WASHINGTON–The ability to deliver loan offers to members in real time when they are thinking of borrowing—including a “Buy Now” button to make it even easier for the member–are just a few of the solutions being offered by a company that may surprise many credit unions.
Harland Clarke has relationships with more than 3,500 credit unions, according to Scott Hansen, chief marketing and strategy officer with the company, and it remains primarily known for producing paper checks. But the company has been delivering much more than checks to credit unions, he stressed, particularly in the area of better engagement with members.
“Harland Clarke is to some extent invisible in the credit union movement,” said Hansen, who spoke to CUToday.info during CUNA’s GAC. “There had not been a lot of product development strategy in place. But we have really made a commitment in 2018 to better support credit unions.”
To that end, Hansen said Harland Clarke representatives have spent time with CUNA, CUNA Mutual and credit unions themselves to develop ideal solutions for creating and cementing member ties.
“Our real value proposition is helping credit unions to engage with members,” said Hansen. “That’s not what people think of when they think of us. We are not changing our behaviors, but we are changing how we talk about ourselves. We all understand that per capital check usage is declining, and we have made huge investments in ways to better support the credit union brand. All of our checks are individually printed, for instance, which allows us to personalize to the financial institution.”
Boosting Response on Preapprovals
But as Hansen stressed, Harland Clarke is about much more than just printing checks. It has developed a solution known as LoanEngine that makes the standard preapproval loan campaign far more effective, he said. The technology the company has pioneered can run a file past all the credit bureaus and dial up as many as nine different offers for which a member is qualified. The solution selects the offer that is best for the member and then integrates that with the credit union’s online and mobile banking so the member sees the message. It even includes a slider tool that allows the member to adjust the amount of the loan to see how the payment would change.
“What’s interesting with this is it’s persistent,” said Hansen. “Each time they log in they are seeing an offer. It can run for 90 days and then be refreshed. “
The presentation to the member even includes the type of “Buy Now” button consumers have become accustomed to from other providers.
“Lending has been the thing that credit unions have really asked us to work on,” continued Hansen.
Real-Time Offers
In response, Harland Clarke has been developing a ShopAlert feature that monitors for a credit inquiry on a member’s file. When it sees an inquiry in real time, it offers a credit union the ability to make an outbound call and an email to a member. To date, that offering has led to $1.2 billion in loans to members, Hansen said.
Where Harland Clarke has seen the greatest growth, said Hansen, is in a service it offers to assist credit unions going through Internet banking and mobile banking conversions. Hansen said the technology piece may go smoothly, but when the credit union sends notifications to members it suddenly finds itself deluged by member phone calls.
Scott Hansen
“We have had phenomenal success with our Burst contact center solution,” said Hansen. “We train all the agents and then we switch the credit union’s phone to us. Then we gear back down and return the phones to the credit union. It’s been one of the most successful things we’ve done.”
A 'Terrific Engagement Builder'
Also successful, he said, has been something Hansen said he was initially “skeptical” would be as embraced as strongly as it has been, and that has been in-branch instant card issuance. It currently has 3,900 machines in client financial institutions as part of a partnership.
“We are doing 190,000 instant issue cards per month,” said Hansen. “For credit unions, it’s not about cost reductions or security. Instead, its’ about being able to immediately say, ‘Here’s your card.’”
The member’s perception of service when handed a card that can be used immediately is a terrific engagement builder, said Hansen.