In today’s market, credit unions are constantly feeling pressure to advance and innovate as fintechs progress into the traditional banking lane, consumer demand evolves, and the market shrinks due to consolidation. While keeping up with the pace of digital innovation and consumer preference can be costly and time consuming, most credit unions find partnering with a loyalty provider an effective way to deliver speed-to-market solutions providing the opportunity to take advantage of innovative offerings with minimal investment or risk.

One of the hottest new trends having a tremendous impact on spend and driving member engagement is real-time rewards. Allowing your members to pay with points on the spot is critical to earning and maintaining their loyalty, keeping your card top of wallet. Keeping them in your custom-labeled loyalty platform not only helps drive heightened engagement and increase transaction volume, it lets your members know you’re there for them. Providing a simple, user-friendly exchange of points for purchases is a cash-like solution but with an engagement loop proving to be more impactful than traditional cashback. The ability to engage the cardholder during the transaction flow (or immediately afterwards) is showing great adoption.

Meeting the cardholder where they are versus having the cardholder come to a website to redeem is a significant shift in approach from the traditional loyalty solutions and proving to be incredibly popular with cardholders. 

The Right Message at the Right Time to the Right Person

Real-time rewards enable credit unions to engage cardholders with instant gratification, at the point of sale, delivering the right message at the right time to the right person. If a participating cardholder has earned enough points to qualify for the redemption, the program will deliver a real-time notification through an SMS or via email that makes redeeming points fast and convenient. When cardholders redeem their points — at checkout, at the pump or after a transaction— credit unions reinforce the value and benefits of their loyalty program and have the ability to tie that experience back to their brand. Since the entire experience has been delivered via innovative technology, the experience is simplified for both the credit union and the cardholder.

“Financial institutions have continued to challenge ampliFI to advance and innovate beyond the traditional earn-and-burn rewards solutions. We feel through our Real-Time Rewards suite we have met the challenge of the market by developing an innovative way for cardholders to use their points in a convenient, cash-like way,” says Mike Knoop, ampliFI Loyalty Solutions’ Chief Executive Officer. “The ability to meet the consumer where they are, allow them to use points they have earned, in the way they want (in real-time) is not easy – but I’m excited for what we have delivered and the impact it is having on our clients and their cardholders. Clients love the increase in spend and engagement their portfolios are gaining, while consumers love the convenience and ease of use.”

 Leveraging Real-Time Rewards for Cardholder Engagement and Revenue Growth: A Credit Union Case Study

One southern United States credit union with more than $1 billion in assets and 77,000 accounts as part of their loyalty program. The credit union offers rewards on both credit and debit reward cards and members have access to Pay With Points, part of ampliFI Loyalty Solutions’ Real-Time Rewards suite. Members earn points from spending on their credit and debit rewards cards and can redeem points in real-time for the transaction just made.  Beyond the real-time transaction engagement (right message, right time, right person), cardholders can also apply credited points for up to 30 days post-transaction in their rewards account. In both instances, the reward amount is immediately credited back to their account.

The credit union’s goal was to increase cardholder engagement and usage of their real-time rewards program, by enabling Pay With Points through the Real-Time Rewards suite. 

 Real-Time Engagement Drives Growth:

 The credit union extended the promotion to all cardholders that participated in a qualifying activity, which included joining, opening a new account or transitioning to a rewards account. Credit members earn one point for every $1 spent, while debit signature members earn one point for every $3 spent, and the credit union’s communications to cardholders featured the Real-Time Rewards suite offering to ensure awareness was heightened and delivering the maximum impact and value to both the cardholder and credit union.

 Results:

The credit union saw the following results within one month of implementing Pay With Points:

●       15% increase in member usage rates

●       17% increase in transactions

●       $18 million in additional credit and spend (25% increase in total spend)

Real-Time Engagement Boosts Growth

In the above case study, the credit union was able to adjust its loyalty program to leverage technology and establish a real-time connection with its cardholders at the point of sale. Ensuring their credit union was taking full advantage of their loyalty program, they were able to iterate and customize the program to suit their cardholders’ preferences, increase the engagement of their cardholders opting into and utilizing their real-time loyalty program, and ultimately drive transaction and revenue growth.

Real-time rewards simplify the process for cardholders to redeem their points and experience the surprise and delight that they’re able to save money at the moment. The redemption message prompts include the name of their financial institution, reinforcing their connection and appreciation for their financial institution. For more information about the suite of Real-Time Rewards offered by ampliFI Loyalty Solutions, follow ampliFI Loyalty Solutions on LinkedIn.

Case study footnote

*Client name and identifying information have been redacted for privacy purposes. Some data has been rounded for approximation to protect client privacy. Data reflects total program change with the addition of Pay With Points auto-enrollment and does not explicitly represent incrementally.