In this episode of the Believe in Banking podcast, Gina Bleedorn and Juliet D’Ambrosio welcome on Courtney Coss, Chief Retail Officer at the Credit Union of Texas (CUTX), for an insightful conversation on building culture and community through innovative, future-focused retail delivery. Drawing on her 25-year journey from teller to top leadership, Courtney shares how CUTX has transformed their branch network – from ITM-only drive-ups to community spaces and coffee shops to dog parks – all grounded in their core mission of people helping people. Their dynamic discussion explores CUTX’s bold branching strategy, commitment to underserved markets, focus on the future through youth engagement, and authentic approach to culture-building that fosters employee engagement and meaningful member connections. It’s a masterclass on leading with purpose and passion and how to evolve the branch for a new era.
Text Transcription
Intro: This is Believe in Banking, a podcast series for decision makers, influencers, and leaders, featuring experts taking on the financial industry’s most pressing issues with insight and empathy. The podcast features information and conversations designed to enlighten and empower.
Gina Bleedorn (00:18): Welcome to our Believe in Banking podcast. I’m Gina Bleedorn, President and CEO of Adrenaline.
Juliet D’Ambrosio (00:24): And I’m Juliet D’Ambrosio, Chief Experience Officer at Adrenaline.
So Gina, we have a very special guest that we’re welcoming on the podcast today. Thrilled to hear from Courtney Coss. She is the Chief Retail Officer at the Credit Union of Texas (CUTX). And what we’re going to be talking about today, as her title might have given away, is the real importance of the branch for the business, not only for the Credit Union of Texas, but branching in general. So, this kind of perspective is something that we talk about. We evangelize a lot and I’m so thrilled to be able to hear sort of straight from the horse’s mouth, but also from an organization like Credit Union of Texas, which is really out in front and setting the standard for branching for a credit union.
Gina, will you tell us a little bit, because CUTX, as we know it has a long history with Adrenaline. Will you give us a little background on how we’ve gotten to know them and how we’ve worked with them over the years?
Gina Bleedorn (01:38): Yeah, so CUTX has been a really beloved client of Adrenaline for over a decade. We have worked together on more than 20 branch projects, and they’re killing it. They’re $2 billion in assets and growing. What you said, Juliet, we use them… I use them when I’m speaking as best practice examples for having multiple branch formats, having literal integration into the community when they go into new communities and existing [ones], and we’re really excited to be able to share more about what’s behind that. So welcome, Courtney.
Courtney Coss (02:21): Thank you for having me.
Juliet D’Ambrosio (02:22): Courtney, I would love to know, and this is something that we ask all of our guests… just a little bit about what brought you to retail and banking, what brought you to CUTX? Tell us a little bit of the story of how you got there.
Courtney Coss (02:37): Sure. So, I have been with the credit union a little over 25 years. So, I started off very young in my career here at the credit union, actually as a teller. I’ve held positions throughout my career and the credit union has just been great to me, and I believe in what we’re doing. Fast forward to today, being the chief retail officer. I oversee all of the branches. I also oversee our cards and payment channels, support services, our business treasury accounts, and some other support departments. So it’s been a fun ride.
Juliet D’Ambrosio (03:14): Yeah, I bet. And especially with 25 years, my guess is that you’ve seen so much change and so much transformation not only at CUTX but with just the industry and maybe even with the members that you’re serving in those communities. What are some of the changes that really stand out to you if you think back to when you were a teller all the way to where you are now?
Courtney Coss (03:39): Yeah, I probably think the biggest thing that we’re seeing today is really the advance of technology. So that is kind of shifting the way that we think about banking. You have to make sure that you’re investing in that technology and really looking at your membership – how do they want to bank with you? There’s still members that like to come into a branch location, but there’s also that younger generation that wants to access their funds quickly and move it around quickly, as well. So it’s kind of a delicate balance that you have to have between the branches and technology. But I would say that that’s the biggest thing that we’ve been experiencing throughout my career.
Juliet D’Ambrosio (04:13): Courtney, I think that what you’re saying is so resonant not only with us at Adrenaline but really with our listeners. There is that idea of how you phrased it, that delicate balance of meeting younger generations where they are on the digital channels and on the screens they prefer to do their banking. They’re natives to digital. And at the same time there is that ongoing need for the human connections that happen and can only happen at the branch. And everyone that we work with, all of our clients, are really trying to answer that million dollar question. And I’d love for you to talk a little bit about how you see CUTX, how you’ve begun to sort of tackle that challenge head on and begin to meet both of those. They’re not mutually exclusive needs, but both of those parallel needs.
