Tag Archive for: account opening

As members continue to adopt online channels, the online “face” of your credit union may be the only face many of your members see on a regular basis. Is that online/mobile experience on par with the branch or phone experience you strive for?

In the rush to keep up with expensive technology advances, credit unions sometimes implement solutions intended to bridge a gap until more time or money is available to “do it right.” As those decisions are being made it’s important to understand how your members want to interact online and to focus on making those functions easy and efficient to use.

Online account opening, which may be a potential member’s first interaction with the credit union, is sometimes plagued with too many screens, timing out after a short interval, or not saving the member’s work if they need to leave and return. This is akin to someone in the branch wadding up and throwing away the member’s application if they took too long to answer! Other factors that diminish the member’s online experience are loan applications that force the member to enter information that the credit union already has (usually due to systems that aren’t integrated) and mobile applications that are slow to load or do not make critical functions easily accessible.

With mobile banking representing about 8% of transactions and online banking at 53%, these channels will continue to increase in use and already represent the main avenue of interaction for many members. Understand what your members want to do online and do it on par with the member experience via other channels. It’s just as important as making sure the paint isn’t peeling off the walls in a branch.

Source:  Banks Make Smartphone Connection, WSJ, 2/11/13