Distinction Increased Membership Growth and Retention Rates for the Building Societies Association
The Building Societies Association (BSA) approached Distinction with three overriding business goals: member engagement, member retention, and cost reduction.
As the voice of all 43 UK building societies and a number of credit unions, BSA provides bespoke information to support their members in running their business to the best of their ability and in line with current regulatory guidelines.
As mutual organizations, building societies are owned by their customers, which means they operate in the interests of their members and their local communities, rather than being driven by the pressure of external stakeholders.
The Brief
With a 200-year-old legacy of looking after savings and providing mortgages, building societies consistently put the needs of their customers first and it’s a mission that BSA helps their members fiercely protect.
Working on behalf of a wide range of audiences including the UK Government, UK and EU parliaments, regulators, the media, and the general public, BSA’s website is their most valuable resource.
They approached Distinction with their business objectives: to improve communication with their members, create an authoritative information source, create an excellent CMS author experience, and promote the sector.
The Strategy
Using their active strategy approach, Distinction quickly identified stakeholder needs and those of the end-users. Using this insight, they created an industry-leading digital presence for BSA to better engage with members, provide additional value, reduce ongoing service costs, and provide a roadmap for continual digital innovation.
The Action
Distinction’s early work with BSA focused on its key business goals.
Member Engagement: Making it easier to register, log in, and use the website was paramount. Giving BSA the ability to communicate more effectively via integrated email marketing and role-based personalization that pulled members to the website on a regular basis.
Member Retention: Adding beneficial and effective resources to the website – that members actually wanted – was vital in adding value to the member experience and key to BSA’s retention rates.
Cost Reduction: Replacing BSA’s previous out-of-date website, which was costly to maintain and difficult to use, meant efficiencies in both time and technology budget.
Outcome
There were many incremental improvements to the website that have led to bigger changes for BSA, the most notable of which were: 9.5% increase in session duration, 47% increase in event registration, 12% increase in page speed, 7.5% increase in registered online users.
About Distinction
Distinction Distinction is the digital product studio who’ll make you stand out. They work with clients to disrupt their sector, challenge the competition, and capture market share by delivering experiences users love.