In a move to improve service in the operations of its ATM fleet, Synergy Federal Credit Union has put its machines under the management of Dolphin Debit, the full-service ATM management company.
San Antonio-based Synergy FCU has 19 ATMs, which it deploys at its six branches and at key refinery sites of Valero Energy, its primary SEG. The credit union, with 11,734 members and assets of $264 million, uses the ATMs to provide service to employees in five states.
“ATMs are important to us because our strategy is aimed at serving members without them having to come into a branch,” explained Casidhe Meriwether, Executive Director of Marketing and Business Development for Synergy FCU. “We operate in a very virtual way.”
Synergy FCU has outsourced the management of its ATM fleet for years, but was finding that service was lagging with its previous vendor. When machines needed repair, for instance, that vendor wasn’t as responsive or as quick to repair them as the credit union would have liked.
Now, Synergy FCU gets rapid response from Dolphin and enjoys minimal downtime, an important issue when so many members rely heavily on their local ATM.
Also, Meriwether noted, “The few times we have had an issue, the way we contact Dolphin and open a trouble ticket is more user-friendly. That has been helpful.” She added that one issue for her as head of marketing is that she wanted to be able to switch ATM advertisements more frequently – and faster – and she says with Dolphin, “so far, so good.”
“When it comes to ATMs, especially for credit unions such as Synergy that count on them to service large numbers of members, quality service is critical,” said Gary Walston, co-founder of Dolphin Debit. “Our operations are focused on keeping downtime to an absolute minimum and responding immediately when we detect trouble with any of our clients’ machines.”