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Time to Shine: Fostering the CU Experience

In the credit union industry and beyond, it’s all about the member experience. Going beyond your product offerings and branch locations, how do you make your members feel? Welcoming new members doesn’t end after their initial transaction is completed, and ensuring your loyal members are informed becomes more and more important over time. Onboarding and reboarding campaigns are your credit union’s time to shine! They are proven to increase member retention and the feeling of connectedness that members have with your credit union

Onboarding & Reboarding Defined

Onboarding is an effective and systematic way to reach out to your newest members. The process occurs within a 90-day period after a new member joins your credit union. Using a combination of phone calls, emails, direct mail, and social media, varied communications are used to welcome new members while informing them of products and services that best meet their needs and lifestyles. By satisfying additional financial needs for new members early in their memberships, they are dramatically less likely to leave, improving the overall retention rate.

Reboarding is similar to onboarding in that it is a defined, targeted campaign to share product and service offerings with members, but instead of new members, you are targeting longtime members to ensure they are aware of the products and services available to them. Again, by using a combination of marketing channels, your credit union communicates with its most loyal members through a targeted campaign that feels personal, timely, and relevant. This benefits members by offering relevant services that may help in terms of convenience or achieving their financial goals, and it benefits the credit union by increasing adoption, usage, and ROI.

Both onboarding and reboarding campaigns are proven to:

  • Improve member retention, decrease churn and create valuable relationships
  • Increase cross-selling success, creating greater product penetration
  • Help members feel more closely connected to your credit union

The Case for Onboarding and Reboarding

“Onboarding is so successful because honestly, people are busy,” shared Tara Kochansky, Marketing Director for Heritage Valley CU in York County, PA. “When members first open their account, they likely don’t take the time to look at all the products and services that are made available to them by being a member. Onboarding is a targeted, personalized reminder of the products and services that could be beneficial to them. The messages are relevant at appropriate times, so they feel as though we’re keeping in touch, but not hammering them with sales pitches either.”

Heritage Valley FCU experienced the significant impact of onboarding first-hand. Partnering with Synergent Marketing Services, their five-month campaign resulted in a 20% increase in shares per member, a 50% increase in new checking accounts, and an incredible 140% increase in online banking.

“The combination of branding, creative design, and data mining has resulted in being able to deepen the relationships with our new members much more successfully than what we did in prior years without the use of onboarding,” continued Kochansky. “It’s taken very little effort on our part because of the automation and great reporting!”

Dirigo FCU (formerly Rainbow CU), headquartered in Lewiston, ME, also experienced a significant increase in product and service adoption following their successful reboarding campaign. They experienced a 45% increase in checking, 50% increase in online banking, and a 44% increase in eStatements. This translated to a 70% increase across all three categories! This campaign continued to soar beyond its success with members, receiving a CUNA Diamond Award for brand awareness and a New England Direct Marketing Association Award for Creative Excellence.

“Reboarding has made a significant impact on the adoption of our products and services within our membership base,” explained Nicole Mailhot, Vice President of Marketing & Business Development. “We have over 22,000 members and when we roll out a new product or service, all of our existing members may not receive the advertising of these new services, depending on the marketing channels we use. By using reboarding, we are ensuring that we target these members so that they are made aware of what our credit union offers that can specifically meet their needs.”

It’s All About the Data

Whether using onboarding or reboarding, targeted marketing fueled by Transactional Data Mining (TDM) drives the campaign. By targeting specific members with specific products based on their current product usage, credit unions who launch onboarding and reboarding campaigns are able to narrow their audience and have greater impact upon the target group.

“Data mining can significantly reduce your membership churn, helping you to reach out to the right members at the right time with hopes to secure the primary financial institution relationship,” shared Jen Braziel, Data Mining Specialist for Synergent Marketing Services.

Learn More

Want to increase and quantify your ROI? Synergent Marketing Services is here to help as your single source for data mining, creation and distribution of marketing materials, and analysis of campaign success. Contact us today to plan your onboarding or reboarding campaign using TDM!