7 pitfalls of credit union websites

1. Treating Your Website like a Brochure

Many credit union executives treat the company website like they treat a business card or brochure. While this approach is effective at validating the credit union’s existence, it doesn’t propel it very far forward. A website should be more than just a presentation that shows off your good side. It should be functional. Visitors expect to be able to accomplish a task – Online.

Online banking is a good start. However, your website can be used to accomplish a number of other tasks while reducing costs.

2. No Easy Way To Connect

Members need to quickly and easily get in touch with your contact center. They could write a letter, put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it and drop it in the mail.  That sounds like an outdated method, doesn’t it? That’s how a lot of people feel about phone calls now. In fact, even email isn’t as quick as an online chat session. The route members will take to reach you is the shortest one. For some members, social media may be the shortest distance between you and them.

Actively look for better ways to communicate wherever you encounter members.

3. Failing to Change… Anything

An unchanging website has an aroma to it, like stale bread. Your members regularly visit your site to log in, some of them on a daily basis. Seeing the same thing day after day, month after month, and year after year (you know who you are) tells them that you aren’t growing. Growing things change, and hopefully improve, over time. While you should not give people the shock treatment of a complete website redesign every month, you can provide new content that predictably changes.

Promote the idea that your credit union is active and growing with an predictably changing website.

4. Ignoring the Mobile Marketplace

At this point in time, you can no longer ignore the mobile web user. Your website needs to be built to work on any size of device. Requiring users to pinch and zoom around your site is no longer acceptable. On top of that, there are still plenty of websites in our industry that use Adobe’s Flash technology to display rotating content or ads. Flash doesn’t work on Apple devices (think iPhone and iPad).

It’s time for credit unions to lead the way with responsive, multi-device web design.

5. Not Building Trust

Does your website build trust by verifying that you are who you say you are? Trust starts with securing your website with an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate. This certificate encrypts the data sent back and forth between your site and the member’s browser. It also confirms your identity, assuring the visitor that they are not being “phished”.

Do yourself and your members a favor by purchasing an SSL certificate with “Extended Validation”. This takes trust to the next level by placing your credit union’s name in the URL bar, along with a green background.

This screenshot of CapEd’s URL bar illustrates how an SSL certificate with extended validation appears in Google’s Chrome browser.

6. Unclear Calls to Action

Creating a clear call to action is critical for any sales oriented website. If you want someone to apply for a loan, it should be painfully obvious where to click. Using a standard text link that says “Apply Now” isn’t going to do the trick.

An example of an unclear call to action

An example of a clear call to action

Create a call to action that is clear and easy to spot.

7. Failing to Review and Keep Content Current

This might be better phrased as “Failing to have a Content Strategy”. Part of your website’s content strategy should be to review old content. That may mean delegating sections of the website to be reviewed by experts in different departments. Someone from consumer lending could review the consumer lending portions, and so on. A compliance officer should be reviewing the entire site for compliance issues. It’s easy to put all of this on “the web guy”. However, the web guy will typically only update what he is asked to update.

Make it a top priority to create a review schedule and stick to it.

In Conclusion

I’ve seen many credit unions struggle with each of these pitfalls. Some of these issues are easy to fix, and some aren’t as easy. Take a look at your Credit Union’s website and see how many of these pitfalls might apply. Then, create a plan of action to resolve any issues.

Have questions or want to connect? You can easily connect with me on Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.