans with bold, eye-catching graphics of an enlarged $100 bill.

“When our loan officers make calls,” says Daniel, “the courier service is one of our biggest selling points. The service has more than paid for itself by helping to grow our business banking. It’s also an effective, low-cost marketing tool that makes people remember who we are. Securing new customers is all about service and convenience, and that’s exactly what our courier services provide.”