Case studyOctober 14, 2026

Five Star Credit Union prepares 70% of members before its digital banking conversion with Swaystack

Four bank acquisitions in a decade. Two of them in a single year. A footprint that had grown from a handful of financial centers in southeast Alabama to 29 locations spanning 42 counties across two states. By the time Five Star Credit Union prepared to move its entire 68,000-member base onto a new Alkami digital banking platform, “member” had come to mean a lot of different things: a two-decade loyalist, someone who’d joined through a merger they never asked for, someone who barely knew Five Star’s name yet. All of them were about to log into a digital banking experience they’d never seen before, on the same day.

Five Star Credit Union
Products used

Results at a glance

42,000

Members targeted

70%

Member readiness achieved before conversion

3,100

Members updated their contact information

3-month

Automated omnichannel readiness campaign

The challenge

Outdated member contact data represents relationship risk on conversion day.

Five Star’s growth was, by every measure, a success story. But growth by acquisition creates a particular kind of risk: members onboarded from four different legacy banks, at four different times, with contact information that had never been consistently verified. Add a full-membership conversion to a new digital banking platform on top of that, and outdated data stops being a back-office nuisance. It becomes an operational threat.

Without verified member data, the credit union faced the potential for:

  • Failed login recovery
  • Missed security alerts and account notifications
  • Higher password reset volume
  • Increased call center demand
  • Member frustration during conversion

Five Star’s COO Tyler Beck framed the stakes plainly: a conversion doesn’t start on launch day. It starts with whether the credit union actually knows how to reach the people it’s about to move. With 42,000 members needing verification and a hard deadline on the calendar, Five Star needed a way to drive that action at scale, without turning every member interaction into a generic “please update your info” broadcast.

The solution

An omnichannel readiness campaign designed to drive action before launch day.

Using Swaystack, Five Star Credit Union launched a coordinated readiness campaign that combined personalized email journeys with embedded digital banking experiences, guiding members to verify or update their contact information before the new platform launched.

Rather than simply announcing the upcoming conversion, every interaction encouraged members to complete one specific action. Members first received educational emails explaining the upcoming migration and why verifying their information mattered. Those who had not yet completed the task automatically received reminder emails, while embedded digital banking prompts presented members with a simple way to confirm or update the information already on file.

Once a member completed verification, Swaystack automatically removed them from future outreach, ensuring communications remained relevant and eliminating unnecessary follow-up messages.

Key capabilities included:

  • Personalized email journey spanning three months
  • Embedded digital banking verification prompts
  • Secure contact information update experience
  • Automated suppression after completion
  • Daily readiness reporting for leadership
Tyler Beck, COO of Five Star Credit Union: “A successful digital banking conversion starts long before launch day. We knew accurate member data would play a critical role in creating a smooth experience, and Swaystack gave us an efficient way to prepare members before the transition. The result was greater confidence heading into conversion and a better experience for both our members and our team.”

The impact

Better prepared members before conversion. By leveraging Swaystack’s omnichannel engagement platform, Five Star Credit Union successfully prepared 70% of targeted members before its digital banking conversion, giving the organization greater confidence heading into launch.

Cleaner member data. More than 3,100 members updated outdated contact information before conversion, improving the accuracy of future communications, security notifications, and account alerts.

A smoother digital banking conversion. Instead of relying on one-time announcements, Five Star Credit Union used coordinated digital banking and email experiences to guide members through a simple but essential action before launch. The result was a more informed membership, reduced operational risk, and a stronger foundation for a successful digital banking conversion.

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