Data has shown that the presence of a mortgage often leads to a deeper product relationship with a member. However, research published by Member Loyalty Group in 2012 indicated that a key measurement of loyalty – the Net Promoter Score – was among the lowest when associated with the mortgage loan experience. The Filene i3 team had found its focus for its innovation.

The result was a promising concept with an unusual name. HomEase provides timely, proactive notification to members as key milestones throughout the mortgage underwriting process are completed.

The typical mortgage application and underwriting process can take upwards of 60 days to complete. And during much of that time, members – particularly first time homebuyers – may be confused about the status of their application and what to expect next.

HomEase eliminates much of this confusion by either texting or emailing the member at one of six key milestones. Directly on their smartphone, the member is presented with an easy-to-read graphic representation of the mortgage underwriting timeline, an update on what's been completed and a preview of what's to come.

The concept was initially built as a rapid prototype and tested with members at Air Academy Federal Credit Union. The Filene i3 team found the average number of inbound mortgage calls from members in the test declined by 28% and nearly half of the applicants used the tool. Intrigued, Filene selected HomEase for further testing in what is now known as our i4 Incubator.

There, Filene collaborated with D+H to build a more developed prototype and tested HomEase with 10 credit unions over the course of several months. The credit unions were diverse in asset size – from $65 million to $2.2 billion – and together submitted 330 loans in the HomEase system.

The results from our prototype were equally strong. Seventy-four percent of members invited to use HomEase accessed the system at least once and two-thirds of all members invited to use HomEase opened all milestone alerts they were sent.

We learned a lot from our prototype test as well. While the rapid prototype was designed with six fixed milestone alerts, we heard from credit unions and members alike that they'd prefer the ability to customize the content and ordering of each update. Credit union employees reiterated that they would like to see HomEase integrated with one or more loan origination systems so that updates could be automatically triggered.

We know that HomEase has been proven to positively impact the member experience and reduce the time credit unions spend answering member calls about the status of their mortgage. Now Filene is exploring the best path forward to ultimately commercialize HomEase and share these member and operational benefits with a broader set of credit unions.

This process of seeking ideas from a variety of sources, testing them with and on behalf of credit unions, and sharing the results across the credit union movement sits at the center of why the Filene Incubator was developed. We know that credit unions need to offer more innovative products and experiences for their members, but many don't have the capacity, know-how, or risk tolerance. That's where the Filene Incubator comes in.

Beyond HomEase there are a number of new innovations on deck to be tested in the Filene Incubator. We can't promise that they're all inspired by something as tasty as pizza, but they each stand to positively impact your members and your credit union's success. Visit Filene.org to learn more about how you can take part in a future test.

Andrew Downin is managing director of innovation for Filene Research Institute. He can be reached at 608-661-3746 or [email protected].