SECU Drives e-statement Adoption with a Million Dollar Sweepstakes
State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) Raleigh, NC ($15.9 billion) introduced a Million Dollar Sweepstakes in 2007 to encourage member checking account holders to convert from paper statements to e-statements. The Sweepstakes was intended to educate members on the cost to their credit union each month to print and mail paper statements and how members directly benefit when SECU is able to improve efficiency. It began in January 2007 and ran through December 7, 2007.
Over the course of 2007, one hundred members won $5,000 a piece and 20 lucky members won $25,000 each, resulting in $1,000,000 in member awards. The cost for SECU to produce and mail monthly paper statements for its 683,000 checking accounts generally exceeded $1 per statement in printing, postage, and handling costs. Therefore, the credit union estimated that the cost of sweepstakes prizes would be recovered if as few as 15% of these SECU members signed up for E-statements.
Seeing Results The initial response to the Sweepstakes campaign was very positive and e-statement enrollments increased dramatically. The first week the Sweepstakes ran in January, e-statement requests doubled the total requests for December, 2006. The momentumcontinued and SECU received a 40 percent increase in the number of members opting out of paper statements in the first month. At the end of the promotion, over 150,000 of 1.45 million SECU members were using e-statements; over 95,000 of these membersswitched during the promotional period.
Three months after the Sweepstakes ended, SECU continues to see members switch to e-statements. Since 1Q 2007, the number of share draft accounts has increased 6.1 percent to 739,207. Of the membershaving these accounts, 24 percent or 177,548, now receive e-statements. This is three-fold increase over the 8.1 percent before the Million Dollar Sweepstakes. Because of this successful program, the credit union will see an annual savings of approximately$2 million, which will increase year after year.
Leigh Brady, SECU’s Senior Vice President of Education Services, remarks, e-statements are a wonderful concept – they are provided to members at no cost, generate substantialsavings through reduced postage and paper, and offer great environmental benefits as well. However, through the Million Dollar Sweepstakes, SECU had the unique opportunity to give back even more, taking the ‘People Helping People’ philosophyto another level.
At SECU, we strive everyday to help members improve their financial wellbeing and the Sweepstakes was a successful way to truly make a difference. The annual savings of almost $2 million will continue to benefit SECU’smembership!
