Langley FCU achieves 37% growth in new deposit account openings

A unified origination platform

With market expansion goals underway, Langley Federal Credit Union (Langley), one of the top 100 largest credit unions in the United States with $5.3 billion in assets under management, came to Blend looking for a unified origination platform that could power their full suite of consumer deposit and lending solutions.

“We were looking for a holistic online origination system,” shared Fred Hagerman, Chief Operations Officer at Langley. “We found the experience with other technology providers to be fragmented, meaning that you might get deposits from one company, consumer loans from another, and mortgage originations from somebody else. Blend was the only provider we could find that offered the combined solutions on one platform.”

With 12 years of experience building best-in-class digital experiences for mortgages, home equities, and consumer loans on a single platform for customers that include 140 of the top 1000 depository institutions by AUM, Blend came uniquely positioned to meet Langley’s goals.

Starting with Deposit Accounts

After facing several challenges and a lack of technology investment from their previous provider, Langley embarked on a partnership with Blend to upgrade their digital deposit accounts solution.

“Our primary objective is membership growth,” shared Fred. “By digitally streamlining the entire funnel from acquisition all the way to account funding, we’re not only enhancing member experience but also creating the efficiencies needed to support and sustain that growth goal.”

Activating more accounts, faster with card funding

Before partnering with Blend, one of Langley’s biggest challenges with their deposit account solution was the difficulty funding new accounts.

“The ACH process was complicated for many applicants and the debit card funding experience needed to be streamlined,” shared Fred. “Blend worked with us to improve both experiences, with notable results.”

And the value with card funding is clear. Not only are applicants less likely to abandon their application when they have multiple options to fund their account, but they can also fund their account much faster, making it easier and more convenient to get started. And for internal support teams, that means less manual outreach and follow ups to get accounts fully funded, and more time deepening member relationships.

“Card funding was huge for us,” shared Fred. “So far we’ve seen a positive trend in applications funded through debit cards since switching to Blend. Without this funding option, we would have lost those prospects entirely.”

Reduction in manual reviews & follow-ups

Implementing a digitally robust deposit account solution also led to significantly less need for manual intervention and follow-up by Langley’s contact center and servicing teams.

“As much as we wanted the front-end experience to improve for applicants, there was tremendous work to be done on the back end,” shared Fred.

Before going live with Blend, Langley’s contact center had to get involved with 32% of incoming applications. That number has since dropped to 7% with Blend, pointing to significant reductions in manual interventions and follow-ups.

“The improved experience makes it easier for an applicant to complete the application and they can complete it quickly,” shared Fred. “This approach, coupled with extensive automation, has remarkably streamlined our operations, freeing up our teams to concentrate on more value-added tasks rather than manual reviews and follow-ups.”

Driving application increase through counter offers

Another critical feature in driving the success of Langley’s deposits growth strategy was Blend’s counteroffer capability. While Langley offers a second chance account for members below a specified credit score, they had no way to digitally extend counter offers to those members.

“Our partner at the time didn’t support counter offers, so it used to be a very frustrating experience for both consumers and our internal teams,” shared Fred. “We had to send a decline notice and then follow-up with an email about our second chance account. It was a very disjointed experience.”

With Blend’s counteroffer feature for Deposit Accounts, banks and credit unions can now present alternative account options to customers who don’t meet the minimum qualifications for premium or standard accounts, helping people rebuild positive account relationships safely and responsibly.

“The experience is much smoother now,” said Fred. “Customers can easily accept the second chance offer or move on. So far, we’ve seen a 37% increase in digital account openings, with July 2024 being the highest month on record.”

A 10x better training and implementation experience

Finally, the transition to a flexible, unified platform significantly benefited Langley’s servicing teams during training and implementation. Before Blend, Langley’s internal teams were often burdened by follow-ups and manual work due to limited digital optionality in their workflows and would often face pushback trying to make improvements on their old platform.

Before training with Blend even began, the Langley team was already enthusiastic about the new digital features and improved workflows they were seeing. The real excitement, however, came when they experienced the updated version of Blend Builder, a flexible, low-code platform with pre-built components that enables financial institutions to create, launch, and update new or out-of-the-box solutions with speed and ease.

“Blend Builder has been a huge game changer for us,” said Fred. “The ability to make rapid changes and customizations was a big catalyst in partnering with Blend. It’s a breath of fresh air to know that if we want to make changes or experiment with workflows, Blend will help us along the way and get us where we want to be. It’s a 10x better experience than what we’re used to.”

Key outcomes

Langley’s early journey with Blend exemplifies the transformative power of embracing a digitally robust deposit account solution with rich functionality including multiple funding options, counter offers, and omnichannel capabilities powered on one flexible platform.

From significantly boosting application volumes and reducing manual interventions to enhancing member experience, Blend’s technology has provided Langley with the tools needed to advance their deposits growth objectives.

Looking to the future

With a competitive digital deposit account solution now live, Langley is expanding digital marketing efforts to new markets to attract new members.

“We now have strong front-end experience and all the backend systems in place to capitalize on our efforts,” shared Fred. “Implementing Blend’s Deposit Account solution was crucial in ensuring a seamless, efficient process for new members, laying a solid foundation for our upcoming marketing initiatives.”

As a next step in the partnership, Langley plans to streamline consumer lending solutions with Blend in the near future.

To learn more about Blend’s Deposit Account Opening solution, visit our product page here.

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