No Branches? No Problem! Alliant Delivers The Cooperative Difference Digitally.

It’s a typical day at the office for Mike Dobbins when he picks up the phone to make a call.

“My name’s Mike Dobbins,” he says. “I’m the CEO of Alliant Credit Union, and I just wanted to call and wish you a happy birthday today.”

A voice on the other end pauses for a moment then replies, “Are you serious?”

“I am serious,” Dobbins assures.

“Are you really the CEO?”

“I am really the CEO.”

What follows is a brief conversation between the cooperative’s leader and one of its nearly 1 million members. At its conclusion, Dobbins is sure to tell the member that their relationship with Alliant Credit Union ($20.3B, Chicago, IL) matters to him and wishes them well.

Dobbins says he makes these calls as often as possible, not just for birthdays, but for other life events, too.

“As someone who started my career as a branch manager, I always remember the power of that personal touch,” Dobbins says. “Standing there when people come to the door, shaking their hand, learning about them — those things are powerful. We are digital-only in the sense that we don’t have branches, but we want to have great humanity.”

Indeed, as an early adopter of a digital-only model, Alliant has learned that removing branches doesn’t remove the expectation for connection. It’s a challenge that has pushed the cooperative to rethink everything from product design to staff training to how it uses data. Ultimately, it aims to not only serve members but turn them into advocates.

“You’re probably not going to tell a friend, ‘Here’s my debit card.’ But you might tell your friend, ‘I bank somewhere where people call me on my birthday,’” Dobbins says.

Operationalizing “Wow”

According to Dobbins, to succeed as a digital-only institution, two things must be true.

“Your digital can’t just be good, it has to be pretty much everything,” he says. “But the most important piece is delivering ‘wows’ every time you get a chance. I use the term ‘beautiful’ in our strategy document because that’s what it has to feel like. You want that Tiffany bag experience.”

It starts with creating compelling products. The goal is to provide a seamless, visually appealing experience that consistently delivers quality.

“Customer expectations are shaped by experiences like opening an iPhone,” Dobbins says. “Everything is intuitive right out of the box. That’s the baseline. It has to be reliable.”

After onboarding, Alliant focuses on guiding members toward the ways they can use those products.

“Give members the tools and everything they need,” Dobbins says. “Then, use those high-value interactions, such as when you’re giving advice, to over-index on the wow factor.”

In fact, one of Alliant’s five strategic pillars is “Wow Servicing.”

“We have things like a Wow Lab with about 20 people in it every day experimenting with different ways to deliver high-touch experiences,” Dobbins says, “We experiment a lot, figure out what works, and when we come up with good ideas, we push them back out across the organization and encourage people to adopt them.”

For example, one employee who manages desktop computing suggested sending branded tennis balls with handwritten notes to members after hearing barking regularly in the background of calls. It’s exactly the kind of unexpected moment Alliant seeks to create. Employees also routinely make note of things like birthdays, anniversaries, illness, and other life events and then send physical greeting cards out to those members.

“If you walked into our contact center today, you’d find a mini Hallmark store,” Dobbins says.

For Dobbins, that kind of attention to detail must permeate the culture.

“You want people thinking about how to do things better and how to delight members,” the CEO says. “I’m just trying to lead by example.”

Data-Driven And Delightful

Of course, it’s not all just good vibes. A strong data architecture and a data insights team supports Alliant’s strategy.

“We measure everything,” Dobbins says. “If something doesn’t look right, we dig into it, figure out what’s wrong, and fix or improve it.”

Today’s advanced tools have only helped Alliant double down on insights. For example, it uses AI to examine contact center call transcripts.

“If we have 10,000 calls tomorrow, AI can analyze all of them, identify sentiment, determine how many were great or delightful interactions, and detect patterns or recurring issues,” Dobbins says. “We don’t have to wait to understand where we need to step in and improve.”

That discipline has helped Alliant turn insight into action. Today, net promoter scores are high, membership grew 2.48% from year-end 2024 to year-end 2025, and loans increased 4.11% during the same period.

“My objective for Alliant is to become one of the most recommended financial institutions,” Dobbins says. “Recommendations come from emotive experiences. I like to experiment. I’ll call people on their birthday to see if it creates a powerful reaction. I’ll call when someone opens a new account. If someone reaches out on LinkedIn or sends me an email, I respond to it myself because I want to learn.”

The CEO says the key is to look beyond financial services for inspiration and embrace unconventional thinking.

“Little things — things that bring joy and humanity — make a difference,” he says.