A hard cutover is A RAPID TRANSITION FROM ONE phase of a business enterprise or project to another. That's how Kate Duggan, SVP of marketing at Tech Credit Union, described the launch of the $2.2 billion institution's new website in March.
Duggan described the old site as "not responsive," which can be an issue when your CU's 77,000 members are among the most tech savvy in the nation. Membership in Tech CU is open to anyone who lives, works, worships, or attends school in San Francisco and many of its surrounding counties. The credit union also partners with hundreds of companies in the Bay Area, including Facebook, Tesla and eBay.
But she stressed that the larger issue was aligning the site to the San Jose, Calif-based CU's recent brand reinvention, which she was hired more than two years ago to oversee. The CU worked with Michael Patrick Partners of San Francisco on the design of the site, which was built by iMedia, Boonton, N.J.
"The entire design is focused on the user experience," Duggan said. "We wanted the site to put the member at the center of the experience so they would be able to accomplish a variety of tasks easily and intuitively."
Since the website's relaunch on March 9, there has been a 13% increase in traffic and the average time spend on the site has also increased — up 17 seconds to 1.19 minutes. Meanwhile, the bounce rate fell to 20%, while the number of members accessing the site through their mobile phones increased 13%.
Digging deeper into the stats, comparing the same seven-month time period (March 1 to Oct. 31) in 2015 and 2016 the CU reported that the bounce rate fell by nearly 51% and the average time per website session increased 22%.
On the lending front, there has been a 36% increase in mortgage loan applications and a nearly 42% increase in consumer loan applications when comparing the same seven-month time frame.
The redesign has earned the CU a Best Practices Award from Credit Union Journal, as well as a MarCom honorable mention from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals and a silver award for website design from the Marketing Association of Credit Unions.
Duggan cited three lessons learned: first, "don't rush it." Tech CU originally expected the new site to go live in late 2015, but decided giving the process another couple of months would allow them to add more components and features.
Second, put the member at the center of the experience. "Be fearless, but be honest," Duggan advised. "Think about it from the member's experience. Why are they going to the website and what problem are they trying to solve?"
And finally, realize that a project like this is always an "ongoing process," according to Duggan, adding that on March 9, the CU launched "phase 2" of the website redesign. "When you are trying to meet a deadline, there will always be some more things you need to do."
