5 tips for eliminating the summer slowdown with a document management system customized for your credit union

The heat of summer vacation season is here and more than likely your credit union is sweating the slow down created when team members, vendors, and members take their well-deserved time off. To eliminate the summer slow down, use these tips to help you ease the potential productivity pause by leveraging a remote-ready document management system (DMS).

1. Put a plan in place for your credit union’s digital service delivery. If your credit union doesn’t already have its staff holiday schedule planned well in advance, it’s time to start now, before the fall and winter holiday seasons starts! Begin by making sure each employee has submitted formal requests for time off and these requests have been coordinated across your credit union so that everyone is on the same page. A secure document management system can help expedite this process by enabling employees to confidentiality submit their requests using a DMS workflow customized to your credit union’s human resources needs.
2. Create and share your digital customer service, account opening and loan documents with the appropriate people. Not utilizing a DMS, may stifle the ability of your team to optimize the member experience and keep loans and other revenue-generating opportunities moving forward. Implement a DMS to help you transition your account and loan processes into the cloud with secure access for all stakeholders. When you do have such a system in place, your team will be able to handle these needs much more efficiently as well as allow members to quickly take care of their business with you even on vacation.
3. Integrate electronic signature capabilities into your document workflows. An essential component of any DMS workflow is digital signature integration. With a DMS solution you can have your credit union’s members, board members and other third-parties sign requisite paperwork no matter where they are at any time so that your loan, member account, and policy pipelines stay productive even during vacation season.
4. Educate and train employees and members on your credit union’s digital service delivery. Since the concept of eNotes and e-closings plus the related processes may be new to your team and your members, you may have to invest considerable time in making them comfortable with this new way of transacting loans. However, with a fully integrated process and enough education, this transition should be a welcome change.
5. Communicate any service or process changes related to vacations to any relevant stakeholders and your team members. In addition to the requisite Out of Office reminders, be sure to clearly communicate how members will be served with any new processes and to all involved team members what their additional responsibilities are in regard to covering vacations. As you do so, consider this an ideal time to onboard new staff and members into digital workflows for employee engagements, loan and account operations, and member services. A robust DMS can support the document sharing, organization, security, and team collaboration necessary for this process.

If your credit union has not already implemented a smart DMS to offset the impact of the summer vacation season, use these tips as a springboard to take action to do so prior to the end-of-the-year holiday hiatus. Being proactive with your credit unions ’document management infrastructure will help bolster revenues, employee retention, and member acquisition in the long run. Use the summer months to research and review the most highly rated DMS platforms so you can leverage proven technology to keep pace with member demand for the convenience and security that it provides as well as to leverage the operational benefits.