Sprout & Harvest - Growing Credit Unions

In our latest edition of the Growing Credit Unions Podcast we sat down with three credit union industry leaders to explore how online appointment booking is now essential technology for any credit union.

In this dynamic panel discussion we covered:

• Why online appointment booking is critical for credit unions
• How appointment booking captures digital leads beyond traditional banking hours 
• How online appointment booking and lobby management enhance the member experience
• How online appointment booking tools bring visibility to key member engagement metrics
• Key best practices and change management recommendations for other credit unions implementing an appointment booking tool

IN THIS INTERVIEW:

[1:45] Key challenges to credit unions growing business online
[3:36] How do we keep a community connection in a digital environment
[5:10] Transitioning from digital engagement to personal 1-2-1 discussions - 84% of member still want to talk to a person
[9:55] The benefits of online appointment booking tools for credit unions
[13:50] Change management required to adapt to accommodate online appointment booking
[17:00] The visibility online appointment tools bring credit unions with member engagement metrics such as no show rate, meeting success, most common member requests, staff appointment volumes, outbound call productivity, time of day trends for appointments and direct member appointment feedback
[23:11] The importance of building a process to match the right advisor to the right member for a specific need
[23:55] Making sure the member is prepared
[26:52] Other best practices and considerations when implementing an appointment booking tool
[30:55] What members are saying about the appointment booking experience
[35:16] What other changes or innovation has this inspired?
[42:25] Creating a seamless experience for the member
[44:25] The importance of lobby management
[48:55] The future - where is this all going?


TARA SEVIGNY
MANAGER, CALL CENTRE, ALTERNA

Tara leads the continuous improvement, innovation and execution of all Contact Centre operations for Alterna Savings and Alterna Bank. Tara’s core responsibilities include the development and execution improvement of operations and the continuous improvement of the member/customer experience.

MATT LUKAS
DIRECTOR, MEMBER EXPERIENCE, YNCU

Matt Lukas leads YNCU’s Member Experience retail and digital channels through strategy development and employing Lean enterprise methodologies. His work in the Credit Union system over the last 11 years has ranged from Advisory leadership, Branch leadership and Retail channel, product and workforce innovation. He believes that the future of banking lives in both digital and analog spaces and is working to create valuable intersection points for YNCU’s Members.

KATHERINE REGNIER, 
CEO, COCONUT SOFTWARE

Katherine is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer Coconut Software. In 2011, she quit her job at 3-months pregnant to solely focus on Coconut. Since then she has led the company through venture capital funding, strategic partnerships and rapid growth that has brought the company to where it stands today

A worldwide pandemic, a full-scale office renovation, a complete 100-page public website redesign and a marketing team of one. 

How did they get it done you ask?

Well, we sat down with Inderjeet Singh from Khalsa Credit Union (KCU) to find out. 

How does a small team, with an ambitious digital transformation vision make it happen?… Simply put by Inderjeet, “It takes an entrepreneurial approach”.

In our latest podcast interview hear from Inderjeet, who heads up not only marketing but the human resources function, on how a small cross functional team successfully launched their new Forge-powered public website without delay, even with a pandemic and an office renovation in the works. 

Learn about the power of small and how smaller credit unions can leverage their nimble nature to get it done.

IN THIS INTERVIEW:

[3:40] Khalsa Credit Union’s digital transformation journey
[6:20] Key areas of focus for digital transformation including removing friction in the member experience
[8:30] Digital vision into the future 
[10:38] The changing role of branches
[13:02] Elements of digital transformation beyond technology (hint: it’s a lot to do with culture)
[17:08] The evolution of payments
[19:30] How smaller organizations with limited resources make digital transformation happen
[21:30] The importance of an entrepreneurial mindset
[24:10] The importance of cross functional teams
[25:50] Public site relaunch using Forge
[27:58] Vision and goals for new public website
[30:34] Steps in building the new site
[35:27] How Khalsa resourced their team (hint: keeping the team small is key)
[37:02] Khalsa’s efficient production process and tools used during the project
[40:45] Inderjeet’s recommendations for other credit unions 
[44:33] Key challenges and lessons learned

ABOUT INDERJEET SINGH, HEAD OF MARKETING AND HUMAN RESOURCES, KHALSA CREDIT UNION

Inderjeet has more than 10 years of experience in leading HR, organizational change and is currently responsible for human capital strategy and service delivery, digital transformation and member experience at KCU. He is a member of Executive Leadership Team focused on implementing KCU’s strategic vision.

