Washington State Employees Credit Union Delivers Seamless Anywhere Banking Experiences with DocuSign

A lot has changed since WSECU opened its doors to a small group of Washington state employees in the fifties. Today, it manages more than $3 billion in assets and serves a vastly more diverse membership across the state. “As long as you live, work or worship in Washington, you can be a member,” said Tyler Baccus, digital systems analyst.

With a geographically dispersed base, including an increasing number of Gen Zers, digital has long been a key part of WSECU’s growth strategy. And it’s been recognized by the CUNA Technology Council for its outstanding accomplishments in digitizing member engagement. The credit union has invested heavily in technology—including DocuSign—to deliver on evolving consumer expectations for fast and secure anytime, anywhere banking.

“We are passionately focused on supporting our members—no matter how they decide to interact with us,” said Baccus. “Embracing digital has enabled us to develop a wide array of products and services for our members.”

Making digital lending safe and easy with eSignature and Identify

WSECU adopted DocuSign eSignature and implemented the solution to be proactive. Making the move to electronic signatures was a no-brainer, according to Baccus. “We’re a digitally forward organization, so it was only a matter of time.”

Before, WSECU was dealing with the burden of paper-based processes: lots of manual data entry, slow processing times and a less-than-amazing member experience. When members needed a loan, for instance, they had to get in their car, drive to the nearest branch and fill out a bunch of paperwork. Many others went the print-scan-email route but were concerned about security. “There are Social Security numbers, account numbers and other personal details attached to some of these things—and our members really struggled with this,” said Baccus.

By integrating eSignature with its MeridianLink loan origination system, WSECU made the lending experience intuitive, secure and incredibly low effort. Once they’re approved for a loan, members get an email letting them know their documents are ready to be signed. For extra security, their identities are verified via eSignature’s knowledge-based authentication, which leverages LexisNexis’ vast consumer database to validate identities in real time. The credit union is also eyeing DocuSign ID verification, which will enable members to quickly verify their identity by uploading an image of their passport or driver’s license.

Accelerating front- and back-office processes with PowerForms and Templates

Comparing the old paper-based world to the digital world is “apples to oranges at this point,” Baccus said. “DocuSign has really been transformative.” One of the most notable benefits has been speed. Lending application cycle times decreased from days (or even weeks) to minutes, which means members get their funds faster and the business is earning interest sooner. 

By digitizing processes, WSECU is able to capture and utilize data in a way that wasn’t possible before. “The entire dialogue that would normally happen in a branch or over the phone now happens within DocuSign,” said Baccus. It’s been such a success that the credit union has turned over 100 paper forms into digital workflows to improve external and internal processes including account opening, asset transfers, account changes, employee expense reimbursements and more. The ease of using features like PowerForms and Templates has helped fuel adoption across the organization. “They’re really useful tools that make everything so much easier—you just click, input your data and you’re done.”

Automating PAD forms with DocuSign Retrieve

WSECU has continued to see big operational and customer experience wins with DocuSign—with time savings across the board and dramatic improvements to its high-volume pre-authorized debit (PAD) agreement workflow. PADs offer members a convenient way to pay bills and make loan payments automatically.

Previously, the credit union had been capturing necessary data and signatures digitally via a DocuSign PowerForm. But Contact Center employees had to manually upload the agreements into its core system. Using DocuSign Retrieve, they were able to streamline that part of the process. Now, documents are automatically routed to the appropriate downstream system the moment the DocuSign envelope is completed—saving employee time and initiating customer requests at a much faster rate. “Generally, all PAD forms are now processed within four to six hours as opposed to 24 hours.”

Going digital to create great in-branch experiences

Beyond enabling seamless anytime, anywhere, any device transactions, DocuSign also helped WSECU enhance the in-branch experience—particularly in high-stress scenarios like when a member had experienced fraud. “Before, we essentially said ‘We sent you an email’ and sent them on their way, which was not a good member experience,” said Baccus. Today, all employees have DocuSign accounts, so members can complete the claims process using an employee’s iPad—providing all necessary data before leaving the branch. “It was so positively received that I created templates for all other highly used member-facing forms.”

Maintaining momentum

DocuSign is a part of the culture at WSECU now, Baccus said—and its growth has been exciting. “It’s talked about almost every single day, and a lot of departments have come to rely on it.” 

Members love it, too, as evidenced by the praise that’s been coming through in “voice of the member” surveys—with one member remarking: The DocuSign method is fantastic….I was completely satisfied with how fast my request was processed.

As the credit union focuses on other exciting initiatives—such as developing its own digital banking platform—Baccus appreciates DocuSign’s easy maintainability. “We don’t have to devote all these resources to it to make sure it’s successful...because DocuSign is successful right now, and I think it’s going to continue to grow organically.”