GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.-Lakes Area CU first stepped foot on the Internet more than eight years ago. Since then, the CU's "brochure-ware" has evolved into a Flash-driven, mobile-optimized virtual branch that soon will feature person-to-person payments.
Yet Lakes Area CU here is not a large or even a mid-sized organization: the CU has $25 million in assets and 5,035 members-after a year of "record" growth, according to Melissa Swenson, marketing specialist.
"We're fairly progressive," suggested Cathy LaFave, president and CEO at Lakes Area. "A lot of small credit union websites are static. Ours is fun, which is why people want to come back again."
Product and service menus are animated by Adobe Flash software, as are a series of financial calculators, and users can single-click to add or remove stocks in the stock market widget on the home page.
New Website Drives More Traffic, Transactions
The new website, launched in May 2008, gets more traffic than the previous site: nearly 40% of members with share drafts now use the website and homebanking, compared to about 15% at the old site, said LaFave. Now, about 50% of the CU's total transactions are completed via the website, she added.
Lakes Area may be an anomaly among small CUs. Whereas more than 90% of CUs between $20 million and $50 million in assets have websites with homebanking, only 70% offer bill pay, according to Callahan and Associates. And very few small CUs have an HTML site that's optimized for mobile devices or the slick look delivered by Flash Web animation and multimedia software.
Lakes Area is making a play for Generation Y by delivering its website in a mobile-optimized version, explained Swenson. "It's made for members to use with handheld devices and mobile phones."
"Mobile is just a totally different user experience," continued Wade Arnold, CEO, T8 Webware, the Cedar Falls, Iowa-based company that custom-designed Lakes Area's website. "It's critical to have a different layout and priority of content that is optimized for a smart device."
Like many small CU sites, Lakes Area's former site was based on an HTML template with three font options, Swenson said. "It was nothing exciting to look at. Members would bookmark our online banking site and would never look at the website. Flash is more visually appealing and modern. We have something beautiful with information that members want to see, so we're more in control of bringing people back."
"Flash websites offer the freedom and flexibility to web designers and developers that traditional web development does not allow," explained Arnold. "T8 creates online tools such as financial management calculators, community calendars, event galleries and subscription-based rate boards that dramatically reinforce a credit union's brand," he said.
Members will be able to pay bills online, including person-to-person payments, by February, in addition to existing online services, such as e-statements, internal funds transfers and loan payments.
The credit union can update the site with new products, forms, pictures or information "in a matter of minutes," using a content management system familiar to anyone who uses word processing software, said Swenson. Updates to the previous site involved a formal request to the vendor and a fee, LaFave said.
Lakes Area picked up a "record" 100 individual and business accounts from August 2008 to August 2009, Swenson said. "The membership growth is due to a combination of our new website, new location and marketing efforts."
The site cost about $13,000 to develop, based on the content and functionality Lakes Area chose, said LaFave.