He believes the credit union model provides for a better future by improving the financial well-being of its members and makes positive impact in the communities.

A tireless community advocate, Inderjeet works with various not-for-profit and charitable organizations in lower mainland.

Inderjeet holds a Bachelor of Science and a Certificate Program in Human Resource Management from Conestoga College, Kitchener and received his CPHR designation from CPHR BC & Yukon and currently resides in Surrey.

Find Inderjeet on LinkedIn 

ABOUT KHALSA CREDIT UNION

Khalsa Credit Union (KCU) is a member-owned financial institution serving the Sikh community across southern British Columbia. With six branches, over 15,000 members and over $460 million in assets, KCU is the largest Sikh member owned financial institution in the world. We are a strong and growing organization with over 30 years’ experience serving our members in Surrey, Abbotsford, Vancouver, Victoria and beyond.

Learn more about Khalsa Credit Union. 

Sprout & Harvest Marketing recently hosted a lively online panel discussion to explore the current and future state of credit union marketing and communications in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

We invited three credit union marketing leaders from different regions to join in the conversation and share their insights and experiences. The discussion covered some interesting ground including:

• How credit unions have evolved their marketing & communications strategies within this new pandemic environment
• Lessons learned in crisis communications 
• Changing member needs and expectations
• Adoption of digital, even for the laggards
• The increasing importance of content marketing

IN THIS INTERVIEW:

[6:10]  When did you realize that things were about to change?
[13:20] What did your approach to marketing and communications look like?
[13:36] All about speed and leaders getting hands on
[15:39] Credit union nimbleness and ability to make decisions quickly was an advantage
[18:07] Innovative approaches and decisions during the crisis
[21:45] Education and transition of members to self service channels
[23:12] Credit union marketing communications lessons learned 
[29:20] How are members needs and expectations changing now and into the future?
[36:57] What do these shifts mean for credit union marketing & communications going forward?
[38:42] The increasing importance of content marketing for credit unions
[44:58] How else might marketing change for credit unions in the next 6 to 12 months
[48:54] Do we have the right product mix to meet these shifting needs?
[52:50] How does the online experience need to evolve?

About Our Panelists

ARCHIE BONIFACIO
CHIEF MEMBER EXPERIENCE OFFICER, YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD CREDIT UNION
KITCHENER, ON 

Archie Bonifacio is the Chief Member Experience Officer at Your Neighbourhood Credit Union responsible for Marketing, Member Service and Wealth Management. Aside from his 20-plus years experience leading advisory and marketing teams in financial services, Archie has also taught marketing at the University of Guelph and Sheridan College for over 10 years.  

Visit YNCU

Find Archie on LinkedIn

TRACY KELLY
VICE PRESIDENT MARKETING AND COMMUNITY, CONNECT FIRST 
CALGARY, AB

Tracy Kelly has been in marketing for over 20 years, building experience in digital, brand, research, communications, community and corporate social responsibility. Her educational background includes a Master of Business Administration degree from the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta. As Vice President, Marketing & Community at Connect First Credit Union, Tracy is passionate about the brand development and digital transformation that is happening at their credit union. 

Visit Connect First 

Find Tracy on LinkedIn

MIKE GOERZEN 
ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT MARKETING, COASTAL COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION
NANAIMO, BC

Mike Goerzen has worked in the credit union system for over 20 years, gaining experience in marketing, research and all things digital. As a seasoned AVP Marketing, he is passionate about innovation, digital transformation, and personal and professional development. 

Visit Coastal Community Credit Union  

Find Mike on LinkedIn

Brittany Halicki, Coastal Community Credit Union’s digital marketing specialist, has recently emerged from an intense public website rebuild using the Forge platform. 

Brittany, given her digital background, was tasked with building the site pages using Forge CXP, for one of the first credit unions to do so.  

