Lindsay McCall serves as the Chief Operations Officer for Consumers Credit Union in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In the fall of 2019, Consumers CU converted to Lumin Digital’s cloud-based platform, seeking digital banking solutions for retail and mobile banking. We sat down with Lindsay to discuss the impact the Lumin Digital platform has made in Consumers CU operations and growth.
1. Which features are members utilizing the most? Have you noticed recent changes in platform use? To what do you attribute any changes?
Since the conversion roughly eight months ago, we’ve tracked a 12.5 percent increase in active mobile banking users. “Active” is defined as logging into their account at least once every 31 days — that’s an additional 4,500 members.
While the pandemic may have played a role in platform user changes, the sheer volume of active users has significantly increased since switching to Lumin. There has been a significant increase in the number of daily log-ins, peaking on April 15 as users sought the status of their stimulus checks. By noon, there was a 40 percent increase in log-ins compared to a normal day, and a 100 percent increase on an average day overall.
Even though there were a huge number of log-ins, Lumin didn’t skip a beat. Some platforms had problems, but our log-in remained under one second!
2. What services are these particular apps providing that were not utilized beforehand?
One of the features we didn’t have before is the option to create a savings goal. With this tool, users can log into the app on their phone and see how much they want to save, how much they’ve already saved, and a progress bar — perfect for long-term savings goals such as a car or even college.
Also, integration with PSCU is now huge on the credit card side. Before, accessing credit card data or trying to redeem rewards meant going to a separate credit card site. Now, Lumin handles everything through their API integration to PSCU.
We were able to implement card controls and alerts which we didn’t have before. Now, if a customer loses a card, they can block the card until they find it again. They can block international use, for instance.
3. What financial outcome changes have you noted with Lumin Digital’s platform?
Lumin allows us to repurpose staff to work on higher-gain activities. For example, 100 percent of balance transfers are now automated on Lumin’s platform. That means we save 100 hours of manual work on 1,000 balance transfers!
There’s also a high volume of travel notices, about 2,800 to date in a low-travel year. Automation of these travel notices saves about 10 hours of work monthly, and when all these various work savings are added up, the amount is considerable. In fact, these efficiencies will continue to benefit us to an even greater extent as we grow. On that note, we grow at about 18 percent a year, and have done so organically for over 30 years. We’re happy with how we’ve grown with Lumin, and can’t wait to see our partnership grow in the years ahead.
4. Have you surveyed your members? What aspects of the platform do they find particularly useful?
While we haven’t performed our annual survey since switching to Lumin, there’s been plenty of input from users. It’s a collaborative system with members.
For example, one of our members sent us a note after one of his suggestions was implemented. He said, “Awesome! Tell your coworkers that it’s great to see this kind of responsiveness. So many companies that I deal with anymore have clunky online sites with user interfaces that are not intuitive and they could care less. It is a great feeling when an organization responds to my request. Please pass along my gratitude.” I think this is just a stellar example of Lumin’s responsiveness and how they’ve been able to improve our member experience and retention.
5. Has your millennial membership increased since the introduction of the platform? If so, what percentage is the increase?
Approximately one-third, or 32 percent, of our users are millennials, which is about 10 times the national average. There are so many fintech options out there – it’s so important to have a fresh, updated platform drawing on the latest technology like Lumin. A high level of tech helps draw in and keep new members.
6. Which pain points are now avoided through a fully integrated channel?
Credit card integration was a huge, huge pain point prior to turning to Lumin, and that’s now solved. Any credit union needs its system to be up and running, especially during the busiest of times. Uptime is critical in the digital space, and Lumin has always fulfilled that need.
Another area we focus a lot on is security. We were really drawn to Lumin’s use of Threat Metrics, a platform utilized at log-in, that essentially grades the person logging in on their level of threat to help prevent fraud.
7. What has been your experience with Lumin Digital communication and technical support?
I have nothing but praise for Lumin’s tech support. It’s fabulous. We have a dedicated expert on Lumin’s end to help support our day-to-day operations. At the beginning of our partnership, we shared our strategic plan with Lumin and they came up with solutions to help us meet those goals. I have so much confidence in the ways we will continue to evolve.
To learn more about how Lumin Digital can support your financial institution, contact us today.
