As financial services consumers continue to migrate to the online environment – for an ever-expanding array of services – it is crucial to be good at making their experience as seamless as possible.

Unlike the days of brick-and-mortar, customers are not captive.  Whereas they once sat with you in person to complete a transaction, now, if you're online experience is anything less than easy, intuitive and pleasant, they can click elsewhere, running into the waiting arms of your easier-to-work-with competitors.

Of course, not every institution can afford the ideal system.  Most credit unions must transition customers who want to do business with them from their "marketing" site to one of several third-party transactional sites or software platforms.  These back office sites rarely look or feel like the rest of the institution's online presence.  The transition can be jarring, and we've found that this alone can cause a failure to close.  Add to this the need to collect accurate, often sensitive information, follow instructions to the letter and to do so without much help, and you begin to understand why customers often abandon transactions and try elsewhere.

The good news is that solutions are often simple and easy to implement. While you may not be able to make everything look like your main site, you can do plenty to ease your customer through the process.

Simply listing the information that will be required, at the beginning of the process, can make a significant impact.  Walk through the process from a customer's perspective and be certain that nothing is unexpected, poorly explained or hard to find.

Another common failure point is that transition to the vendor site.  Let them know what to expect, before the jump, and dropped transactions decrease.
While minimizing clicks used to be a mantra for software designers, we've improved performance for several clients by adding a few clicks to keep users on top of the process, improve their confidence and manage their expectations.  Yes, they have a few more steps.  But they become less likely to abandon ship at the first request of a VIN number or their wife's social security number.

Credit unions may never have been so popular as they are today.  They enjoy a wealth of advantages in the marketplace, and continue to appeal to vast numbers of consumers.  But times have changed.  A relationship is no guarantee that you'll capture all of your customer's business.  Least of all in the online space.  This is why it is crucial that you look very closely at your institution's online experience and do everything you can to make it as attractive and easy as possible.  If you don't, the same customer who loves you in brick-and-mortar will leave you online.