1st Advantage Federal Credit Union launches powerful new cross sell engine powered by Micronotes

Newport News, VA & Cambridge, MA. – July 26, 2011 – 1st Advantage, a Virginia based Federal Credit Union with 57,000 members, announced today that it will deploy a new cross sell engine called KulaX™, powered by Micronotes, on its online banking portal. KulaX is a white labeled application that creates a momentary interview invitation at online banking logout, during which a customer interviews with the financial institution about a particular product. KulaX makes an appropriate offer based on interview responses and emails accepted offers to the customer.

“Using Micronotes’ interview technology, we were able to customize offers to select market segments resulting in a 600% increase in leads per week during our initial deployment,” said Jim Craig, Vice President of Marketing at 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union. “KulaX enables us to leverage our online banking assets to communicate more effectively with our customers about their needs”.

KulaX is a digital sales force that enables financial institutions to leverage online banking to get more leads faster. Online banking customers are targeted based on so-called “next best product” matrix marketing and website visits. Once a customer qualifies for a specific product, he is invited, at logout, to engage in an automated one-on-one 30-second interview with his financial institution about his needs and preferences. Upon completion, customers are presented with special offers for products and services that have been tailored based on interview responses.

“Financial Institutions are struggling to interact effectively with customers who don’t want to be interrupted with irrelevant messages.  We are on a mission to change the social contract of marketing from interruption to invitation and conversation,” said Christian Klacko, SVP Field Operations, Micronotes. “The high interaction rate that 1st Advantage enjoyed indicates that customers are surprised and delighted by the application. We look forward to working with 1st Advantage to deliver more qualified leads better, faster, and cheaper.” 

About 1st Advantage
1st Advantage Federal Credit Union is headquartered in Newport News, VA. More than 57,000 members own and belong to the community-chartered credit union, which has over $530 million in assets. A lot of people don't realize just how different credit unions are from banks and other financial institutions. For one thing, credit unions like 1st Advantage are not-for-profit financial co-ops, which means our focus is on our members, not outside investors, and profits are reinvested into the credit union to provide low loan rates, high returns on investments and lower (or eliminated) fees and charges. More information about 1st Advantage can be found at www.1stadvantage.org. 

About Micronotes
Micronotes is a digital marketing services company that partners with financial institutions to bring relevant high-value promotions to bank customers using purchase history, matrix marketing, and interaction.  Micronotes products include: the KulaMula™ FinApp which delivers transaction targeted promotions to online banking customers, and KulaX™, a radically productive cross-sell platform for financial institutions that delivers more leads faster.  www.micronotes.com