2024 marks a significant anniversary in the lifetime of digital finance. In 1994, just thirty years ago (yes, 1994 was thirty years ago…sorry to break it to you), Stanford Federal Credit Union unveiled the first instance of Online Banking to members. Since then, online banking has gone from “nice-to-have” feature to an essential component of a financial institution’s business strategy. According to Forbes, 79% of consumers prefer to bank via mobile app or website, as opposed to doing business at the branch.
While a lot’s changed in thirty years, financial institutions are still behind in one key area: using the OLB platform to generate new business. Many FIs don’t capitalize on the ubiquity of the platform the way they could, or should. Core providers offer many SDKs that help developers and fintechs implement new features that can actually grow existing business by expanding the product portfolio of a given user.
Utah Community Credit Union saw just such an opportunity. Their goal: to increase the number of members using their EconoCheck service and add additional value and services to their checking accounts. They turned to Trabian to help.
Keeping it simple
One of the key ingredients in UCCU’s new extension: simplicity. From the beginning, the client put an emphasis on the importance of a smooth, easy-to-use experience for users.
“We were replacing our premium checking product. While the offering itself would be improved over the previous solution, we knew that a critical component to the new product would be an improved and streamlined onboarding experience. Anyone wanting to upgrade from basic checking to the premium checking product needed to come to a branch or call our contact center,” says Stirling Ogden, Director of Online Services at Utah Community Credit Union.
The extension makes the process incredibly easy: first, users click on the banner widget inside the Q2 OLB desktop; then, they visit the account selection screen and choose which checking account they want to enhance with Elevated Checking.
“While the offering itself would be improved over the previous solution, we knew that a critical component to the new product would be an improved and streamlined onboarding experience,” said Ogden.
“We make the process incredibly simple,” said Summer Brow, Senior Designer at Trabian. “And more than that, we really paid special attention to the client’s branding guidelines so that it matched their look and feel and looked beautiful.”
The extension entices users with features and benefits, and even provides terms and conditions in a single screen that can be viewed on any device. Users select their account of choice, accept the terms, and are taken immediately to a decision screen.
“There’s not a lot of waiting around,” said Brow. “The user knows almost instantly if their account has had the Elevated Checking applied. And if their account isn’t eligible to have Elevated Checking applied, they can upgrade as a part of this process.”
One-Stop (to the user, at least) Shopping
The secret ingredient in making the Elevated Checking process work smoothly? Beyond the elegant design, Trabian leveraged single sign-on (SSO) via Q2’s SDK to tap the necessary assets to modify user accounts and settings.
The SSO connects the requisite pieces of the extension directly to the core, so that once a user’s account is approved for upgrade, the upgrade itself happens instantly.
“We have a lot of experience with SSO extensions. We like finding new ways to take what we’re given from Q2 and leverage it to improve the user experience,” said Morgan Schluttenhofer, Project Manager for Trabian.
The UCCU extension is now live in online banking and is already drawing new interest from members.
“Trabian kept up with our creative vision and helped turn our mockups into an intuitive, award-winning solution that plays a critical role in our current strategy,” said Ogden.
“Trabian always loves finding ways to help our clients open up opportunities and simplify a process,” says Hallie Vincent, Chief Revenue Officer for Trabian. “When you’re running any business, you never want to leave money on the table; you want to try and maximize your opportunities, and better leveraging online banking is a great way to do that.”
To learn more about how Trabian can add value and selling opportunities to your online banking environment, reach out to us using the "Contact Us" button above, or visit our Integrations page to learn more.