The purposes is to give users more information about what is happening in their organization with account applications – how many are coming in? being approved? how much funding is involved? When we sat down to figure out the best way to help people get that information we reached two important design decisions. First, depending on what you do in the organization you might be interested in different things. Second, pictures are better than numbers.

So, today we are telling you about the dashboard. Here’s an example widget (chart) that is already available to you.There are several initial widgets to choose from (we say ‘initial’ because we know you’ll want more soon!). To learn more about how to set up your Dashboard – go to the help site for ACCOUNTworks and read more about it! (easiest way is to type ‘Dashboard’ in the search box there …) Have fun!

According to Sb1’s Vice President of Member Service, Linda Weber, the credit union was able to work with fiVISION to create its online and in-branch membership applications that integrated with its XP Systems’ core solution for auto downloads to their system. This streamlined process establishes the new membership account, pulls the ChexSystems and OFAC, along with member credit reports – integrating the four programs into one quick auto step.

“This online application has improved how individuals join our credit union as well as improving our internal opening processes for new members, which is a big time saver for new members and staff alike,” she says. “Staff can now spend their time getting to know each new member’s specific financial needs and be able to offer products and services that will benefit that member.”

Overall, Weber says she is very pleased with fiVISION’s ACCOUNTworks 2G, as it has vastly improved Sb1’s new member enrollment and account opening processes. The credit union also uses fiVISION’s member care platform, MEMBERworks, to “on-board” its new members – which allows Sb1 to follow up easily with these individuals. Both technologies’ automation has virtually eliminated any manual keystroke mistakes.

For more information

Read the full press release here.

or learn more about ACCOUNTworks here.

]]> http://fivision.com/blog/2012/01/17/cu-broadcast-the-dilemma-small-cus-face-with-ever-evolving-technology/feed/ 0 http://fivision.com/blog/2011/10/04/pause-and-refresh-your-head/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pause-and-refresh-your-head http://fivision.com/blog/2011/10/04/pause-and-refresh-your-head/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:58:39 +0000 Mike Winter http://fivision.com/?p=471 A couple of weeks ago I grabbed a stack of unread trade rags and headed over to the local Starbucks to sit down and catch up on some reading with a cup of coffee. By the size of the stack I apparently had not done this in a while.

While browsing through the articles and reading the interesting items, I found myself wondering how many of these ‘headshot’ photos of the people associated with the articles are up to date? I also made a mental note to refresh mine because it is definitely a few years old now!

It could have been the quiet time away from the computer/tablet/smartphone … or it could have been whatever addictive ingredient is placed in the coffee … but my mind started to open up and some new thoughts and ideas and questions began to form. It was in that moment that I realized that I needed to do this more often.

In today’s world so much of what we see and read happens in little tiny snippets.  Blogs, email newsletters (you probably just read the headlines, don’t you?), twitter, you-name-it … and we jump from topic to topic as a new email or phone call or meeting happens.  The one thing that is missing, at least for me, is some dedicated time to just sit and think. 

One Man’s ‘How-To’

One of the questions that comes up is ‘how do you find time to just sit and think?’  Obviously I hadn’t been able to conquer that challenge for quite some time otherwise I would have had a shorter stack of magazines and no revelation as it happened.  My guess is that many of you are in the same boat.  In the interest of helping, here is the formula that I’m attempting to follow …

1. Gather Your Materials. The first recommendation is to set aside all of your ‘reading stuff’ for review when you can get to it.  For me this includes magazines, news articles, reports, white papers and yes – even some sales brochures (some of that stuff is pretty good!). Find a spot to put it so you know where you can always find it.  One idea is to clear out one of the file drawers in your desk and start stacking it there.  If it overflows, then take the top half off and throw away the bottom half … you probably weren’t going to read it anyway.
2. Schedule Some Time. Yes, I do mean put it on your calendar.  My personal goal is four hours a week and I’ve split it into two chunks of two hours each.  Putting it on your calendar does lots of good things.  It blocks the time from being scheduled or requested by someone else and you probably get reminders from your calendaring system that you have an upcoming ‘meeting’
3. Go Somewhere Quiet. This is key, you have to leave your office and go somewhere you can sit and read/think. Don’t for a minute think you can do this at home … you really have to go somewhere that you are away from your phone, your desk, your computer … otherwise you’ll be drawn back to reality by these devices.

