Success Stories

Aloha Federal Gets Smarter About Their Members

ProfIT360° MRM Solution Key to Credit Union’s Growth Strategy

Aloha Pacific Federal Credit Union, formerly Honolulu City & County Federal Credit Union, opened its doors on July 1 with this new name after 70 years of operations. A name change is only one of several things the executive team is doing to make sure this 24,000-member Honolulu-based credit union is an efficient, smart and lean competitor.

Under the leadership of a visionary president/CEO, Wallace Watanabe, Aloha Federal is in branch-expansion mode with the aggressive goal to grow by 10,000 members over the next two-to-three years. The way Aloha Federal will accomplish this goal, according to CFO Gary Nakata, is by moving from a single-sponsor to a SEG-based credit union, attracting new employee groups.

And how will Aloha Pacific be a more effective competitor? “ProfIT360° is the answer because it allows us to segment across markets and do true relationship pricing,” says Nakata.

ProfIT360° is an advanced member relationship management (MRM) tool that arms credit unions with a complete, 360-degree view of their member relationships and a robust set of analytic features and functions that help them better understand member needs. Delivered in four modules, Point-of-Service, Report Manager, Campaign Manager and Process Manager, ProfIT360° is an affordable, Web-based and intuitive solution credit unions can use to personalize member interactions and marketing efforts to create a competitive advantage in their markets.

ProfIT360° went live at Aloha Pacific in late July and Nakata is utilizing the robust MRM solution to help the team decide the best ways to deliver service to its members, whether they have $1 million in deposits, a mortgage, a new car loan or any combination in between. It guides their staff so they don’t overprice products and lose members, or unwittingly under price products and services.

Move Beyond Profit to Relationships
Part of Nakata’s role is to regularly analyze the credit union’s member base. To do that, he used to download the entire database, chop it up and sort it using Microsoft Excel; then start the analysis. Nakata says this monthly process “used to take six-to-eight hours. Now I can do it in three minutes with ProfIT360°.”

“I’m here to assist our CEO in navigating through financial waters—chart the course and let them know when they’re off course. I admit I was skeptical about the product until I saw the wide range of searches and downloads it can do. Now, I’m like a kid with a great new toy when I get on ProfIT360°,” Nakata adds.

With the ability to analyze various segments in minutes, Nakata can create programs focused on enriching the total member relationship—at the individual and household-levels. This is an easier process with analytic tools such as member retention predictors, cross-sell product preferences, and look-a-like model generation to identify prospects who share the same characteristics as a credit union’s most profitable members and households. In fact, ProfIT360° has helped Aloha Federal realize that some members they thought were not profitable, really are.

ProfIT360° gives also credit unions like Aloha Federal the ability to cross sell the right product to the right member at the right time. This insight is valuable not only to the institution, but to members as well because they are introduced to the products and services that make sense for their needs and given the opportunity to make informed choices about the financial services that can help them achieve their individual goals.

“The solution helps us be more competitive and work more efficiently so we can provide more products and service to members. It goes beyond profit to how to build better relationships.”

From a numbers perspective, the system does the algorithm so staff members can recommend just the right products to members—from a back-to-school loan to a home equity loan—in a positive and timely way. And staffers have the marketing materials on the products right in front of them.

“At the POS, employees can show they care. You don’t want to hear ‘I could’ve used that a year ago’ from a member,” said Nakata.

Support Marketing Efforts—Even Branch-by-Branch
ProfIT360° improves the effectiveness of marketing efforts by helping create, manage and automatically track promotional campaigns and product profitability. ProfIT360 goes beyond traditional campaign management and response rate tracking, helping credit unions to refine their marketing efforts by identifying products which are not only attractive to members but also beneficial for the bottom line growth of the institution. For example, Aloha Pacific analyzed its high-rate CDs and found that if members hold these CDs, it’s an unprofitable relationship. On the other hand, Nakata was skeptical about the possible success of driving volume sales of the credit union’s low-rate auto loans. They applied ProfIT360’s profitability test to the new dealer car loans and learned that the loans, in fact, were profitable. In a few minutes, Aloha Pacific was able to know a program’s profits—and which programs to continue to offer or suspend.

ProfIT360° also has given Aloha Pacific the power for each branch to run its own SEG marketing campaigns under an umbrella campaign. The credit union marketing manager can monitor responses, sales and performance for each campaign in real-time with the touch of a few keys.

Apply Software with Extraordinary Potential
ProfIT360° can help many departments fulfill their goals. It touches everyone in the institution from the CEO to the teller line—anyone who has a direct or indirect relationship with a member. The software even allows collaboration between the front and back office.

For example, if a member has trouble with a debit card, the employee e-mails someone in the back office to solve the problem. ProfIT360° monitors the progress until it’s complete. According to Nakata, this technology gives them a good reason to rethink the credit union’s processes to take full advantage of ProfIT360°’s capabilities.

When asked how ProfIT360° gives Aloha Pacific a competitive edge, Nakata said many credit unions have access to the software, but the successful application of the tool is dependent on two key factors. First is the competence of the people using it. They need to be familiar with the tool and how to use it in support their individual tasks and the credit union’s overall growth strategy. Second is his team’s commitment to using it to better serve its members, which doesn’t just mean focusing on profitability. In other words, the software is powerful, but it’s how credit unions apply it to their business that serves as the differentiator.

“Everyone has access to flour, sugar, chocolate chips, and raisins. It’s the vision and expertise of the baker that enables him to make something extraordinary from these basic ingredients,” explains Nakata. “ProfIT360° empowers our institution to achieve our growth goals if we understand the extent of the software’s capabilities and efficiently and diligently apply those capabilities to deliver superior service to our members.”