As a small independent savings bank founded in 1872, the Milford Bank has built a well-earned reputation for customer service and a personal touch with its customers.
Now the bank has introduced a new technology tool to extend that personal touch to online and mobile banking as well.
This week the bank announced the introduction of Plinqit, a brandable savings app that pays users for engaging with its content and in doing so helps to improve their financial wellness. The bank describes Plinqit as “a non-traditional, modern tool that helps with the first step of the financial wellness journey: saving money.”
The app includes an interactive feature, Building Skills, that pays users for engaging with content. Users watch a video or read an article from the Plinqit library and take a short quiz. Users are then rewarded for learning more about personal finances, creating higher user engagement for the financial institution.
“With Plinqit, we can provide customers a digital experience that helps them save while also providing them with the Milford Bank’s personalized customer service,” said Susan Shields, bank president and CEO, in announcing the new product.
“HT Mobile Apps’ [the app developer] knowledge of community banking and focus on partnering with community banks, instead of competing against us, drew us to their unique value proposition,” she added.
“When we created Plinqit, we were looking for a way for community financial institutions to better engage with customers while also teaching people about personal finances,” said Kathleen Craig, HT Mobile Apps’ founder and CEO, in a statement. “It has worked: Total Plinqit deposits recently surpassed $500,000 in just a few short months. By partnering with the Milford Bank, we can support their goals of serving their community, improving the financial wellness of their customers in a fun way.”
Based in Ann Arbor, Mich., HT Mobile Apps says its new product (“created by Millennials for Millennials”) is intended to enable financial institutions such as the Milford Bank to offer a non-traditional “cool tool” to promote a highly traditional economic value: saving. The company says Plinqit may supplant “much loved” but “operationally inefficient” Christmas clubs for savings-bank customers.
