Credit Union ONE’s Ambitious Promotion for PayLynx™ Online Bill Payment Program Yields Outstanding Results
Subscribers Up By Almost 18 Percent,
Online Payments Up More Than 28 Percent
St. Petersburg, FL, Sept. 25, 2006 –At Credit Union ONE of Ferndale, Mich., a successful combination of member and employee promotions achieved impressive growth in subscribers and payments for its online bill payment service. The credit union achieved a 17.6 percent growth in subscribers and a 28.7 percent growth in payments as a result of a five-month promotion. The credit union uses PayLynx™ online bill payment program from PSCU Financial Services.
Credit Union ONE’s comprehensive marketing campaign for PayLynx included web site messages, in-branch TV advertisements, phone messages, teller line materials as well as statement and envelope messaging. In an innovative move, the credit union debuted an employee promotion prior to its member promotion.
During March, April and May of this year, each employee using online bill payment to pay five bills a month was entered into a monthly drawing for two $250 Credit Union ONE gift cards. “People who use a product are always the best spokespersons. Once our staff used PayLynx bill payment program, they became ardent promoters of its convenience and ease of use,” said Kim Lyon, Marketing Project Coordinator, Credit Union ONE.
The credit union also offered a three-month promotion for members in which each member using online bill pay for at least five bills a month was entered into a monthly drawing for a $500 credit union gift card.
“These promotions were both successful and fun because every month, we had either employees or members winning a gift card. PayLynx is also very easy to market because users are extremely satisfied with its performance and its security features,” Lyon said.
She added that PSCU Financial Services representatives help her staff by providing quarterly progress reviews to boost enthusiasm and keep the online bill payment program top-of-mind. These reviews include new and upcoming features and enhancements, and industry news and trends, along with credit union statistics depicting growth patterns and peer group progress for comparative analysis. In addition, the latest marketing tools and campaigns to drive bill pay adoption and usage are presented.
“With activation rates over 71 percent, member credit unions like Credit Union ONE benefit from one of the highest activation rates in the industry,” said Leslie Reistrup, eServices Director, PSCU Financial Services. “We attribute this success to the industry-leading, consumer-friendly features offered by PayLynx and our close working relationship with credit unions to help them promote and support the program.”
PSCU Financial Services, the nation’s largest cooperative, continues to enhance its PayLynx platform, which now has more than 370,000 subscribers. The most recent upgrades, which became effective Sept. 20, include: automatic pre-population of biller or industry categories, improved biller matching so that a subscriber only needs to enter partial biller information, preferred payment account prompts for users with multiple accounts and encryption for consolidated logon (SSO) URLs stored in user cookies. These upgrades occur automatically at subscriber log in and do not require any system downtime for installation. PayLynx users benefit from one of the highest activation rates in the industry: 71 percent.
About Credit Union ONE
Based in Ferndale, Mich., Credit Union ONE is Michigan's largest cooperative credit union with $734 million in assets, 117,000 members and 25 branches. It has been providing products and services to Michigan communities for over 65 years. For more information, please visit: www.cuone.org.
About PSCU Financial Services
As a non-profit cooperative, PSCU Financial Services is owned by more than 500 member credit unions representing over 10 million cardholder accounts and more than 270,000 online bill payment subscribers. Its Contact Center services more than 10 million inquiries a year.
PSCU Financial Services maintains its headquarters and Eastern operations center in St. Petersburg, Florida. The company is also supported by a West Coast operations center based in Phoenix, Arizona. PSCU Financial Services is the nation's largest Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO).
Established in 1977, the company provides a broad array of cost-effective, high quality financial services that include credit, debit, ATM, prepaids, bill payment, lending and contact center solutions. PSCU Financial Services uniquely offers its members a full range of processing options, any combination from full service to in-house pass through processing for credit, debit and ATM transactions. As the leader in the credit union industry, the company offers gateway access to national and regional networks. It also provides full function ATM terminal driving services.
For more information, visit the company's
Web site at www.pscufs.com.
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