Doing this for a champion credit union was no easy task. Brittany was charged with taking a fully re-imagined user experience and content strategy and bring it to life on a fresh new platform. A platform she did not have experience with nor did others in the credit union system. It was indeed time to “forge” ahead into new territory.

With a focus on hands-on development, we sat down with Brittany to explore what she believes other credit unions can learn from her experience, including:

1. Production process
2. Key tools used
3. Important wins and lessons that other credit unions should consider
4. Forge work-arounds 

IN THIS INTERVIEW:

[3:03] Brittany shares some of the improved analytics CCCU is seeing since launching its new public website
[4:30] CCCU’s journey to today, the process they employed to get to launch such as personas, user journeys, brand visualization, page planning, engaging with internal subject matter experts and eye-opening user testing
[7:50] Brittany provides an overview of Coastal Community’s production process including page plans, content specifications, content writing, implementation on Forge
[9:50] The process implementing within Forge CXP including master pages, CCCU component library & Forge widgets, taking a design-first approach
[13:35] Some of the tools the CCCU team used during the project including Google Docs, Google Sheets, Invision and Figma
[14:30] What went really well that other credit unions should adopt including ensuring all pages have a clear intent and purpose and working agile in 2-week sprints
[18:43] Some other implementation tips and tricks including compressing images, free stock photos and iconography
[19:39] What might Brittany have done differently that other credit unions can learn from including having more teammates able and available to be hands on with the implementation
[21:46] Other recommendations for credit unions including accepting early on that you are going to launch with a public ready website not a perfect website, lean into Central 1 and your team for support, work in small batches and brush up on HTML skills before starting
[25:30] Work-arounds that Brittany used including leveraging master pages, layering widgets, and using frames
[27:20] Brittany shares the Forge CXP enhancements she is looking forward to
[29:30] What Brittany wished she knew before she started
[31:45] What is next now that the site is live?

ABOUT BRITTANY HALICKI

Brittany Halicki hails from South Florida but has lived on Vancouver Island and worked in marketing for about 6 years. Her focus has comprised mostly of digital strategies, SEO and PPC.

ABOUT COASTAL COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION

For almost 75 years, Coastal Community Credit Union (CCCU) has been helping Islanders and their families lead more financially successful lives. As a result of the trust and support shown to us, CCCU has grown to become the largest Vancouver Island-based financial services organization serving over 100,000 members and clients. From up, down and across the Islands, Coastal Community operates a network of 24 credit union locations and 16 insurance offices providing a full range of products and services in personal, business, and commercial banking as well as wealth management, personal and commercial insurance.

When Sunshine Coast Credit Union set off to transform its digital experience for its 17,000+ members in 2019, the credit union embarked on an exciting journey. The credit union armed with a fresh new vision, a set of strategic partners, and an enthusiastic executive signed up to be a “champion” credit union on Central 1’s new Forge platform. 

Jodi Fichtner, Sunshine Coast Credit Union’s Chief Marketing Officer, sat down with us to share her key insights and lessons learned from the project. In the interview Jodi provides valuable experiences and perspectives including the benefits of working ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ with Central 1 on widget development, the importance of collaborating with internal subject matter experts, the value of user scenario testing, being member centric and keeping employees engaged, as well as, the importance of beta testing. 

Sprout & Harvest has supported Sunshine Coast Credit Union from day one of the project collaborating with the credit union to create its new digital strategy, a member-centric vision, user scenarios, content strategy, user experience strategy, information architecture and page planning.

IN THIS INTERVIEW:

