Allyson Songstad
Marketing and Community Relations Specialist
Billings Federal Credit Union. Established 1935. Four branches in Billings, Montana. Serving 43 counties in Montana and three in Northern Wyoming.
The Challenge
Billings Federal has been exploring tellerless branch models since 2002. Their existing West End location was in a small strip mall with no drive-through, and the residential growth on that side of Billings made building a new, technology-forward branch a priority. They wanted ITMs in the lobby and drive-through lanes, with no traditional teller line.
The Solution
NextBranch worked with the Billings team to customize a deployment that included three drive-through lanes with ITMs, lobby ITMs, and both ITM and ATM technology running simultaneously. Members can self-serve, and if they need help, one button connects them to a video teller at another branch.
The Results
- Drive-through lanes are consistently busy, something the old location couldn't offer
- Lobby is highly utilized
- Check deposit issues that previously required a lender can now be resolved by connecting to a video teller
- Lenders freed up to focus on lending
- Model replicated at the Heights branch with the same success
- Billings Federal no longer calls their branches "tellerless" because a teller is always one button away
In Allie's Words
"The implementation process was really smooth. NextBranch was great. They really worked well with our team with getting everything customized for us. Once we walked a member through the ITMs once, they got it. Then they can just come in, walk up to our ITM, go through the drive-through, and get their business done quickly. We don't really like to say that we're totally tellerless because it's only just a click away to talk to one of our tellers. The advice that we would give other credit unions about implementing ITMs or moving to a tellerless model is to go for it and to use NextBranch. When you have a great partner that walks you through that implementation, that is readily available when you have any troubleshooting, that really makes it worth it."
