What is JoinCU?

Field of membership is critical to the credit union movement. It defines the culture and history of credit unions and protects the industry’s not for profit status. It’s also an inhibitor of growth. The public is aware of the field of membership eligibility requirement. They can be discouraged, assuming they are unable to join a credit union. All Americans can join many credit unions. The result - Credit Unions have a new member acquisition cost nearly twice that of banks.

Field of membership also creates friction in the new member acquisition process. Everyone wants “Amazon Easy”. Consumers are unwilling to complete online processes that have too many steps and are time-consuming. Credit unions experience a successful online application rate of 18% compared to bank’s 36%. The field of membership step experiences the highest rate of abandonment with 84% of applicants exiting the process at this stage. Some credit unions, especially large federal multiple common bond credit unions, have hundreds or thousands of potential ways for someone to join. Presenting potential members with a long list of options creates confusion.

CUCollaborate’s JoinCU software is a field of membership eligibility validation tool that solves field of membership with as little information about a consumer as possible. JoinCU provides consumers and credit union staff with a scalable process to see if a prospective member is eligible to join a credit union.

The tool can be customized to the individual business process and field of membership rule:

1. Individual Workflow – a customizable, survey-based approach to eligibility
2. API – a way to integrate with other systems to silently solve eligibility
3. Credit Union Match – a search engine optimized site for the public to find your credit union JoinCU in the CUCollaborate Application

Administrators will be able to manage JoinCU by toggling to the left navigation with the following CU Collaborate app features:

Dashboard

An overview of all eligible members that the JoinCU eligibility engine has successfully matched to your credit union through either the Individual Workflow or Credit Union Match. Administrators can click on the “Details” link to access information the prospective member or staff entered to validate eligibility (e.g., Name, email, telephone number, address, Employer, etc.). Not that the information requested is customizable via the “Integration” functionality mentioned below. Administrators can also click on the “Rule” feature to see what field of membership rule made the individual eligible. The “Status” dropdown provides for some basic workflow management so that multiple users can flag if a prospective member has officially joined the CU or if further outreach is necessary.

FOM Rules

This section provides a user interface for users to review field of membership rules. Here you can view the business logic that determines whether an individual is eligible. If rules change or seem to be incorrect, please reach out to Account Management.

Notifications

This shows who in the credit union has email notifications toggled on/off. You can change the settings concerning notifications by toggling the slider to “green”. Individuals that are set to receive notifications should get an automated email from CUCollaborate when a prospective member (or business) successfully completes an Individual Workflow or Credit Union Match.

Affiliates

The credit union movement is cooperative! Want to share the credit union love if someone is truly not eligible to join your credit union? Users can direct ineligible leads to other credit unions of their choosing.

Integration

This section allows users to set up the JoinCU application within your organization’s website. Users will find a page with the credit union’s name followed by “Primary Individual Workflow” and the two options “Integration” and “Customize”.

Integration: copy and paste the link from the box to your application/website to use your JoinCU Individual Workflow survey. If the potential member is eligible, they will fill out a lead form and be directed to a landing page of your choosing after completing the survey. This could be your credit union website, account opening workflow, etc.

JoinCU can be integrated into a website using Javasript and requires Google maps API as well. If the organization would prefer to embed the Individual Workflow on its website, click “Change integration type” to find the JavaScript.

Customize: within this option you can choose to customize your individual JoinCU workflow. This feature has drop down menu with the following options:

- Configure Required Fields: Opt-in or out of certain questions and date collection options.

- Configure Referral Network: List of additional credit unions that you might partner with - when a potential member is not eligible to join your credit union, refer them to the list of credit unions that you have manually put in in this function.

- Configure Ad Campaign: Input social media pixel codes that will allow you to track what social media platform the potential member found your JoinCU link through.

- Configure Social Triggers: Input text that you want to give the eligible potential member the chance to share on Facebook or Twitter after the success step.

**- Configure Custom Styling: **Customize the look of your JoinCU page with the option to update colors and your logo.

**- Configure Success Step: **The success step is the page that shows a potential member that they are indeed eligible to show your credit union. How do you want to capture the lead and where do you send them afterwards?

**- Clone: **Clone your individual workflow. This offers you a safe way to play around with the configuration without messing with the individual integrated link.

- Delete: Delete entire individual workflow.

FAQ

How do I know if my FOM rules are working right?

Users can test the individual workflow using the unique link in the Integration section above to test eligibility based on various criteria. If you find an issue with the way the rules are processing, please notify CUCollaborate Account Management who can assist in internal testing / troubleshooting with the software development team.

If we are using the individual workflow, what happens after a person completes the eligibility step?

If a potential member is eligible, they are brought to the “success step” which you can customize in your individual workflow to reflect how you want to capture this lead on the “configure success step” as described above.

How do I add new rules to the software?

If you have updated your bylaws, send the update bylaws to the Account Management team who will then share this with the software team to update your FOM rules.

How do I sign up for the software?

If you go to cucollaborate.com and click on the sign in button in the upper left corner, you can register for an account which you then have to activate by clicking the link in an email titled “CUCollaborate Account Confirmation”.

How do I sign a colleague / coworker up for the software?

When you are logged into your CUCollaborate account, on the top right you will see a people icon with a plus sign, click that and then add the email you would like to invite. Instructions here.

How do staff use the software to validate someone’s eligibility?

Staff would simply fill out the survey on behalf of the potential new members. At the end of survey the tool will determine if the potential new member is eligible or is not.

Do you integrate with any other account opening / loan origination systems? What is your policy?

We can link up with your core processor if the potential new member is eligible for membership but do not directly integrate.

If you have any questions please contact am@cucollaborate.com

Updated on: 15/12/2022