[2:53] Jodi explains the benefits of launching a beta site
[3:34] The vision behind the new public website experience and Sunshine Coast Credit Union’s focus on a “segment-of-one” to help build members’ financial health for the future
[6:28] The key milestones along the way including executive engagement, personas, user scenarios and user testing
[8:47] The user testing process including engaging staff and members
[9:52] How page planning helps the credit union to focus on the needs of the user as well as what an organization wants to strategically achieve with each page
[11:40] The importance of signing off on the page plan before copywriting begins
[12:29] It is critical to secure time with, and engage, internal subject matter experts
[13:34] The design process including using Invision as a tool for collaborative feedback
[14:48] Tips to balance a large project load and regular commitments with a lean team
[16:51] Proportion of resource time spent on the project for the internal project team
[17:58] What went really well? (1) Engagement of internal stakeholders and members including the launch of a beta site before the full launch (2) Working shoulder-to-shoulder with Central 1 to enhance widgets
[20:42] Allocate enough time and resources, including the amount of time needed with internal subject matter experts
[21:34] What SCCU would have done differently? Would have started the strategic process, persona and content building earlier 
[22:34] Credit unions should have an internal test team in place to test on multiple devices and browsers, both before and after launch 
[25:06] Credit unions need to allocate adequate time and resources to collaborate with Central 1
[27:13] Benefits of using custom photography versus stock photography to create a local connection
[28:05] Advice for smaller credit unions - (1) Anticipate this will take a large portion of your time and resources (2) Surround yourself with the right partners to extend your team (3) Don’t accept the status quo. Look at external inspiration. Look at the opportunity with a fresh set of eyes
[30:11] Next steps after launch - launching enhancements and new content regularly

ABOUT JODI

Find Jodi on LinkedIn


ABOUT SUNSHINE COAST CREDIT UNION

Learn more about Sunshine Coast Credit Union

Transforming its digital experience for members and prospective members is an all consuming focus for Coastal Community Credit Union. Coastal Community’s new digital experience is being built using Forge (Backbase), Central 1’s digital platform for Canadian credit unions. Coastal Community is one of the “champions” for Forge, meaning they are one of a small group of credit unions that have agreed to be an early adopter to help evolve the platform.

For a number of months now Sprout & Harvest has been collaborating with Coastal Community Credit Union to bring their new digital experience to life. Given we are well down the path of the project we thought it would be a good time to share some “lessons learned” for other credit unions to consider as they go down their own digital path. So we interviewed Mike Goerzen, AVP Marketing from Coastal Community to get his perspective - his big surprises, key challenges, lessons learned, project process, team structure and tools used. We hope you find value and can apply it to your own digital journey.

In this interview:

[2:55]  Coastal Community Credit Union’s digital journey - How CCCU got to today including the decision to use the Forge/Backbase platform
[4:20] CCCU’s ambitious digital vision
[4:46] What is a “financial health experience”?
[6:07] Mike explains CCCU’s member-first philosophy
[8:20] What digital success looks like for CCCU
[10:13] CCCU’s decision around adopting the Forge platform and how CCCU adopted a strategy-first approach
[12:35] Mike explains the key steps in the project such as personas, user scenarios, user testing and prototype development
[19:40] Mike explains a key collaboration step with Central 1  connecting strategy to the Forge platform capabilities. Is what we designed feasible in the platform?
[21:25] The integrated team including key members and roles (internal and external)
[22:05] The production process (1) page planning (2) copywriting (3) design (4) implementation including time allocation for each team member and engaging internal subject matter experts
[27:42] Keeping the team motivated and excited even with the extra workload
[30:33] How the project has stirred innovation elsewhere in the organization
[31:30] Mike’s big surprises along the way
[35:50] What has been more difficult than expected?
[38:07] Lessons learned and recommendations for other credit unions, including discussion about some of the tools used in daily production and how to evolve the team
[43:30] Mike shares some quick tips for credit unions
[46:48] Mike’s advice for smaller credit unions in how they might approach their digital transformation journey

ABOUT MIKE GOERZEN, ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT MARKETING, COASTAL COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION

Mike Goerzen has worked in the credit union system for over 20 years, gaining experience in marketing, research and all things digital. As a seasoned AVP Marketing, he is passionate about innovation, digital transformation, and personal and professional development. Away from the office, Mike leads a very active lifestyle and can be found coaching youth soccer, mountain biking, and improving himself in his home gym.

Find Mike on LinkedIn

ABOUT COASTAL COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION

For over 70 years, Coastal Community Credit Union (CCCU) has been helping Islanders and their families lead more financially successful lives. As a result of the trust and support shown to us, CCCU has grown to become the largest Vancouver Island-based financial services organization. We’re also among the top 20 largest credit unions in Canada when measured by asset size. From up, down and across the Islands, Coastal Community operates a network of 24 credit union locations and 16 insurance of