Customer: Navy Federal Credit Union
Industry: Financial Services
COMPANY BACKGROUND
In 1933 seven civilian Navy personnel each donated $10 into a savings pool for emergency loans. Founded on solid credit union ideals, Navy Federal has grown by offering its members a full range of products including: savings, checking, home loans, car loans, equity loans, and credit cards. With low or no fees, great rates, and world class service, Navy Federal’s success continues to be based on listening and responding to the needs of their members.
CHALLENGE
As a credit union, Navy Federal exists exclusively to serve the interests of its members, which means that intelligence gathered from members is used to directly improve the services and products that are offered to its more than 3 million members. Surplus funds resulting from its sound lending practices are returned to member-owners through higher dividends, reduced loan rates, and service enhancements.
However, in keeping with Navy Federal’s security guidelines, members’ email addresses are not collected and used to push out information. Therefore, nearly all surveys were conducted using paper-based surveys sent through the mail. Although response rates were good, collecting the responses, analyzing the data, and creating reports were both time-consuming and labor intensive. Also, the cost of printing and sending the surveys by mail hindered the member research team from exploring certain projects they believed would be valuable for the long-term growth and health of Navy Federal. The research team decided it needed a feature-rich, robust online option to help gather important information from its members.
SOLUTION
In 2004, Navy Federal purchased Vovici’s survey solution for a simple, quick online survey to gauge members’ preferences on its magazine. However, by the following year, as the research department grew, the need for more sophisticated online surveys naturally emerged and Navy Federal conducted a thorough search in the marketplace for a new survey solution. In the fall of 2005, Vovici’s enterprise survey solution continued to impress the research team at Navy Federal for its superior capabilities, and was selected once again to tackle the wide range of its survey projects.
“Vovici’s EFM Community solution is one of the rare products out there that delivered far beyond what we needed. In fact, because of its unique product features, we’re able to create and launch new programs that would have been previously too expensive and logistically difficult to implement without EFM Community,” said Alan Payne, Manager of Member Research and Analysis, Navy Federal Credit Union.
For example, using EFM Community solution’s ability to create and manage the survey panel community entirely within the product, Navy Federal is able to create a member advisory panel of 3,000-5,000 members that will represent a statistically sound sampling of its entire membership base. This survey panel will continue to be updated as new members join Navy Federal over the next five years, so that research results remain in sync with the changing membership base. The ability to create this representative sample of its members is a tremendous advantage that allows Navy Federal to ensure the survey data can serve as a foundation for change and future improvements in its products and services.
RESULTS
With the help of Vovici EFM Community, Navy Federal now has an affordable and scientifically-sound method for surveying its members and staying in touch via email with those who agree to be a part of the member advisory panel. On this project and other projects underway, Navy Federal estimates a savings between $50,000-$70,000 per year just in the cost of printing and mailing hard-copy surveys. The company expects this sample pool of members to be a key method for analyzing its business activities as well as the testing ground for new products and improvements.
Additionally, since September 2007, Navy Federal made several key changes in its products that have lead to greater benefits for its members. Members now receive reimbursements on ATM charges that are accrued when using non-Navy Federal ATMs. This gives enlisted Navy and Marine Corps members better access to their funds when traveling abroad. An additional survey revealed that online Bill Pay features needed to be free in order to encourage wider use by its members. Bill Pay’s usage rose 7% in just seven months following the move to make this feature free.
Built-in features such as EFM Community’s strong analytical and reporting tool coupled with the ability to export results into SPSS® has saved Navy Federal not only the cost of purchasing and maintaining a separate analytical software, it allows for consistency and faster analysis of survey results in the company’s standard reporting format.
News
Vovici releases Community Builder module that will allow organizations to quickly and cost effectively create and manage online community panels — providing a voice to customers, employees, and other constituents. Learn More.
Join Vovici for an American Marketing Association webcast beginning May 1: Building Online Communities for Feedback – Why You Need Them and How to Use Them. Click here for details.