Filene Research Institute announced that Summit Credit Union, a $2.3-billion institution based in Madison, Wis., signed up to participate in a Filene Impact Lab program called "Larky."
The credit union "think and do tank" said Larky is a web and mobile loyalty platform that enables credit unions to provide members with customized merchant-funded point-of-sale discounts at local and national merchants using location-based smartphone alerts and personalized messaging.
Citing data from Bain & Company's "Customer Loyalty in Retail Banking: Global Edition 2013," Filene noted that 35% of financial products purchased in 2013 were from consumers' non-primary institutions. However, consumers who said they were "promoters" of their primary financial institution bought 14% more products than "detractors" did—suggesting CUs using Larky could see increases to both their member loyalty scores and their revenue.
"We are very excited to be working with Filene and Larky to add even more value to Summit's Oodles rewards program," adds Chris Schell, SVP of marketing at Summit CU. "With Larky, our members will have access to exclusive money-saving offers to local and national retailers, restaurants, and more."
Schell also said the Larky platform provides an Oodles app that will remind members of exclusive offers based on their location. "Better offers that save our members more money and that are easily downloadable or accessible through our website, Larky is definitely a win for everyone," he added.
Filene specified that results from the Larky pilot will be collected over the next several months and will include data regarding improvements to interchange income and member response to the mobile platform, among other items.
Tansley Stearns, chief impact officer at Filene, commented that credit unions have told the organization that research is not enough. "We must help credit unions put it into action to create true impact for people," she said. "Through our pilots, credit unions are able to bring new ideas to life for their members with Filene's support in the background to analyze results, share best practices collaboratively and make improvements to concepts being tested."