Courtney Coss (05:17): Well, I think for the branches you have to give the community and your membership a reason to want to visit a branch location, so you do have to think outside of the box. And so we really incorporate that into the branch design, ensuring that we have technology inside the branches. We even have digital kiosk that members can interact with. So I think that they find that very beneficial when they have trouble, for example, getting into online banking. It’s so easy for them to come into a branch and actually interact with a digital kiosk and really understand that technology. We’ve even incorporated community rooms that way. We can draw in different businesses that maybe don’t have that meeting space. They can come into our branch location and have those type of meetings. We have a tech bar and we have charging stations, hospitality bars, and so as you kind of start to think about all of that, we wanted our branches to be a place where people wanted to come visit.
And so I do feel like you have to incorporate the community needs to have that in your branch atmosphere. And some of the other things that we’ve done that are kind of cool, we’ve even built a dog park at one of our branch locations that is downtown, and it’s surrounded by a ton of apartment complexes. So we’ve done that even in our rural expansion in some of the areas that we’re in small population, there’s not any coffee shops, so we partnered with a local company to offer our membership coffee. And so we have a coffee shop in some of our branch locations. And so again, when you’re thinking outside of the box like that, it gives people more than a reason just to bank but want to come visit your branch location.
Gina Bleedorn (06:59): Courtney, you said so many things there about just all the out-of-the-box, but also proven things for you that are working. And a lot of it centers around what we were talking about in understanding what people really want from banking and that million dollar question of making them want to come in, giving them a reason, and you’re giving them a reason. Talk a little bit about one thing you mentioned about community rooms and that is a topic that isn’t talked about that much, but so many have planned for community rooms that never get used. Do yours get used? And if so, how do you make sure that they do?
Courtney Coss (07:43): Well, I think it depends on the branch footprint. So we’ve been very intentional with some of the branch locations. In some of the ground-up locations, we have the space for a community room or if it’s a tenant fit out location that’s surrounded by a lot of local businesses, we have incorporated those community rooms because a lot of these restaurants or other businesses don’t have that space. And so we’re in the people business and we want to make sure we understand the needs of our community.
So, we partnered with a lot of those businesses and just said, “Hey, if you guys ever need a meeting space, you want to meet with your staff or if you’re meeting with anyone else, feel welcome to reach out to the credit union. You can use our space.” And they are getting used. We actually even have a community center at one of our branch locations, and it’s because this is again out in a rural area where the community just does not have a meeting space for businesses, for the education, for the schools, or even just the community, if they want to rent the room out…
And so we had enough space on the property that we purchased that we thought, “You know what? We’re going to incorporate a community room where the community can come and gather no matter what that event might be.” And that particular location is constantly booked months in advance. So that’s been very successful for us, and we kind of filled a gap that was there in that community, which was great.
Gina Bleedorn (09:06): Wow, that is the way you want it to work. Fantastic. And thank you for sharing something else you said about the dog park is one of my favorite client stories of all of our client stories in that especially that dog park was going to be, I believe, a dumpster area on the site at one point. And by detaching your teller functionalities through ITMs, you were able to turn a dumpster are into a dog bark and create this community beacon that surrounds where people drive in to go to those ITMs.
I would love for you to share about the ITM program that I believe they’ve been successful for you. Many have had success, many have also not had success. You were an early adopter. Can you talk about what you’ve done with ITMs and why they work for CUTX?
Courtney Coss (09:59): Absolutely. So early on when we were looking into the ITM technology, we were really looking at teller transactions specifically in the drive-thru. And we did see that that was kind of dwindling and you had to staff someone in that drive-thru all day long. And again, with technology on the rise and people could move money via online banking or they could do the remote check deposit, you started to see these drive-thrus just slowly go away in transaction volume.
So when the ITMs came out, we were looking at that technology and really as a way to assist our members more efficiently. And so by doing so, we’ve really eliminated, we no longer have a traditional drive-thru at any of our branch locations and we have 24 of those currently. So at all of our locations, all we have are ITM machines, some are walk up, some are drive up, but our members love that technology because they’re able to get in and out quicker, so their transactions are handled more quickly.
And then also they actually get a personal touch, because before in a traditional drive-thru, you can’t see the teller that’s assisting you. So, that’s one of the things that they love right now is you can do everything with an ITM that you can with a traditional drive-thru, except you get to see this great smiling face on the video in front of you. And on top of that, we only have about six employees that service all of the 24 locations. And so when you think about it like that, it’s just brought a lot of efficiencies to the credit union. Then the other part about it is if there ever happens to be a power outage at one of the branch locations, even though we can’t have the branch open to the public, you could still have access to your cash and conduct teller transactions at the ITM. So for us it’s been a great.
