Going live
David and Mitzi Sollon try out the video teller machine at Clearview Federal Credit Union in Canonsburg.
Mark Brennan, president and CEO of Clearview Federal Credit Union, explains the video teller machine’s uses at the Canonsburg location.
Clearview Live came to life in Washington County last week.
“This is a new technology for us,” said Renee Lucas, vice president of operations for Clearview Federal Credit Union.
The Moon Township-based organization launched its video teller machines last Monday at the rear of its Canonsburg branch along East Pike Street. The interactive program is called Clearview Live, and it enables FCU members to drive up and speak directly to a teller sitting in the company’s Wexford contact center.
“It’s like speaking to a teller face to face, but powered through video conferencing,” Lucas explained before the ribbon-cutting a week ago. “You touch the screen, enter your account number and connect with a personal video representative, who coaches you through a transaction.
“You can make deposits, cash checks to the penny, transfer funds between accounts, make loan payments … just about everything you can do at a drive-through.”
It is basically a drive-through with a personal touch, with extended hours. They will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday; no access on Sunday. (Branch hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.)
“The hours will be convenient to customers when they’re not convenient for us,” said Ralph Canterbury, Clearview vice president for marketing.
For the past couple of years, VTMs also have been a cost-cutting measure nationwide, as banks and credit unions have closed branches and trimmed employees.
Clearview marketing director Tom Huff, however, said that isn’t the case with his company. “This wasn’t a strategy to cut costs or employees or branches. It is an investment in technology to add services to our members. They will be able to drive up earlier or later (than before).”
The FCU has 19 locations, 18 of them in Pennsylvania including McMurray. (The only out-of-state branch is in East Liverpool, Ohio.) Clearview plans to implement this system at all of them by the end of 2017.
Canonsburg was selected first, and has two machines, one in each drive-up lane set up behind the ATM. Those lanes had been closed the previous two weeks for construction and installation of the machines.
Speaking at a ribbon-cutting last Monday, Canterbury said this technology is not new to Western Pennsylvania, but his company is “one of the first” to implement it here.
State Rep. Brandon Neuman, D-North Strabane Township, was invited to try the VTM. He touched the screen, entered a code, and started to converse with the video person in Wexford – rep speaking with rep.
“The world is moving in a very digital way. We appreciate Clearview taking the lead in this,” Neuman said afterward. He added that the VTM idea is an example of what a student can get from a STEM education – Science, Technology, Engineering, Math.
Neuman was the first, but not the only, “member” selected to try the new high-tech device. Spouses David and Mitzi Sollon of Sollon Funeral Home, about 100 yards from the VTM, stepped to the touch screen next and spoke with the cheery woman in the North Hills. TiAnda Blount, executive vice president of the Mel Blount Youth Home and wife of the Steelers Hall of Famer, followed.
They witnessed VTM joining ATM at Clearview in Canonsburg.