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Products, such as remote deposit, online banking, shared branching and a vast ATM Network are all making the decision about whether to close early or have a late opening a bit easier. With a steady dose of snow followed by a deep freeze, mother nature has caused a number of Maine CUs to alter hours in recent weeks but, according to several CUs, it hasn't had a significant impact on member service or operations.
"We are committed to serving our members through a variety of platforms, so if one channel is not available due to weather, we point our members to other channels. Our focus is on staff and member safety but the affect of weather on our ability to serve our members compared with even a few years ago is much less," remarked Roger Sirois, President of Atlantic FCU. Ryan Poulin, President of New Dimensions FCU, agreed, adding, "I was here in the ice storm twenty years ago and it was much more difficult to meet the needs of our members because of how reliant we were on our branch. While our branches remain an integral part of our operations and we rarely close; however, technology has made it easier to make the call to close early or open late than it used to be."
Todd Mason, President of the Maine CU League, said the League and Synergent have strong business continuity plans in place "to enable credit unions in all of our regions to continue to be served while ensuring the safety of our employees."
With the arrival of January, winter has clearly just begun so the likelihood of more early closings and delays is very high. In fact, with many parts of Maine still cleaning up from a blizzard, many Maine CUs are or have altered their hours in the past twenty-four hours. Thanks to technology and a robust offering of delivery channels, winter weather in Maine may not have quite the same connotation it did in the past.