Is it worth it?

I know what you are thinking right about now.  Something along the lines of “there is no way that I can get away with carving out 10% of a work week.  This guy must be a nutjob.”  Well, I’m going to give it a go … I’ll let you know what happens.

Before (more formal, with tie!)

After (a bit more up-to-date, no tie!)

ACCOUNTworks 2G provides all the cool technology features credit unions and applicants expect nowadays – and more. Not only does it allow members to open new accounts and new members to enroll in mere minutes, it also gives the credit union a lot of control over managing the applicant’s experience to meet each organization’s own unique business needs.

To help credit unions like E Federal build broader relationships, ACCOUNTworks 2G automatically offers qualified products not previously selected by the applicant – based on criteria set up by the credit union. It also allows the applicant to fund new accounts through multiple means including electronic check, credit card, and PayPal. For compliance and consistency, the new technology ensures the decision process used for disclosures and background checks are the same every time.

Even the flow of the application – like account selection, collecting applicant information, disclosure delivery, performing identity verification, cross selling, and account funding – can be modified and tweaked for the credit union’s needs for different delivery channels and multiple types of applications.

E Federal is deploying both a general New Member/New Account application and a Health Savings Account application. The primary goal is to expand online capabilities for current and new members to be able to open new accounts at the credit union.  They expect that ACCOUNTworks will help reduce our staff workload by automatically pulling credit checks and performing, OFAC, and ID verification and allow staff to focus on managing the exceptions and simply complete processing on those that automatically meet our decision criteria.

One of our most useful enhancements of the new generation of ACCOUNTworks is the flexible fulfillment options credit unions can leverage to control their costs. Those fulfillment options include:

• Manual – for low or unknown volumes at smaller organizations
• Batch data export – for small to mid-sized organizations that can import data to other systems
• Real-time integration – for high volume or large organizations looking to maximize staff efficiency

Prior to ACCOUNTworks 2G, Members Exchange had an existing “online membership application.” Because of the requirements of the USA Patriot Act, however, the credit union would still have to contact the potential member and have them bring in or mail identification. This procedure did not give them the ability to provide that ‘quick response,’ and therefore, had never been very successful.

Susan Boshart, Senior Vice President for Members Exchange, explains that fiVISION’s online account opening service gives potential members easy access to her credit union. Additionally, it allows existing members to apply online for a checking account product and instantly fund the account.  Karen Root, Senior Vice President for Members Exchange adds, “We reviewed several vendors and found fiVISION to be one of the more user-friendly solutions for potential members.”

During the first week of offering its new Online Account Application, the credit union opened 10 new membership accounts and four checking accounts – almost the same amount they expected for a full month! Because ACCOUNTworks 2G is so user-friendly, Members Exchange intends to use the online application during on-site company enrollment activities.

For more information read the full release here or learn more about ACCOUNTworks on this site.

di·lem·ma [dih-lem-uh] –noun

1. a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives.

2. any difficult or perplexing situation or problem.

Several weeks ago a couple of statistics crossed my radar screen. At the time I didn’t really put them together in my own mind … but as we were working with a $60 million credit union at the time to see if our ACCOUNTworks solution could work for them I began to realize that smallish CUs are facing a real dilemma over the next few short years.

Between the Rock …

The first piece of data was from a technology survey published by Callahan & Associates about the online delivery channels employed by credit unions. The report ran through a number of technologies from account aggregation to online loan applications and reported the portion of credit unions who currently employ these technologies.

The information was stratified by asset size. As you might guess, the ‘bigs’ utilize nearly all of them at participation levels of 80 or 90 percent while smaller institutions make use of these technologies on a lesser scale.

I am generally interested in what online technologies are being used … and really interested in a few of these like online member enrollment and online account opening because that’s what we do. From this survey I learned that as of mid-2010 fewer than 50% of all CUs under $250 million in assets offer online member enrollment – and even fewer offer members the ability to open a new share account online. The numbers (no real surprise here) drop like a rock as the institutions get smaller.

