Making online forms as easy as possible

I’m in the process of writing an article for CUES’ CU Management magazine, about KickStart Online Lending Generator and Holy Rosary CU’s results. Editor Lisa Hochgraf had some excellent questions for me which prompted me to do a little bit more research into the universal conclusion that removing barriers and streamlining online forms from the user’s perspective leads to better results and increased sales.

So I thought I would share with you some of the eye-popping research that I discovered (and thus why Carol and Holy Rosary CU are getting wonderful results with KickStart – i.e. 10.49% growth in their loan portfolio over the past 6 months):

• Google’s Marissa Mayer: Speed Wins

• The $300 Million Button

• How Amazon’s website usability affects consumer product choice (This is a lengthy research paper)

In addition to the above research on the importance of streamlining the user/member/customer experience to improve sales, we’ve done some streamlining of our own. One item that proved to ourselves that we get better results when we make things easier online is that when we took the step of pre-filling out our own Online Switch Kit demo for you, dozens and dozens of you tried it out, compared to nearly no one trying it out when it was not pre-filled. It seems simple, but often times the little things can make a BIG difference!

So in our continuing quest to make our own forms and demos even easier to try out, we’ve now also pre-filled out the already-simple KickStart Loan Request form to make it even easier for you to test that for yourself. Kick the tires on KickStart yourself right here: KickStart test site

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this – did you find you got better results when your streamlined your online processes, forms, applications, and navigation? Was there ever a time when making things easier for your members online was a bad thing?

10.49% loan growth for our KickStart client

While the NCUA has not yet released the 4th Quarter 2012 5300-data for all CUs, it is available for many CUs on an individual basis.

We can’t help but be beaming proud of Carole Wight and Holy Rosary CU…. and the terrific results she’s getting with her EverythingCU.com KickStart.

I just checked the 4Q12 5300 report for Holy Rosary, and it’s even better than we thought it’d be! We were hoping they would maintain a 3.9% lending growth rate, and THEY WOUND UP BEATING IT! Lending is up EVEN MORE than the previous quarter! Loans are up by 6.3% in just the past quarter!

The last two quarters combined have seen Holy Rosary’s lending go up by 10.49%! If her loan portfolio continues to grow at that pace, her CU will have seen a TWENTY PERCENT increase in loans for the year! Wow! Never in our wildest imaginations did we think KickStart could have such an immediate impact on a CU’s loan portfolio, but the proof is in the NCUA 5300 numbers.

Here is the latest:
Dec 31, 2010: 4,758,649
Mar 31, 2011: 4,647,966
Jun 30, 2011: 4,623,701
Sep 30, 2011: 4,719,143
Dec 31, 2011: 4,918,250
Mar 31, 2012: 7,623,506 <– Merger with a smaller CU
Jun 30, 2012: 7,607,091
Sep 30, 2012: 7,906,605 <– 1st full qtr w/KickStart
Dec 31, 2012: 8,405,157 <– 2nd full qtr w/KickStart

If you are ready to give KickStart Online Lending a try, then check out the SPECIAL OFFER we are running, or learn more on the KickStart information page.

Especially valuable for small credit unions

Matt and I recently had the pleasure of attending a small credit union conference in Zoar, Ohio, called Making History 2012. It was hosted by CDFI grant writing specialists, CU Strategic Planning led by Jamie Chase and Chuck Cockburn.

One of the reasons we were especially excited to attend was to meet in person one of our favorite clients, Carole Wight, President of Holy Rosary Credit Union in Kansas City, Missouri. Carole was a delight, and the work that she does at her credit union is impressive. Carole also uses KickStart, our online loan generator, and she loves the product. So much so that she wrote the following email to the Director of the Office of Small Credit Unions in Missouri:

Kevin:

I had to write you about EverythingCU.com. I use this site constantly.  You can download sample documents, get advice, purchase an online switch kit, watch inexpensive marketing webinars and have an online loan application system.

I soon will use all of their products. My outreach efforts are stronger as a small credit union because of this site.  Go to my homepage and look at my online loan application. The beauty is that it is designed so that there is no non-public personal information exchanged with social and account number.  It is just simple, but it works. I paid under $500 for the year for this site.  My loan volume has increased as a result.

Small credit unions need a tool like this. In my humble opinion, if they don’t see the value, we need to help them see the value. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have or meet with you. This is probably my number 1 tool for marketing information.

Thanks, Kevin.  Please feel free to have any interested credit union contact me also.

Carole Wight, President
Holy Rosary Credit Union
Kansas City, MO  64106

We are quite honored to call Carole a friend, as well as a client.