KQ Article

Deluxe helps clients apply measurement in two unique and effective ways.
Measurement is essential to finance. What is the average balance of our account holders? How much are they borrowing? How much profit did we net last quarter? What’s surprising is how easy it is to overlook measurement as a useful tool for also guiding less numerical and more ambiguous efforts. Here are two recent examples of how Deluxe partnered with clients to help them do just that.

Gauging Communication Effectiveness
When Regulation E (“Reg E”) went into effect last summer, many financial institutions struggled to find the best way to communicate the regulation’s complexities to customers and members. Sending a form letter risked to further confuse matters and create frustration. That’s why AmeriCU Credit Union in upstate New York took a different approach. Specifically, through the Overdraft Consent Communications solutions Deluxe offered, AmeriCU implemented a multi-channel, multi-touch communication campaign to: 1) help members clearly understand how Reg E impacts them, and 2) encourage as many members as possible to voluntarily opt-in to overdraft protection.

Measurement was central to this effort, before, during and after its launch. First, members were segmented into four groups, depending on how frequently they used overdraft protection in the past. Other analytics were incorporated into the segmentation, including trends in overdraft activity and purchasing history at the credit union.

Creating well-defined segments allowed AmeriCU to approach a longtime member with frequent overdrafts much differently than a newer member with fewer overdrafts, for example. It helped to ensure that each member received communication pieces with messages tailored to their needs and preferences. These included mailings, in-bank responses and personalized URLs (pURLs), as well as inbound and outbound calls from DeluxeCalling®, an expert call center service designed to deepen customer relationships through personal engagement. 

Measure, adjust, repeat
Once the campaign was in action, AmeriCU continued to measure results as they came in and made adjustments to the campaign on the fly. All mailers, with Federal Reserve-mandated A9 response forms, were tracked with bar codes. Additionally, web analytics showed how many members were clicking through to the pURLs. Deluxe helped AmeriCU track how members were using the inbound calling menu, and how many were responding to outbound calling efforts. All data points were evaluated periodically during the campaign.

These “checkpoints” gave decision-makers a solid foundation for changing the campaign — whether that involved editing call scripts and mailer messaging, or adjusting the mix of touch points for a particular segment.

Results were impressive. AmeriCU established three key metrics prior to implementing the campaign: response rate, opt-in rate and ROI. The total response rate for the campaign was 74%, with a 90% opt-in rate. Based on the potential annual fee revenue for these members and the cost of the campaign, ROI for the campaign was approximately 1300% — a smashing success no matter how you measure it.

Going Deeper into the Data
Metrics are not only helpful for guiding external communications. They are vital for improving internal results as well. Deluxe learned this when we reexamined how clients were using reports to evaluate the success of their checking programs. Historically, clients were reviewing printed reports that primarily displayed numbers at a macro, institutional level. It became clear that this approach was not providing the detail our customers needed to make fast, informed decisions.

Further research helped us identify the top three customer priorities for check program reports:

1. Timely online access
2. Branch- and employee-level detail
3. Data mining and filtering capabilities

In other words: more measurement. Customers uniformly agreed that more detailed data (and the ability to filter, mine and compare data sets at will) was the key to driving desirable outcomes — namely, cost reduction, revenue generation and profitability.

For example, bankers with the ability to compare new checking accounts with check orders at a specific branch can easily see if employees are missing obvious opportunities to suggestive-sell printed checks. Bankers with the ability to see the mix of check programs being sold can determine how best to boost revenue — and see precisely where room for improvements may exist.

Drill down, see more
To fulfill this need, Deluxe created Deluxe Vaya^SM Reporting. This online tool provides detailed, interactive reports that empower financial institutions to manage their check programs more efficiently. Customers can use the dashboard function to drill down into the details of any program at any branch at any time, and then use tabs and filters to compare the performance of one or more branches, products, order methods or employees. All of this information is available 24x7, and can be easily exported into Excel.

Bankers involved in the pilot program for Deluxe Vaya Reporting are using the data to manage costs and improve program performance by holding branches and employees more accountable. They can measure whatever metrics are most important to their strategy and customer segmentation efforts. Most important, they don’t have to wait for the end of the month to get static, dated information. They can check the dashboard at any time to get a dynamic snapshot.

Feedback has been uniformly positive among pilot program participants. At the end of the program, we repeatedly heard the same question: “How soon can we get this?” 

Deluxe Vaya Reporting provides an easy-to-use, online dashboard displaying performance data at multiple levels of detail. Managers can modify, compare and analyze the data points as they see fit.

Click here to learn more and view a demo on Deluxe Vaya Reporting.

_{© 2012 Deluxe Enterprise Operations, Inc.}