… and The Hard Place

The second piece of data was from Javelin Strategy & Research and published by BAI Bank Strategies. This industry analysis is predicting that 50% of all accounts will be opened online in 2015. Again, the underlying demographics are not so surprising: Baby Boomers are moderate tech users, Gen X use tech solutions a bit more often and the Gen Y crowd is really pushing the envelope. As we go through the next few years my guess is that Baby Boomers are going to open fewer accounts and the Gen Y gang will be driving the new account numbers.

No Man’s Land

Putting this information together, the ground currently occupied by the average $250-million-and-under CU lies between these two opposing concepts. In the trench-warfare era of World War I this was called ‘no man’s land’. Not a very good place to be with very dire ramifications if you can’t find your way out.

Why then do you suppose that’s where most of them are? The biggest driver has to be economics. Technology solutions for member enrollment and account opening are pretty salty investments for the larger CU and even more so for their smaller counterparts. I’d bet that lots of these organizations would like to offer this capability – they just can’t find a way to swing it.

With that said, the prospects on the other side are not very appealing either as these organizations must find a way to offer these delivery channels in order to compete for future business and survive.

The Path Forward

There is a way out – and that is to be creative and realistic about how to deploy online account opening in a structure that feeds the consumer’s appetite while being economically feasible for the credit union. We found a way to work through that discussion with the $60 million organization I mentioned earlier. It required both sides – fiVISION and the credit union – to adjust their normal business patterns. The result is that in the next few weeks another $250-million-and-under CU will offer online member enrollment and account opening in their marketplace. And that’s a good thing.

In the few years that I’ve been involved in fiVISION we have been interested in helping our credit union clients get better at cross selling. We even have some products that address this goal specifically … but, I have to say that there are some really different philosophical approaches to selling out there. Most of these discussions rotate around having staff – who are traditionally service oriented – become super sellers. Does it work?

The prevailing wisdom in the industry is that we need to provide sales training … to foster a sales culture … to position staff to be able to engage customers in a conversation that results in a sale of a new account or an expanded service. In other words, teaching staff to sell … because as we all know, sellers sell, right?

Hogwash.

OK, I’ll admit that in some situations sales do occur because the seller was truly relentless and convinced someone to purchase a new product or service. With that acknowledgment, I’d propose to you that the poor buyer in most of these situations left the visit with ‘buyer’s remorse’. Not really one of those top-of-the-morning feelings. After all, they were not really buying something, they got sold.

About 10 years ago I participated in a networking group of CEOs and presidents of local businesses. Each month we met, discussed issues of the month and listened to an outside speaker on a topic of interest. One month that person was a fellow by the name of Jim Cecil. Jim espoused an approach called ‘drip marketing’ that involved staying in touch with clients and prospects on a routine ongoing basis and never truly pushing the sale … but always letting your target know what you could do and being available should the need arise. The essential recommendation Jim made is that when your prospect is ready to buy, you want to be top of mind.

This particular presentation formed much of my personal – and our corporate – philosophy about selling. That is: Sellers don’t sell … buyers buy.

The practical result of this influences how fiVISION addresses the topic of cross selling in our products. We believe that it is difficult (maybe I should have said impossible?) to turn great service reps and call center agents into trained sales killers. But it is entirely possible to equip them with tools and information that helps staff talk with members and prospects about products and services that would be helpful to them.

After the sale both parties in the transaction will evaluate the deal … the buyer will probably do so at an emotional, subconscious level. When this evaluation happens in the mind of your member (who just got a couple of new accounts and signed up for a review with a financial advisor) what feeling do you want them to have? If they ‘got sold’ that advisor meeting will probably never happen and the accounts might get closed within a few months. But if they ‘bought’ because what you provided helped them … then you’ve built some trust and may be on the way to establishing a long term member relationship.

When in doubt, remember … ‘Buyers Buy’

Last Saturday I got the chance to wander the pits during qualifications for this year’s Indy 500 and I couldn’t help but notice that what they call real-time is a lot more real than our real-time. You see, at Indy there are systems that track each car around the 2.5 mile race course at all times – including when sitting in the pits or on entrance and exit lanes to the track.

