Young adults are considered the target market and they're high on the agenda of most credit unions, which is the future of our consumer base and our lending portfolios. By targeting young adults and generating loyalty, credit unions can create a lasting and profitable relationship with this growing demographic.
This report from Filene Research Institute explores the difference between what it means to attract members and what it means to keep members with a keen focus on this ever more important group of members.
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Written by Michelle Bloedorn and Jake Foreman of Member Loyalty Group, this report uses the Net Promoter Score developed by loyalty guru Fred Reichheld to look at feedback from 19 credit unions in varying size, with the largest being $10 billion in assets. In addition to this, the data was broken down into age categories and compared to the equivalent NPS results from banks.
As you can imagine, credit unions comfortably lead in this area. But is leading enough? Does leading mean, in fact, that credit unions are reaching a high level of customer loyalty or just outperforming the banks?
While the research clearly indicates that credit unions are outperforming banks by using NPS, especially among young adults (53% in comparison to 12% in the 18-34 category), this demographic has the lowest score in comparison to the 35-54 and 55+ age ranges.
Giving insights into a variety of topics, in this report you can find how 18-24-year-olds are conducting their business, what products they have and what their priorities are. Further to this, you can see what the top performing credit unions are doing to inspire loyalty in their young adults.
One key finding here is that 18-34-year-olds continue to use the branch more than the average member (63% comparatively to 62%) but, as expected, they also use ATM and online channels more than the average member. The fact that the branch is still a key weapon in the credit union armory for the young adult market correlates with what top performing credit unions find important when generating loyalty within this demographic.
In looking at these top performing credit unions, credit unions need to consider three key factors when generating and retaining loyalty amongst young adults: service, convenience and understanding. While this list is not exhaustive, these three factors give an insight into what is important to young adults.
The report gives an overview of the research conducted and a deeper insight into what each of these three factors means to your credit union. Further to this, you can find examples of what credit unions are doing in these areas to successfully generate loyalty within this important and elusive market.
Generating loyalty is not an exact science but the Next Generation Needs: Examining Credit Union Loyalty among Young Adults report goes a long way to creating a road map as to what is important. It can also help determine and how you can utilize that information to better generate loyalty among your young members and, with that, a profitable future for years to come.
James Marshall is leader of The Cooperative Trust.
CONTACT: [email protected] or Skype: jwtmarshall
Read more in the Nov. 13 Gen Y Focus Report:
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