SANTA ANA, Calif. - Credit unions and banks online often lack “color and warmth,” but visitors to the new Orange County’s CU site get a splash of orange and the flash of smiling faces, according to Laura Thompson, CIO at the $930-million CU here.
“We looked at Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and other credit union sites,” explained Thompson. “A lot of them are stark and monochromatic, but we wanted our new site to be warm and friendly.” Orange County’s CU unveiled the site in February.
Orange County’s overhaul is more than skin deep, however. In the fourth of a series of articles this year that examines how CU websites are evolving, Credit Union Journal learned that Orange County’s CU new site is completely restructured to mimic the marketing approach at physical branches, which caters to a person’s “seasons of life.”
The landing page asks visitors to click on one of four unique image links, each representing a different life stage and a different smiling face: Free to Enjoy, for retirees; Making Things Happen, for “busy go-getters;” Just Starting Out, for those “stepping out on their own;” and My First Account, for kids.
“In 2006, we took a philosophical approach and asked ourselves: What are we about, and how do we articulate that?” said Lynda Savoit, SVP, COO, at the CU. The CU found the answer within.
With You All The Way
“We realized that our brand promise, With You All the Way, said it all,” continued Savoit.
“Then, we looked at members the same way, acknowledging different needs at different times of life,” she said. “We’ve positioned the products based on the members’ needs. Members appreciate an approach that is less product-centric and more focused on the member experience, and it really resonates strongly around the credit union as well.”
The With-You-All-The-Way philosophy is reflected at the website in the life stage navigation and in physical branches with four different life stages brochures. That’s a big change, said Savoit. “We used to have 13 different brochures that spoke to all of our products.”
The online navigation scheme gives members even more flexibility than the branch brochures, Thompson said. Whereas members must choose between the four brochures for more information when they visit a branch, the website gives visitors the option of clicking on the life stages navigation or, alternatively, choosing a specific product or service from a menu of HTML buttons.
Orange County’s CU also changed the way information was organized at the site, added Thompson. “The number of clicks it took for members to find something at the old site was so deep,” Thompson said. “Now, we’re trying to allow members to find information within two or three clicks.”
Short And Snappy
When members find what they’re looking for, the text is short and snappy, said Thompson.
“Some of the information at the old site was much too long,” she said. “We keep the wording brief, or we use a graphic instead of text.”
For instance, at the About Us/Mission & History page, a Flash-based, interactive timeline with pictures tells the CU’s story. And the Deposits/Checking page, the credit union changed the text-heavy description of its products into a colorful table, with four different columns of products intersecting with 16 rows of features.
Whereas the new site may be warm and easy to navigate, visitors seem to want the same type of interaction as they did at the old site, according to Thompson.
“Many of the 10 most popular pages are the same before and after we changed the site,” with the rates and locations pages among the most popular, she said.
However, a new Learn More HTML button at the Internet banking log-in on the home page has entered the top 10 pages, added Thompson.
“Our initial discussion was to add the Learn More button to address security concerns people may have with online banking,” she said. “We are now using it to house more information related to online banking and bill pay in addition to security.”
MORE
Read more about the Web branch at cujournal.com and search the following bolded terms in the archive:
Why Internet Banking Is Becoming ‘Cult Of Personality’ At Some CUs
The Web Ahead
CU Uses Eye Tracking Studies To Create More User-Friendly Website
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