Bill Lehman
ORLANDO—Do credit unions have the right bells and whistles on their mobile solutions to not only attract members to digital banking but also retain those already using their service?
Bill Lehman, VP of portfolio consulting services at CSCU, raised that question and urged credit unions to develop new incentives and to add greater mobile functionality to keep them relevant to their membership. Those incentives not only include adding high-demand tech like remote deposit capture, but advancements like signing up new members via their phones.
“Mobile account opening is probably one of the more challenging services to add to mobile,” said Lehman, speaking at CSCU’s Solutions 2016 annual conference. “But we have to consider how members can do this via their phone and make it easy—use the camera and license to verify the member’s identity, streamlining the process. Compare how easy that would be to your current new enrollee process—how many paper forms do people have to fill out now? We need to take this process to the mobile device and make it seamless.”
Perhaps a more subtle mobile addition, yet not less important, said Lehman, is to deliver a consistent user experience across all mobile devices.
“We have to be consistent between smartphones, tablets and now phablets,” said Lehman. “Surveys show that about 90% of consumers expect the experience to be same across all of your channels, and not just mobile. Consistency gives you an identity, makes you familiar and unique, and builds trust and loyalty. If we are consistent, we build a strong storyline with members.”
Card Controls
Lehman told credit unions to get members involved in the fraud fight by offering alerts and card control—managing card spending parameters and turning plastic on and off via the smartphone.
“Sixty percent of cardholders want to actively manage their accounts,” said Lehman. “Financial institutions see 40% less fraudulent activity on cards from those who enroll in alerts.”
As CSCU President and CEO Bob Hackney emphasized to attendees at the opening of the conference, Lehman also encouraged CUs to get involved in all of the digital wallets.
“I am concerned,” said Lehman. “We want more credit unions actively enrolled in these mobile payments solutions. Only 48% of the industry’s largest credit unions are enrolled in Apple Pay, and when we get to the smaller credit unions the numbers are virtually non-existent. But get started today, as it is taking six to 12 months to get up and running in one of the pays because of the volume (of interest now).”
Other payments advice from Lehman:
- P2P, which gets little attention anymore, is important to Millennials.
- Educate members on the efficiency and security of mobile payments to encourage them to use the tools.
- Take active role in the enrollment of members into Visa Checkout and MasterPass.
- Begin to consider how to develop new rewards that will incent members to keep the CU’s card top of the digital wallet.