Outsourcing your chores

For years, many of us have been outsourcing basic chores at home such as house cleaning and lawn care. In today’s world, you can even outsource your grocery shopping and gift buying.  Why do we outsource certain chores at home? We don’t have time. Maybe we’re not really good at the chore or lack the necessary tools. And with so many things pulling us in so many directions, we have to prioritize and focus on what’s important to us.  

You can apply this same rationale to your credit union.  What areas of the business are not at the core of what you do best?  What chores are you performing at the credit union that you’d like to pawn off on someone else?  Or, maybe we should spin the question around. What is it that you do that is imperative to your membership that you do?  What actions do you perform for your members that are crucial? What interactions between you and your member cannot be sacrificed or turned over to someone else?  

Then look at the other functions that are required but not crucial.  What pulls your time away from serving and cultivating your membership? What is necessity but not imperative? If you were to eliminate certain areas of responsibility for you or your staff, could you use that time to focus on more important areas?

Consider your ATM fleet.  Now, for some of us, “fleet” equals one. And that’s an important point.  No matter how many ATMs you operate for your membership, you are required to perform all the necessary functions to keep the ATM operating and your members happy. So, the number of ATMs you operate doesn’t make it harder or easier.  The list of requirements for ATM management can be long and painful: capital expense, communications, maintenance, software, armor service, cash management, reg E disputes, etc.

When you outsource your ATMs, you’re not eliminating access for your members.  You’re transferring the responsibility of a necessary evil over to a partner that focuses solely on maintaining ATM fleets for credit unions across the country.  The concept is a simple one but sometimes hard to grasp. Many executives I meet with honestly admit they’ve never considered outsourcing ATMs because they felt it was there responsibility.  And they will also admit that they don’t really like servicing or managing the ATM. Sounds to me like it might be one of the least favorite chores at the office.

And part of that is true.  You are responsible for giving your members access to their cash.  And the most effective and efficient way to do that is through an ATM.  But how you get there is up to you. There are few areas of your credit union that can be outsourced that will save the credit union the capital expense, reduce monthly costs, increase staff time, reduce frustration and improve service like outsourcing your ATMs.  

And you can redeploy your best assets, your staff, into the critical member-serving areas of your operation.