What I Learned from Wichita FCU: Trusted Knowledge Only Works When Behavior Supports It

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to talk to Christi McGrath, Training Specialist at Wichita Federal Credit Union, to learn about their experience rolling out ScreenSteps. And it’s been on my mind ever since.

I knew it was going to be a good story. After the launch, they saw an immediate impact. Tellers who had once relied heavily on their manager's help and on systemic tribal knowledge were now solving problems and responding to requests completely on their own.

But what I took away from our conversation was something that went even deeper.

This didn't happen because they just changed the way they captured, designed, and shared knowledge. It happened because they fundamentally changed the way their employees worked. And that’s the lesson that stuck with me.

You can have all the right answers written down. But unless employees feel confident and empowered to use them in the moment, it won’t matter.

Wichita FCU got both sides right. They made it easy for tellers to find, follow, and trust answers at their fingertips. And they made checking those answers a cultural habit.

This blog breaks down what I learned from that conversation and why I think it’s a playbook for anyone trying to create meaningful change on the frontlines.

P.S. If you'd like to check out the Wichita FCU success story, here's a link.

Lesson 1: Trusted, Accurate, and Available Knowledge Is Critical

Employees won’t use what they can’t find. And they definitely won’t use what they can’t trust.

Christi understood this from day one. She wasn’t setting out to build a perfectly manicured documentation system. She just needed to accurately answer the questions that the tellers were asking. And she needed to be able to capture those answers quickly and present them in a way that made it easy for tellers to find and follow, even in the middle of a member interaction. 

That’s exactly what she did:

• Converted existing, scattered docs into optimized digital guides.
• Designed guides to read like recipes, not encyclopedias. Actionable steps, no fluff, just what you need to get the job done.
• Put knowledge to work right where employees work using the ScreenSteps Sidekick.

It worked. Tellers knew where to look. They trusted what they found. And they could follow it in the moment.

“Today I used the article How to Remove a Joint Owner From an Existing Account while helping a member. It made the process a lot easier knowing I had the article for reassurance.”

Here’s where some other tools break down:

• AI chatbots: If the data (i.e. knowledge resources) doesn’t exist, or it’s outdated, the bot can’t help. But it won’t tell you that. It will make something up. The employee either recognizes the hallucination and loses trust, or doesn’t recognize it and makes a mistake. Again, trust is lost.
  
  
• Click-recording tools: You can build something quickly, sure. But if it’s not easy to follow, hard to update, and doesn’t live in an easy-to-find home, it won’t get used.
  
  
• SharePoint or Google Drive: These were never designed to deliver real-time guidance. Content is hard to create, hard to update, and even harder to find when you need it.

If your resources aren’t easy to find, easy to follow, and easy to trust, none of it will matter.

Lesson 2: Behavior Change Requires Culture Change

This was the difference maker.

We’ve seen it time and time again: it doesn’t matter how good your guides are, if employees don’t build the habit of using them, they won’t make a difference.

That’s what made Wichita FCU so compelling to me. They didn’t just capture trusted knowledge. They built their entire culture around it.

1. They turned the rollout into a game with badges and competitions to encourage the behavior
2. They celebrated usage and made it fun to learn and win as a team
3. Leaders reinforced the message: "This is how we do things now."

They built a habit. They built a culture. And as a result, “check ScreenSteps first” became the new instinct.

That’s where the Find & Follow Framework comes in:

1. Find: Can I locate what I need, fast?
2. Follow: Can I confidently use it, even while I’m talking to a member?
3. Trust: Do I know it’s accurate and up-to-date?

When all three are in place, employees perform better. When even one of them is missing, things break down.

"I used ScreenSteps today to tell a member what documents she needed for a name change and for her Auto Loan. I'm loving it so much!"

Again, let's compare that to the same tools we just talked about:

• A chatbot that doesn’t have reliable data? It won’t be used long enough to form a habit.
• A wiki or help center with no reinforcement or cultural expectation? It’ll collect dust.
• A click recorder that spits out a walkthrough but lives as just another scattered PDF? It doesn’t drive real behavior change.

You can’t bolt a new tool onto an old habit and expect transformation.

The Takeaway: One Without the Other Fails

Here’s what really stuck with me after that call with Christi:

You can have fast authoring. Beautiful guides. A powerful chatbot. But if you don’t have both ...

1. Trusted answers at employees' fingertips
2. A culture that builds the habit of using it

... it’s not going to make a meaningful difference.

Most tools out there are lopsided. Some focus on speed, but leave answers scattered. Others centralize info, but don’t help employees build a habit around it. Wichita FCU nailed it because they invested in both. And it showed up in the metrics and in the way tellers talked about their work.

“ScreenSteps is the foundation for teller success. It gives them something they can go to on their own and not feel lost.”

That’s the kind of change that lasts.

So, What Can We Do With These Learnings?

If any of this resonates with you, here’s where I’d start.

1. Watch what employees do when they’re unsure

Go observe. When a member comes in with a question and the employee doesn’t immediately know what to do, what happens?

• Do they turn to your knowledge base?
• Do they ask the person next to them?
• Do they guess?
• Do they escalate?

That moment will tell you everything. If their instinct isn’t to check a knowledge resource, it’s worth asking why. Do they not trust the guidance? Is it hard to find? Hard to follow? What looks like a behavior problem might actually be a knowledge transfer problem.

2. Audit your knowledge resources

Take a look at what you currently have. Ask yourself:

• Are the resources up to date?
• Can employees find it in under five seconds?
• Can they follow it while they’re actively helping a member?
• Is it written for real-time use (recipe), or more like a reference binder (encyclopedia)?

If you’re not confident in the answers, that’s a good place to start making improvements.

3. Evaluate your tech stack

Look at the tools you’re currently relying on:

• Are you still housing SOPs in SharePoint or Google Drive?
• Are you patching together guides with screenshot-heavy PDFs?
• Have you been trying to train a chatbot with mixed results?

I’m not saying those tools don’t have their place. But if they’re not helping your team actually perform better in the moment, then they’re not getting the job done. This is the problem ScreenSteps is designed to solve. Making sure employees always have clear, trusted guidance right when they need it, and actually build the habit of using it.

If you're interested in how ScreenSteps and the Find & Follow Framework can help drive these kinds of changes at your organization, let’s talk. We'd love to hear what you’re working on, learn more about your situation, and see if we can help.

Book a demo with the ScreenSteps team today.