Red River Federal Credit Union adds Interactive Teller Machines at several Texarkana locations with more on the way

This Interactive Teller Machine is now the RRFCU kiosk at Central Mall. It offers live interaction and banking services with a teller at the Summerhill Road location. It also features an ATM off to the side.
This Interactive Teller Machine is now the RRFCU kiosk at Central Mall. It offers live interaction and banking services with a teller at the Summerhill Road location. It also features an ATM off to the side.

TEXARKANA, Texas - Red River Federal Credit Union's Central Mall branch, in the past a kiosk with a pair of tellers, has undergone a fundamental change. When a customer, or member, steps up to the kiosk, they no longer see a pair of tellers. They see a screen, which they are instructed to press. When they do, a teller appears on the screen, interacting with them in real time.

The teller is at another branch, providing them the same service as in the past, but in a different way. This same technology is going to be gradually implemented at their drive-thru locations. Center Mall was activated earlier this summer.

"Our first one was at our University branch, the branch next to our corporate offices," said Vickie Bryan, vice president of operations. "We previously tested one at our Summerhill branch. We've been looking at the concept for a couple of years."

COVID-19, in some ways, influenced this change.

"Like many businesses, we've been dealing with the shortage of available workers," she said. "We needed a way to expand our channels. So we moved this concept along for our purposes."

The ITM is intended to complement the branch banks and the teller interaction experience.

"At RRFCU, we value the teller/member interaction," Bryan said. "Much of our membership prefers that, so that is a big part of our operations. But we wanted to improve the drive-through operations, make them more efficient as well as keep them service-focused."

When working with the ITM, a member is interacting with a live person. They may not be at that particular location, but they are live and they are in real time.

"The mall kiosk has a member interacting with a teller at the Summerhill branch," she said.

Eventually, all the drive-thru outlets will be converted to ITMs, though this will take some time. In addition, Bryan stressed, this conversion will not cost anyone their job.

"Some personnel will be reassigned to other positions," she said. "The ITMs will bring efficiencies as well as improvements in member service. In addition, ITM service will bring increased operating hour availability, too. They will open earlier and close later."

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