Zeroing in on member satisfaction.
I'm a runner. Six days a week, every week of the year, I run between seven and 12 miles. Over 14 years ago, I was running seven days a week and I ended up with an ankle injury. It was devastating. I couldn't run for several weeks. Running is my sanity. Even though my wake-up call at 4:20 a.m. rarely leaves me feeling energized, I do zip out of bed because the way I feel after a run is well worth a little less sleep. Thus, those weeks were miserable. I read everything I could about how to quickly fix the injury and also turned to my father-in-law, a family physician and former runner. His advice was simple: "If you want to run for the rest of your life, you need to replace your shoes every 500 miles and you have to take one day off per week." I didn't love the advice, but I took it and have followed it ever since.
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The consequence is that Sundays (my day of rest), are not my favorite days of the week. I miss the endorphins. I miss the energy that running brings. Nonetheless, one day per week of longing is worth it if it means many more years of running six days per week. I do work to find cross-training alternatives for my Sunday "run-less blues." In the summer, my daughter and I enjoy biking together and that is a good cross-training alternative and in recent months, I've had the opportunity to take some indoor cycling classes that I've really enjoyed.
Exercise for me is generally a solitary quest. In fact, one thing I adore about running is that all I need is my shoes, my watch, a bit of gear and I'm out the door. Thanks to the generosity of my father, I have a treadmill that gets me through the winters in Madison. Thus, as much as I liked the idea of an indoor cycling class for the gift of endorphins without the pounding on a Sunday, I longed for something I might do at home. With the help of Google, I found Peloton. What a fun idea. A bike in my home that I could use on any Sunday combined with the challenge of a class.
Hyper-Personalization Is Here
I've researched Peloton a lot in the last several months. The good folks at Peloton know it. As I'm on other sites, Peloton regularly serves up ads to me. It works. It is striking to me to see something "show up" that aligns closely with my interests. It stops me in my tracks. Even as I'm very aware that my search history is feeding these customized offers, I am drawn to look because I continue to have a strong interest in filling my Sunday mornings with an easy-to-access running alternative.
As consumers, we have a strong desire for custom, or hyper-personalized, content. As more businesses leverage big data, the more customized our experience as a consumer has become. In fact, according to KEY Difference Media, "78% of consumers believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships." This is particularly good news for credit unions that know their members so well and have a wealth of data to better serve up the best and most tailored offerings.
This is especially true as we work to engage the next generation. According to Filene Research Institute's report, "Money Talk: Shifting the Financial Landscape Through #Adulting," "The fintech industry has identified a target segment of millennials referred to as HENRY (high earners, not rich yet). This segment is important to an industry that wants to create a relationship early in the individual's independent financial life and grow with them over time." The report shares that in order attract "HENRY," we must deliver "radical honesty and transparency."
How are credit unions leveraging custom content to more effectively engage members and deepen relationships in a radically honest way? One example is SavvyMoney. SavvyMoney supports credit unions by providing transparency into credit scores for members with integration through online and mobile banking. It gives credit unions a tool to calculate personalized rate-based unique offers, based on the user's credit profile and the loans they currently have in their credit file. This personalization makes loan offers unique, compelling and provides value from a trusted resource, rather than a direct credit score site advertising competing offers.
As we've partnered with SavvyMoney and tested results with credit unions, the results of this kind of hyper-personalized offer are striking. Members that use the credit score tool apply for loans at double the rate of non-credit score tool users. The persistent, but non-intrusive placement of the credit score and offerings within online banking mirrors my customized Peloton experience. Loan savings are meaningful and ready for the member to take action when they choose to do so.
This meets the definition of custom content described by Andrew Boar of Adotas: "Creation of content meant to build an affinity with your existing audience. This content would reinforce the brand, communicate the value of the product and create new opportunities. Custom Content is the creation of 'branded content' for a customer. And, for the most part, custom content is created for the client to communicate with their own existing customers."
Custom Content Location Is Key
As we look to meet our members where they are, they are online and mobile. According to Flurry in March of 2017, "The average U.S. consumer spends a whopping five hours a day on these devices. That is a 20% increase in time spent compared to Q4 2015." As we work to customize our messaging, it must meet our members where they are.
Credit unions leveraging SavvyMoney have seen the power of mobile, with a 250% increase in overall sign-ups and a 400% increase with millennial sign-ups when the credit score is delivered via mobile.
One credit union that is having success meeting its members in mobile is United Teletech Financial Federal Credit Union with its United Value app powered by Larky. The app offers customized offers leveraging geolocation that are unique to United Teletech Financial members.
During the holiday season, the credit union did a Skip-A-Pay promotion and donated a portion of every skip completed to a local food bank. The credit union leveraged the United Value app to help engage members with the promotion. United Teletech Financial reported that 38% of users who tapped the push notification from the app went on to the next step and clicked through to the credit union's landing page. Members who responded to the push notification through the app averaged 16 minutes on the landing page.
According to PWC's Retail Banking 2020, "Historically, banks with the best branch footprint have dominated their markets, gaining outsized share. By 2020, all banks will be direct banks, and branch banking will be changing fast." If we see our members less and they spend more time in mobile, we must create a mobile experience that goes well beyond transferring money and remotely depositing checks.
You Can Be Your Members' Peloton
CFSI's 2015 Consumer Financial Health study demonstrated that, "More than half of the U.S. population is struggling financially." You can be the Sunday endorphin that ensures people in your community have a resource to build their dreams. You can save them money. You can help them improve their credit scores. You can help them afford life. But, you can't show them "what's in it for them" if they don't know all that you can do. Meet them where they are. Use the data you have to customize your messaging in a hyper-customized way and meet them where they are, online and in mobile. Soon they'll be telling their friends about this really interesting credit union that knew just exactly what they needed.
Tansley Stearns Tansley Stearns is Chief Impact Officer for Filene Research Institute. She can be reached at 608-661-3753 or [email protected].
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