For those of us who think fractions-of-a-second response time is quick, let’s do a little math. Each car at Indy carries a transponder that passes over a timing loop laid in the track … the width of the timing loop looks to be about 18 inches. The transponder causes a voltage spike each time it crosses the loop and you can calculate the speed of the car by measuring the time delay between spikes.

This year the front runners are averaging about 225 mph around the track and quite a bit faster on the long straights. That means Helio Castroneves crosses the timing loop at the start/finish line at an average speed of 330 feet per second. In other words he crosses that foot and a half stretch and the system interpolates his speed in about 4.5 milliseconds. That’s pretty quick.

OK, now that you’ve got the concept of speed down, let’s extrapolate this into the system implications under race conditions. There are 15 timing loops around the track each measuring Helio’s current speed which is then wirelessly transmitted up and down the pits to display to all race teams just where he is on the track. On race day there will be Helio and 32 of competitors hurtling around the Speedway crossing those timing loops at irregular and overlapping times. Since each car’s transponder has a unique signature they can be kept separate … but just imagine the processing going on to keep the timing and scoring accurate.

Now that’s real-time.

As a side note, I’m not quite sure why I rely on these old phrases except that I do find them generally to be pretty darn accurate. Usually offered up by older wiser, more experienced folks in various life situations, they tend to be based on a collective body of experience that is truthful, honest and sometimes all too direct.

For example, while writing this article another vision about a similar adage (it involves cake too) comes to mind. I can still see my grandmother saying while sternly looking over her glasses and down her nose at me: “Michael, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” I really have no idea what that means … guess I’ll need to investigate it a bit further.

But let’s get back to the icing on the cake … or rather … the question of having your icing without the cake.

Member Sales (aka ‘The Icing’)

Much of what is discussed in today’s credit union industry news is about cross selling, new product opportunities, whiz-bang marketing approaches and building a world-class sales culture. Not many people seem to be talking about providing better service. Why? Probably because it is not as sexy as that other stuff.

It is understandable that selling more product and service to members becomes a viable and important goal in the practices of most credit unions. But for me, a sale of new products or services to members is the icing. In other words, ‘An additional benefit to something that is already good’.

Member Service (aka ‘The Cake’)

At fiVISION, we’ve always been big believers that members buy product and service based on a combination of factors that includes some part logic and some part emotion. The logical calculation being a question like: Is this a good rate? Does this service save me money?   These are usually pretty easy questions to pose and analyze because the answers are pretty clean and easy to compare.

The emotional calculation processed by your member is just as important but a lot fuzzier. The questions here all boil down to trust: Does this credit union help me? Do they watch out for me? Do I get good service? Is this recommendation convenient for me?

Believe it or not, in today’s world you can still differentiate on service. It may be ‘old fashioned’, but by consistently helping members with the issues that come up during their relationship with you, a level of trust and loyalty is either being created or diminished. If you do a good job you create loyalty – which leads to ‘top of mind’ awareness, openness to your suggestions and maybe, just maybe – they’ll even tell others about you.

Creating Service-driven Member Loyalty

To increase member loyalty through service takes time – but it is something you can start on today! It involves setting up an environment where everyone knows you want to ‘do the right thing’ for the member; staff are empowered to make decisions; and they have the right tools to do the job.

Most credit unions already are doing the first two – they are truly interested in helping members and staff is trusted to do the right thing. The area of opportunity is whether your team has the right tools to do the job in an easy manner.

The idea is to share organizational knowledge about your relationship with the member – and I’m not talking just about the accounts and services they have with you – but more importantly, the ‘soft’ interactions that come up in a relationship. Some examples? A question about an unusual charge on a credit card, a problem with a bill pay item, wanting to send a wire transfer or even just a simple question about one of their accounts.

This stuff is the ‘cake’. And believe me, the icing will be easy to apply and the whole experience will taste a lot better if you do a good job on the cake. Just remember, adages are usually based in wisdom  … and pretty darn accurate.

‘An additional benefit to something that is already good’.