Silicon Valley-based KeyPoint Credit Union is seeing a lift in user numbers resulting from targeted push notifications. The push notifications target members who haven’t used the app in three weeks, alerting them to the app’s features. They remind members they can send peer-to-peer payments, deposit checks and verify their balances through the app. 

The notifications feature is a key enabler to help the institution stay abreast of digital banking innovations, David Greene, marketing manager at KeyPoint, said in an interview with Bank Innovation.

The push notifications, the result of a partnership with technology company Swrve, are responsible for growing engagement among app users. According to the credit union, push notifications allowed KeyPoint to increase monthly its active user count by 20% and 30-day app retention by 29% since the partnership began in early 2017. The number of members using the app multiple times per week has increased 10% since 2017, and members using the bill pay feature has increased 34%. The number of members checking their account balances with touch ID has increased 248%. The credit union had 19,047 app users as of May.

KeyPoint has $1.3 billion in assets and 60,000 members. When the tool first launched, the credit union could set a general radius around certain areas in which customers would be sent push notifications; the credit union now can target stores and neighborhoods. KeyPoint has set geofences around each of its eight branches and Enterprise car dealerships to alert customers to special loan and financing offers.

Bryce VanDiver, a partner at financial technology consultancy Capco, said a feature that helps increase the number of times a member opens an app is an important customer retention tool. It’s not a strategy that’s suitable for all credit unions, he noted, adding that KeyPoint’s location in Silicon Valley means it will likely resonate with younger, tech-savvy users.