ARMed and Ready

Katy Ford is the new Account Relationship Manager (ARM) for Payment Services, but her experience at Synergent began over three years ago. Prior to becoming the Payment Services ARM, Ford held the roles of Corporate Marketing & Communication Assistant and Credit Union Support Associate, and she also worked as a certified teller in a credit union before joining Synergent. All of these positions that have provided her with a broad knowledge-base that is advantageous when working with credit unions.

As the ARM, Ford is dedicated to building relationships with credit unions as the bridge between their staff and the Payment Services team. Day-to-day, she works to identify payments solutions that best fit the needs for each credit union with an analytical approach.

“The part of my job that stands out as a favorite is the credit unions,” enthused Ford. “I love meeting with credit union staff and learning about their credit union’s individual payments needs. There is something extremely satisfying in building relationships with people that will last. I love that aspect of this role!”

Payments products are varied, unique, and rapidly evolving. To help credit unions stay up-to-date on the latest offerings, Ford regularly provides product updates and completes analysis reports that help credit unions identify areas where there is marketing or profit potential. Some of the latest products that she has focused on include Mobile Deposit Capture, tokenization, and “The Pays” (Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay).

Completing price comparisons and analytical reports are a few additional ways that Ford assists credit unions. The ATM terminal and transactional analyses Ford performs provide valuable insights to credit unions. For example, Ford has provided transactional analysis to assist a credit union in comparing the before and after of their newly implemented checking account rewards programs.

“It’s hard to answer direct questions about what I do, because it’s different for every credit union,” concluded Ford. “It’s easy to get passionate about my role and the work we do with credit unions. The work we do means something, credit unions work for the member, and it is obvious on a daily basis that that is more than just a sound-bite. They are constantly looking for ways to make things better, and as that relates to payments, credit unions strive to take away pain points for members as best they can from card usability to fraud.”