As the longest-serving financial institution in San Diego, California Coast Credit Union is passionate about its members and their financial health. However, like many organizations they struggled to translate this commitment into a member-centric digital experience. They were looking for a partner that understood banking to guide them toward the future.
Cal Coast’s audience and brand was evolving, but their website was stuck in the past. They wanted an experience and design that was more mobile-first, and that would appeal to a younger demographic. At the same time, they wanted to provide the kind of high level of service online as they do through other channels.
Cal Coast didn’t only want to transform their site into a better experience their users, they also wanted to make managing it better for their employees. They needed a CMS platform that would allow them to improve operational efficiency and integrate with the latest marketing technology.
On top of that, they wanted to drive growth through an optimized user journey, and that meant redesigning their online account origination (OAO) process.
Extractable started by immersing itself in the audience, brand, and business requirements. We listened to leaders of key business units, as well as branch and call center staff, in order to get a complete picture of the situation. What emerged were four main objectives: Growth, Seamless/Personalized, Responsive, and Technology/Operational Efficiency. Working in parallel, we performed a content audit to develop the overall content strategy, centered on four pillars: Findability, Guidance, Simplicity, and Growth. This strategy was also informed by a rigorous analytics review of the data.
When it came it to user experience, Extractable followed a Lean UX process that allowed us to rapidly iterate. We went through multiple rounds of visual design to pick the direction and establish a new look and feel. This included a Style Guide to ensure everyone at CalCoast and its vendors followed consistent rules.
In parallel with the site redesign, Extractable guided CalCoast through the process of evaluating leading content management systems. We helped define the selection criteria to make sure everyone aligned on what features the new platform needed to support. Once a decision was made, we moved ahead with implementing the solution and migrating content. We also provided training in how to use the new system.
Like many credit unions, Cal Coast’s OAO was an out-of-the-box solution. Our mission was to build a custom experience on top of the existing platform, with a simpler flow and enhanced reporting.
Extractable followed a collaborative UX process, starting with multiple working sessions to map out detailed user flows. The flows allowed the team to define the user decisions and system actions at each step of the process. It saved time in the long run, because we were able to work through complex decisioning rules and corner cases before committing to the wireframes and design.
Once the design was complete, Extractable developed the front-end code and helped guide the client through setting up a new hosting environment.
Extractable recognizes the importance of an end-to-end journey to increasing application starts and completions. The site redesign allowed us to do a better job of guiding visitors to the membership application. However, improving the top and middle of your funnel can backfire if you don’t have the right application process to support the increased traffic.The site redesign gave Cal Coast a modern, responsive site built on top of a flexible and intuitive CMS.
In the first two months of the new OAO, we have seen an incredible 71% increase in average monthly application completions. At the same time, the new CMS has improved operational efficiency for the editors and marketing team.
The new application process has just launched, so check back here soon to learn how a customized experience measured up. In the meantime, we’re providing ongoing SEO support to drive traffic and increase the top of the funnel.
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