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A new mobile app gives consumers the opportunity to become members of USALLIANCE Financial and fund their new accounts in just minutes, transforming what has traditionally been a cumbersome process.
The enrollment option, which is included as a feature of the credit union’s Apple and Android standard apps, guides prospective members to scan the barcode of their driver’s license. That simple step serves to prepopulate the enrollment application, reduces keystrokes, aids in verifying their identity, and provides key information for qualifying them for membership, notes CUES member Kristi Kenworthy, AVP/e-commerce for the $1 billion+ Rye, N.Y., credit union serving 80,000 members throughout the Northeast.
The mobile enrollment process also employs GPS to compare applicants’ physical locations to the address on their driver’s license, adding another layer of security. The native app, developed in partnership with GRO Solutions, Atlanta, offers “a slick user experience with a focus on making it easy, quick, and secure,” Kenworthy says.
The onboarding app is also installed on iPads used in new member enrollment at USALLIANCE Financial’s 22 branches, which creates “an opportunity for employees to provide a better member experience,” says VP/Marketing Tori Burton, also a CUES member. “They tell new members, ‘We can open your account in less than three minutes,’ and they also let members know the process is so intuitive they can open additional accounts in the future from their phones.”
Since this new enrollment process was introduced in early 2015, the credit union has seen a 50/50 ratio in usage between the mobile and in-branch account applications. The new app is credited with reducing the abandonment rate in the self-service enrollment process from 80 percent to 35 percent, Kenworthy notes. (Read more about “Online Account Opening Abandonment.”)
After enrollment, new members’ contact information is passed along automatically to a dedicated outreach team who follow up to ask about their experience in joining the credit union and to provide additional offers.
Providing a quick and simple path to enroll by smartphone is in line with USALLIANCE Financial’s “mobile-first” strategy. “We feel that mobile has become the first and, for some, the only touchpoint with their credit union,” Kenworthy says. “Digital services are a key channel to reduce friction and maintain a high-quality member experience.”
Karen Bankston is a long-time contributor to Credit Union Management and writes about credit unions, membership growth, marketing, operations and technology. She is the proprietor of Precision Prose, Portland, Ore.
