Magnolia FCU Turns Members Into $3.7M in Cross-Sell Volume

The challenge

Opening an account was easy. Becoming the primary financial institution was not.

Magnolia FCU’s leadership had watched the same pattern repeat for years: members opened a checking account, then nothing. No direct deposit. No debit card activity. No signal that Magnolia had become the place where their financial life actually happened.

The credit union wasn’t short on new accounts. It was short on next steps. Without a clear, guided path forward, new members had no reason to come back or a nudge to go deeper, and every day without action made it easier for that first account to become the only account.

President and CEO Michael Waylett put it plainly: onboarding was “wonky and impersonal,” a relic of a process built for a different era of banking. And the stakes were higher than a single missed cross-sell. Research shows that when a new member completes just two early milestones, like funding an account or switching a direct deposit, retention rises by more than 30%. Every week without a plan to drive those milestones was a week of quiet attrition.

Magnolia needed a way to reach both sides of its new-member base: people opening fresh checking accounts, and the growing pool of indirect members who’d come in through a loan but had never been introduced to anything else the credit union offered.

The solution

Guided journeys, built into the digital banking members already use.

Rather than layering on another app or another channel members would have to seek out, Magnolia FCU partnered with Swaystack to build onboarding directly into the experience members were already in: Banno Digital Banking, connected through Origence SSO for members who’d come in through indirect lending.

Four weeks after project kickoff, Magnolia FCU went live with Swaystack. Since then, members have received personalized journeys, including:

• New Checking Accounts - Real-time prompts guiding new members to set up direct deposit, enroll in e-statements, and discover relevant products based on their needs.
• Indirect Members - A proper introduction to Magnolia’s full suite of services for members who previously knew the credit union only as a lender.
• Always On Digital Engagement - Personalized prompts encouraging members to set up direct deposit, enroll in e-statements, and explore the next-best product based on their existing relationship.

Instead of a static welcome email, members now see timely, relevant prompts and rewards as they move through digital banking, with progress tracked automatically behind the scenes. The credit union didn’t have to choose between scale and personal touch. The platform gave them both.

The impact

Deposits grew. Loans grew. And the cost of getting there dropped.

Direct deposit and new money growth. Within months of launch, guided prompts drove 30 verified direct deposit enrollments, worth more than $1M in annualized deposits, alongside $420K in new money deposit accounts. These weren’t members Magnolia had to go find. They were members already there, now shown the next right action at the right moment.

Cross-sell lending, at scale. The Indirect Members journey did exactly what it was built to do: introduce members who’d only ever interacted with Magnolia through a loan to the rest of the credit union. That effort translated into more than $3.7M in loan volume originated through cross-sell, turning single-product relationships into multi-product ones.

Efficiency that adds up. 390 members enrolled in e-statements through guided prompts, saving Magnolia an estimated $11.7K, a smaller number on its own, but proof that even the “easy” wins compound when they’re built into the journey instead of left to chance.

Taken together, the results reflect something more fundamental than onboarding metrics. Magnolia FCU didn’t just activate more accounts. It gave members a reason to keep choosing Magnolia after day one.

As Swaystack CEO and co-founder Har Rai Khalsa put it: “Onboarding isn’t a formality; it’s the moment a member decides if you’re their financial home. The first 30 days are a window of truth. When you lead with purpose, you don’t just keep the account, you grow it. You earn the relationship.”