Juliet D’Ambrosio (11:50): Yeah Courtney, it’s interesting to hear you talk. You were one of the first movers setting the standard with ITM technology, and we talk with a lot of our clients today who are just now moving to adopt and there’s lots of questions around the best way to adopt it. But it sounds like one of the things, sort of a thread that I’m hearing throughout this conversation about retail, is really a focus just on people, a focus on service and a focus not only on members, but also communities. And CUTX sees your organization as there to serve and to serve in a personal way. And I’m curious about whether you’re training your six staff that serve through ITM on a screen or you are training your people that are staffing branches, you’re training everyone. Tell me a little bit about how you train people to have that personal service at the very front of their delivery. How do you keep that consistent across any channel?
Courtney Coss (12:56): Well, I think for the ITM staff, one of the cool things that we do is when we do interviews, we do them over video. You want to make sure that those individuals have a great personality, a warm smile, and they’re going to be on video all day long. So that’s really been successful for us. And then there’s always ongoing training to make sure that they’re coming across that way, but you talk about in the people, so it’s all about building relationships for us. And so we know that if someone takes time off from work to come visit a branch location, we’re there to deliver an unexpected experience. So, it’s all about people first, building those relationships, and offering them products and services and educating them on our products and services. That’s one of the ways that our branches stand out.
Juliet D’Ambrosio (13:48): Well, I think you also stand out that idea of people first when I think about Todos Unidos, your Spanish language brand, and I’d love for you to talk a little bit about where did that idea come from. Tell us a little bit about that program and why it’s so right for putting people first in the markets that you serve.
Courtney Coss (14:08): Well, honestly, for years we’ve heard about the challenges the Hispanic community faces in accessing the right financial tools and support. And that’s really the reason that we launched it, especially being here in Texas. And so we launched that in early 2025, and we’ve had more than 1,000 Spanish language requests, and whether that be through calls or you can go into any branch location and open up an account and all of our products and services are offered in Spanish, all of the documentation is in Spanish. And then we also provide financial literacy, all in Spanish. And so the response has been very positive and we’re very excited about the program.
Gina Bleedorn (14:48): And everything you talk about Courtney, it’s like you’re just nailing it. You’re kind of doing so many things right on so many levels and you make it sound easy. But we know well, it’s not easy. Now talk a little bit about what you’ve done as you have expanded. How have you decided where to expand and then in places like Gilmer where you have that community hub with the coffee shop you talked about, how have you looked at market expansion, why, where, and how?
Courtney Coss (15:20): Well, I think for us, we saw an opportunity in the rural areas. They’re definitely underserved. There’s not a lot of large financial institutions out in those areas. And at the heart of what the Credit Union of Texas does is we’re all about community impact and how we can be involved in the community. How can we give back? It’s not just about opening bank accounts and getting member acquisitions, but it’s also about we’re here and we’re here to serve and offer those financial tools, but also how can we get involved in the communities? And we just saw really an opportunity out in the rural areas for us to expand and it’s been pretty successful so far.
Juliet D’Ambrosio (15:59): Courtney, there’s always this balance of growth and scale and authenticity and staying true to your culture. And CUTX, sort of outside looking in, sounds like the culture is very unique – it’s innovative, it puts people first, it’s there to serve, and it’s there to think differently. I’m curious about how you balance that idea of growing and scaling and serving more, but also holding onto what makes you so special, those parts of your culture that will never change?
Courtney Coss (16:39): It is a delicate balance. We realize that investing in new branch locations is a huge investment, but we also know that that will bring substantial membership growth. We also have a community engagement department that we invest in. We really believe in it. Again, that’s who we are here at the credit union. And in each of these markets, even where we have existing branch locations, we have community engagement officers that their whole job is to get involved with the community and understand what those community needs are. So again, at the end of the day, that is our culture and that is who we are, and we’re also able to measure our impact in communities by our involvement.
Gina Bleedorn (17:21): Again, I think probably more than anything, Courtney, that genuine authentic community integration and the thoughtful approach you have taken is a core to your secret sauce of success and also a differentiator for you from big banks and even from other local banks and local credit unions. As you’ve gone into these new markets internally, how is that culture, you talked a little bit about it, but how is that culture to make sure that community connection happens and that you show up to members with your cultural values at play? How are you doing that and how are you doing that as you grow? How are you fostering connection and collaboration across these different locations with your teams and what leadership lessons have shaped how you are really enabling that in practice?
Courtney Coss (18:14): Well, here at the Credit Union of Texas, we have an awesome employee engagement department and really their job is to talk about our culture. So we do that as soon as you’re hired on here at the credit union. We also have a brand ambassador program. And so again, those individuals are in every single branch location, they’re in every department, and they’re there to live our brand and recognize their peers for living our brand. And they will submit stories and senior management will read those stories, and then we recognize and award winners. And really I think that that excites the staff. That keeps your culture alive. And then we also do employee round tables because we want to hear from the staff, we want to hear what’s going right and what’s going wrong. We want to be transparent and show that they can build trust with us and we’re here to listen to them.
