Tiered Services Changes in the Works

This Recipe's Chef

Got ideas for new or different ingredients? The chefs for this recipe are Barb Cooper and Dawn Moore.

Updated: January 31st 2012

In 2011 we made some exciting changes and additions to the CU*BASE Tiered Services program, including an entirely new infrastructure to set the stage for a robust program of redeemable Rewards Points, complete with automatic expiration features and reporting to members via It's Me 247 online banking. Check out the CU*BASE 11.3 Release Summary for complete details on recent enhancements.

In 2012 we will be designing more new features that take advantage of capabilities the new structure gives us for future expansion. Here's what's cooking:

New Ways to Earn Points

Earn points for loan payments via ACH distributions
Earn points for valid email address
Earn points for e-Notices subscription
Earn points for e-Alerts subscription
Earn points for Mobile Text enrollment
Earn points for Mobile Web activity (?? What do you think?)
Subtract points for wrong address
Subtract points for paper statements (?? Maybe not, now that fees for Printed Statement Styles has been released?)
Earn points for every debit and credit card transaction

New Ways to Get Rewards

Special fees/waivers for Mobile Text
Special interactive fees for a consumer loan skip-pay program
Redeem points for a better rate when opening a CD or applying for a loan in It's Me 247
Website online rewards, including a partnership with an online rewards fulfillment service to cash in points for a wide range of goods and services

Expanding the Analysis Dashboard

One of the most powerful analysis tools in CU*BASE is the Tiered Services Monthly Comparison, available on both the Management (MNMGMT) and Marketing (MNMRKT) menus. We have some very exciting changes in store for this dashboard, including new front-end filters so you can analyze the same activity stats but only for certain members (women, men, 25-30 year-olds, etc.).

Calling all analysts! If you have ideas for ways to improve this tool, new stats you'd like to see using the power of the Tiered Services scoring system, please email the chef!

Layered Pricing Concepts

We've been asked many times about a way to offer layered pricing based on Tiered Service Levels. For example, CUs want to be able to reduce their check and money order printing fee according to the member's participation, rather than simply waiving the fee altogether. Beyond that, they also want to be able to customize other variables such as number of free items granted, or adjust other fee waiver settings, according to TS level.

There are several methods we could employ, depending on the complexity of the fee:

Add separate fields for fee amounts by Tiered Service level, directly in the fee configuration itself. So instead of one field for amount, there would be 4: fee for basic members, fee for TS level 1, etc. This would work well for fees where only the fee amount needs to be layered. The challenge here is how to display/control this from the TS configuration itself.
Expand fee configurations so that you configure fee codes, then assign the code by TS level. This would be similar to how safe deposit box or ATM service charge fees are done. This method generally involves more up-front coding and file changes.
Create something similar to our new Surcharge Rebate programs where the member receives an automated refund each month for all or a portion of fees paid. This is independent from TS, which makes it faster to code and test but less obvious when it comes to viewing instant benefits in CU*BASE and online for members.

The main challenges to overcome is the development time and testing involved in making even small changes to the TS configuration screens and scoring routines. Therefore, we are also looking at a new infrastructure for controlling Tiered Service points and instant benefits configuration, one that we hope will significantly streamline and speed up the process. The gist here is that it needs to be easy to see the impact of Tiered Services whether you are working in the fee configuration itself, or you are working in the Tiered Services configuration. (To make sure the right hand knows what the left hand is doing!)

Other Ideas

Display the Rewards Points catalog in It's Me 247 as a promotional tool
Create a tool to forecast the impact of Tiered Services configuration changes on instant benefit such as Marketing Club rate benefits and automated fees
...and last but definitely not least, a brand-new display for the Tiered Services points badge in It's Me 247 online banking, to replace the plain rectangular box (okay, so some have dubbed it The Tombstone) and give it a little more zing. It's actually part of our new navigation design for online banking. See a sneak preview (an excerpt from the 2011 CEO Strategies event).

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