ORLANDO — FAIRWINDS Credit Union believes a key strategy for improving penetration among potential Gen Y and Millennial members is to make the account-opening process mobile — and much faster.
Charlie Lai, EVP and chief information officer at the 160,000-member, $1.7-billion credit union, explained that the solution was borne out of a desire to shorten the account-opening process for a target market accustomed to quick transactions. "We had benchmarked the previous process, and it was a 25-minute endeavor; the goal was to get it to five minutes or less," he said.
FAIRWINDS beat its goal, with the process now shortened to just more than three minutes. "That really revolutionized the member experience, and the evolution of that was the mobile account origination that we built specifically last fall for the University of Central Florida when we won the student banking relationship with UCF."
The new process was built using Fiserv's DNA platform, and Lai told Credit Union Journal that the set-up was designed to enable the CU's staffers-known as "crew members"-to set up teams on campus to sign up students at orientation, in between classes and elsewhere.
"We wanted to be mobile, be very visible, and show students we were relevant, convenient, easy to use and access," he said.
iPad App Is Used
Using a native iPad app that FAIRWINDS built, crew members collect information from students such as name and address (collected in part by snapping a digital photo of the student's driver's license), Social Security Number and information from the student's UCF ID card. That card also doubles as a payment card on campus, and the CU links it to the student's new FAIRWINDS checking account to allow PIN debit transactions. The member's signature is captured electronically, and documentation and disclosures are all sent to the student via e-mail.
When it's time to fund the account, students must either set up direct deposit or visit an ATM or branch. Because many parents also like to be joint account holders with their kids enrolled in college, said Lai, the app has the functionality to add parents at the time of sign up or after the fact.
FAIRWINDS rolled out mobile account opening in December 2012, but only really began to be proactive with it this summer and fall, with new student orientation and the beginning of the academic year. So far the CU has signed up about 2,000 new members using the mobile solution.
"Two thousand is decent, but we envisioned a higher number than that," said Lai, noting that the CU is also doing outreach to faculty and alumni as a way to try to boost those numbers.
For now new members can only open a checking account via the mobile solution, but the CU is also examining ways to allow members to sign up for other services, such as savings and money market accounts.
Beyond that, "we use a fairly conventional 30/60/90-day onboarding process just to reinforce with the member that their relationship is well established, that the services they were provided are working correctly, and then we start introducing the thing we think are relevant at their stage." That includes savings products and some loans, though some university guidelines limit how much the CU can market credit cards on campus (though there are no such restrictions off campus).
The Other Time That Matters
FAIRWINDS understands that these new members may not be more than borderline profitable in early years, but the point is to get them in the door, said Lai.
"Our big strategy is growth of that relationship over time," said Lai. "We think about the lifetime value of that membership and getting the right products and services that meet your life needs at different times. That's what it's all about. Today we're focused on checking and debit use. We want to make accounts profitable, but we don't have an expectation that these are moneyline accounts. The whole goal is to grow the relationship over 30 or 40 years."
