There’s exciting things happening between us and our friends at Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) these days! They’re getting ready to roll out the Larky nudge® platform to their membership base, and we couldn’t be more excited.

Based in East Lansing, Mich., MSUFCU was founded in 1937 as a safe place for members to borrow and save money. Unlike most credit unions, MSUFCU developed their own mobile banking app, rather than going through a third party. This gives them more creativity and flexibility to create the exact experiences they want for their 300k+ membership base. For the past four months, they’ve been experimenting with and testing the Larky nudge® platform to provide tailored messaging to their members through a variety of unique ways, including:

·      Community loyalty offers (e.g., special discounts available to MSUFCU members at local coffee shops, gas stations or movie theatres)

·      In-person branch satisfaction surveys based on branch location

·      Cashback offers for members on their purchases made in the Breslin Student Center at Michigan State

·      Holiday messaging: Friendly reminders from your local MSUFCU branch that they will be closed for a certain holiday, such as Easter Sunday

Over the course of four months, MSUFCU sent 468 nudge® messages to their test group. They saw an aggregate tap rate of more than 16 percent. Their most successful message was around their satisfaction survey, which had a completion rate of 12 percent.

In addition to the ongoing campaigns above, MSUFCU also has several new campaigns pending, including cash back offers at gas stations, preferred rates for specific auto dealerships, new loyalty offers and a financial tip of the week. Some of these offers are based on location (eg, a member pulls into a gas station to refuel and is notified they can receive a special discount) while others are time-based (the tip of the week).

We at Larky are super excited about this because MSUFCU is using our nudge® platform to go beyond the typical notifications alerting members of low account balance or potential fraudulent activity (not that those notifications aren’t VERY important) to really engage with their membership base and create positive, long-lasting relationships.

“We’re all about giving our members great experiences, and I think there’s some great opportunities to use mobile banking technology to help them get the most of their membership. We’ve successfully seen that happen within our pilot program and we’re eager to roll this out to our membership as a whole,” according to Ami Iceman-Haueter, VP of Research and Digital Experience at MSUFCU, who is leading the project. “We’ve been working with the team at Larky for several months and I’m excited about using this platform in many different ways so we can better engage with members and really be a community resource for them.”

MSUFCU expects to roll out nudge® messaging to their full membership base (more than 300,000 members) starting mid-May (next month!). Stay tuned for more details!