Award-Winning Mobile Apps: 3 CUs Reveal What It Takes

Credit union members are flocking to mobile apps to do their banking, but not all credit union mobile apps are created equal. And these days, subpar mobile apps can drive members away – or even deter them from becoming members in the first place.

That’s why so many credit unions have prioritized and invested in their mobile apps. Some have done it so well, in fact, that their mobile apps have won awards. We spoke with three of those credit unions and uncovered a few things their award-winning mobile apps seem to have in common.

They Offer Certain High-Value Features

The mobile app for the Dallas, Texas-based Neighborhood Credit Union, for example, allows members to get a quick view of their account balances without having to log all the way in. They can also apply for loans and open deposit accounts via the mobile app, which also has a rewards program, biometric authentication and card management features, according to Carolyn Jordan, SVP of remote services and member development. Neighborhood, which won a Retail Mobile Banking Navigator award from FI Navigator, has $810 million in assets and about 56,000 members.

“Members can turn their debit cards on and off according to how they desire. So it’s a nice fraud-management feature,” she said.

Skip-payment features are also popular, she said. “We have the functionality inside of the app so that they can just go right in there and skip their loan payment if they’re within the number of times that we allow it and it’s the right type of loan,” she said.

Bill pay, mobile deposit, personal financial management and P2P are “pretty standard these days” for mobile apps, she added.

E-statements via mobile and smartwatch pairing are newer features, Jordan added. Last year the credit union also rolled out what she called a “perpetual loan preapproval system” in its mobile app.

“So, members that qualified, they have an ongoing loan preapproval that they can access right in the app,” she explained. “If they’re going to buy a car or whatever, they can access that right in the app.”

Dawn Brummett, EVP and COO at ORNL Federal Credit Union in Oak Ridge, Tenn., said her credit union’s mobile app provides statements and tax documents, among other features.

“Travel notifications have been in our app now for some time,” she said. “Card controls is another example of something that we’ve put in our app that we feel is a differentiator.” ORNL has $2.3 billion in assets and about 174,000 members.  It recently won a Kony Digital Innovation Award for its digital banking platform.

“Alerts are another thing that we brought forward in our app very early on,” she added. The app offers threshold alerts, login alerts, password change alerts, transaction-type alerts and alerts for pending ACH deposits. “It’s a great thing for us, as well, because those calls can easily be self-serve calls for the members who choose to do that,” she said.

“What our members have told us, very clearly, is we value everyday core banking in a frictionless manner,” Chris Parker, EVP and COO at Partners Federal Credit Union in Burbank, Calif., said. “We’re not looking for the exotics … I need to be able to make a deposit, make a payment, do a transfer, everyday core banking, and I need to do it in a very seamless and frictionless way.” Partners has $1.9 billion in assets and about 178,000 members. It also recently won a Kony Digital Innovation Award.

They Partner With Third-Party Developers

Credit unions with award-winning apps rarely build them alone.

“It’s all outsourced,” Jordan said. “Actually, we don’t have any internal developers. Our digital banking partner takes care of everything.”

Things are over 90% outsourced, according to Brummett. “Certainly our team provided input,” she added, “but we really … trusted their expertise in mobility.”

She added, “For us, we felt it was a more efficient model. And if you have a good partner … you can put a lot of trust in that model.”

They Care About Usage and What People Think

Enrollment was a key indicator – but it isn’t the only indicator.

“You can be fooled by enrollment,” Brummett said. “People can enroll and say, ‘Gosh, this is the worst app I’ve ever seen.’”

“As we see adoption and we see the monthly utilization increase, that helps us know that our customers are not only enrolling … but if they enroll, and they’re logging in, and they’re using multiple features,” she said. “That lets us know that we’re getting traction.”

The credit union also monitors the number of logins per month, as well as the number of transactions and the dollar amounts of those transactions, she said.

App stores were also key sources of feedback, and the credit unions said they did what they could to cultivate high ratings.

“That’s purely from the users rating it without the credit unions reaching out at all,” Jordan noted. “They just go into those app stores, and they rate it and they’re very honest with their feedback.”

They Keep Their Apps Up to Date

“We are doing very nice, incremental releases,” Partners Vice President of Digital Services Rob Maretsky said. “Sometimes we’re responding to bug fixes, and sometimes we’re adding new features.”

“I noticed in some of the app stores, there are some [credit unions] that update – but there are some where it’s six months or a year since they last updated,” he said.

ORNL does about four releases a year, Brummett said. “We are careful about how many new features we will release at a time. Even though people are digitally savvy in a lot of cases, it can be overwhelming to throw out five new features at a time.”

Advice to Others

Credit unions can do a number of things to boost their mobile apps, according to the pros.

“I really think you distinguish yourself by two things,” Maretsky said. “Number one, having a couple interesting features, but more importantly, for the core banking features, they work well and they get out of the way.”

Credit unions have to choose their partners carefully, too, Jordan said. “Sometimes just jumping with the most seemingly the most popular [vendor or service that] everybody else may be using at that time may not be where you need to go,” she said.

Contracts longer than three years might not be a good idea, she added. “Things change so rapidly,” she said. “When it comes to digital banking, you really want to be able to act and keep your vendor accountable.”

It’s also beneficial for credit unions to swap ideas with their mobile banking vendor, and encourage their vendor to partner with fintechs to enhance development. “This helps with the perceived risk that is associated with fintech partnership, especially for smaller credit unions,” she said.