And I think that that starts from the top down quite honestly. And so we’re building that culture of trust and openness. And as far as a leadership philosophy, some of the lessons that I’ve learned, I think one of the biggest ones that I’ve learned is listen to your team members and listen to your membership. I think trust is built when you listen and that’s when the best solutions rise to the top. And I think that that ties directly back to the credit union philosophy of people helping people and leadership is about service, so I always try to show up for my team and I lead with empathy, stay connected to our community needs, and make sure we never lose sight of why we do this work.
Juliet D’Ambrosio (19:43): I feel like I want to stand up and cheer. That was utterly inspirational, Courtney. And it sort of brings us back to why we at Adrenaline do what we do also, which is to support CUTX and leaders like you through service and through helping you do all of the things that you just mentioned. That idea of people helping people to bring it back into the branch. When we think about your brand, we think about your employee engagement, we think about your heart for service, we think about the member first approach, all of those coming together. And then you think about how your branches are designed. You think about the role that they play, how do you connect those dots and how do you see your branches maybe as a manifestation of your culture at work?
Courtney Coss (20:38): Well, I think for the branches, what we really try to focus on really our smaller footprints. They have a lot of the glass design, especially the outside, and that kind of helps marketing and branding opportunities. But when you enter a branch location, it’s bright, it’s warm, it’s welcoming. Even down to the offices. The way that we designed the desk – they’re not your traditional desk where a banker is sitting in front of you. It’s more collaborative. It’s a round desk. So we really want to put our members at the sole focus when they enter those branch locations. Even when you walk into a branch location, you’re quickly greeted by one of our greeters. We have an awesome partnership with Best Buddies, and so we have these great greeters in our locations just to welcome our members and thank them for their business when they leave.
Gina Bleedorn (21:27): This is why I use CUTX for best practice when I present to audiences in speaking engagements because I really do believe so much of what you’re doing is best practice from the design, from the formats, from the service standards, and as mentioned, the community integration. You have done so much over your time since when you started at CUTX. What really piece of advice would you give others in your position? What are some of the biggest takeaways that you have learned over this journey?
Courtney Coss (22:06): I would say stand out and get creative. Really in today’s competitive market, it’s essential to just continually adapt and evolve based on the needs and preferences of your members and your community. Your branch footprint should really be a space that the community wants to visit, and most importantly, you’ve got to keep the personal touch. I think that that’s critical to building those long lasting relationships with your membership. And then the other piece to that would be evaluate your branches. Are they in a good location and are they profitable?
Juliet D’Ambrosio (22:37): Yeah. I love what you said, Courtney, about not being afraid to stand out. We at Adrenaline talk about differentiation all the time. Of course, that’s utterly critical, if you’re going to stand out from the credit union down the street or the community bank down the street, or even the Chase Bank, maybe down the street, the ability to telegraph who you are, what you stand for, and how and why you’re different. One of the things that we know is that younger audiences are seeking exactly what you’re describing, this idea that we are different, that we have a real purpose behind what we’re doing. We’re not just providing the service, but we are creating a movement in some ways. And I’d love for you to talk a little bit about how you see CUTX working with younger generations – younger Millennials, Gen Z, even looking past them to Gen Alpha. What’s the connection there?
Courtney Coss (23:37): Well, again, the younger generations, like I said, they want to move money and want to move it quickly and without friction. We’ve also found they want to be a part of an institution that does get involved and they make a positive difference in the world, which we’re doing. That really closely aligns with our strategy. And then one of the things that we’re also doing is we have smart branch locations that are inside of high schools here in Texas, and these branches are run completely by students. By doing that, we get to hear firsthand some of the products and services they like and what they’re looking for in the future, and I think that that’s how we tap into that market.
Gina Bleedorn (24:16): Yeah, those student branches, we hadn’t even talked about that. That is something else. That’s incredible. Yet again, another creative strategy in the way you have thought about leveraging investments in your branch network. This podcast has just been chock-full of ideas and strategies that I know our listeners will appreciate, and it’s almost as if CUTX has done all of them and that entrepreneurialism that again, creativity. Just fantastic. We have one final question that we do ask all of our guests. It is very clear based on your career and what you’ve done at the credit union that you believe in banking. Tell us why you, Courtney, believe in banking.
Courtney Coss (25:02): I believe in banking, especially credit unions, because we’re built for people and not for profit. And at our core, we exist to serve our members and strengthen our communities. So, it all adds up to something bigger. It’s trust, empowerment, and long-term impact. That’s the heart of credit union banking, and that’s why I believe in it.
Juliet D’Ambrosio (25:21): Hear, hear. Thanks, Courtney. This has been inspirational and educational and a delight.
Courtney Coss (25:28): Thank you for having me.
Outro: You’ve been listening to Believe in Banking, a podcast series created to empower decision makers, influencers, and industry leaders in financial services.