ur online transactions just surpassed our in
in-branch totals for the first time ever in January”
Darrel announced with considerable excitement. It was hard to suppress my satisfied grin, as I recognized this to be a significant turning point for 1st Choice Savings and Credit Union. The dedication shown to their web property as more than just an extension of their brand was demonstrating clear and measurable results. Without a doubt, a majority of 1st Savings members had come to understand the value of the online transaction.

But how does this translate into 1st Choice Savings’ largest branch? Here’s how it breaks down over a 23 month period since their new web property had gone live:

    • 1 persona based web property
    • 700 000 viewers
    • 1033% increase in leads
    • 1 000 000 transactions

Compile all of this data and what do you get? More gain than at any single (rapidly growing) 1st Choice Savings branch. Simply put, the web property has evolved into this credit union’s largest branch … hands down.



he value of your website must be viewed more than an
opportunity to link a member to the online banking floor, seeing it as a gateway to increase the value of the credit union’s services as viewed by your membership is core to building a sustainable and profitable online br anch.

Research tells us that members access their online bank account to:

    • See their account balance
    • Get a statement update
    • Conduct a transfer
    • Pay a bill

These financial transactions can be defined as “delivery channels” and include, in addition to the Internet banking, Phone Self Serve, Phone Live, Branch, and ATM.

In order to grasp the most efficient, cost effective and member-centered delivery channel(s) needed for the financial transaction to occur, it is important to ask yourself the following questions:

    1. Which delivery channel will create an experience that
        understands, educates, demonstrates and informs the
        member?
    2. Which delivery channel will generate new business?
    3. How can this be achieved without a significant increase
        in operational costs?
    4. How can this ultimately increase the credit union’s
        value?

With the understanding that 42% of financial transactions occur through your website, what opportunities do you start to see? A Canadian study by Forrester Research indicates that 37% of people who conduct financial transactions online take advantage of three or more additional services over those who don’t conduct online financial transactions.

Knowing this, it’s vital to ask yourself how you can leverage this access point to extend your credit union’s value and ability to meet the needs and goals of the member?

Our relationship with 1st Choice Savings and Credit Union, in particular, with Darrel Koskewich and his senior management team, helped our team at Webtech to develop a sophisticated answer to this question. Our research and development team looked carefully at the online banking access point and investigated how to use this simple yet very powerful point of interaction to 1st Choice Savings’ overall advantage.

In the research phase, we uncovered two disturbing facts:

    1. 90% of visitors landed on the homepage and exited to
        the online banking floor
    2. 70% of the online banking access was booked marked
        which means the member never even came to the 1st
        Choice’s website to access the online banking

One of the most unique features of the 1st Choice Savings’ web property and perhaps the key to its long-term success is its “member-centric” philosophy and design. Every aspect of this web property was planned, designed and developed around the needs of its membership. Once this was understood, we were able to place an additional focus on:

    • Members who were using online banking but were deliberately bypassing the existing website
       to access their online transactions.
    • Members who were “new to” online banking

Some of the details of this strategy were:

Redirect the existing bookmarked homepage and banking floor access point to the new homepage	Force the member to see the newly designed homepage along with 1st Choice Savings products, services and new web features	Increased exposure of the homepage with a dramatic decrease in direct access to the online banking application. Members spent more time browsing and accessing information.
Drop-down selection of branches which pre-populates the online banking application	Eliminates a step from the old site, making it easier for members to access the online banking application	Increased member satisfaction and perceived value. Increased exposure of the new homepage which extends the marketing messages of 1st Choice.
Rich, interactive and engaging online demonstration of the online banking application	To eliminate any fears of security issues and to increase members’ confidence in online banking. Nurturing a “Hey. I can do this” attitude. Generating leads for online banking.	Increased new online member usage by 18% surpassing the industry’s 10% increase

Our web strategy allowed us to support existing online banking members with the drop down location selection tool, as well as cultivate new online banking members through our rich and interactive online demo. This two-pronged approach yielded two important results for 1st Choice Savings:

    1. The online member came to rely on the web property
    2. A digital relationship began to form between members and the web property

This digital relationship created the basis for our extension into the other areas of high interaction. These included:

    • rates
    • calculators
    • product education
    • product selection tools

Increase of qualified leads on products/services from the new web property over past website	1033%
Increase time spent on web property over past website	155%
Decrease of staff training with the use of new web property	$19,032 / per year
Increased use of online banking	18%

1st Choice Savings’ biggest success came in January of 2007 when they surpassed branch transaction totals with their online banking application. There is absolutely no doubt that their well-designed “member centric” web property is responsible for these gains.

Webtech is a digital agency. We understand the Internet. We also understand the positive and negative implications that it has on conducting business online, both from the perspective of a business and a customer.

Our broad wealth of experience as a digital agency has uncovered many things about conducting business online. We understand what leads to success for our clients. Just as importantly, we understand what leads to failure. Our research and analysis has shown us the pitfalls. We make it our business to ensure that our clients avoid them.

All projects at Webtech are guided by our vision of “Delivering profits through the web”. To this end we understand the value of our client’s customer. This understanding holds the key to conducting successful business on the Internet. We have a proven track record of developing winning online strategies for our clients which has permitted us to build a diverse group of our own web properties that time and again have helped our clients to “deliver profit through the web”.

We have a particularly deep understanding of credit unions, their values, philosophies and the importance of their relationships to their members. This provides us with a distinct perspective on how a web property can provide a unique and valuable means of building relationships between a credit union and its membership. Of equal importance, we understand how to represent the needs of its members to a credit union. We also recognize that the internet is a powerful tool to help grow a credit union’s membership beyond their current market area.

It is from this platform of solid research, market and industry awareness as well as an appreciation for the unique relationship between a credit union and its members that we approach our business. Whatever the needs of your credit union might be, we would be happy to share this, along with other key business information, with you.