AI-Powered Solutions Drive Unprecedented Member Loyalty
AI can help CUs drill down to valuable insight about their members’ core values, habits and aspirations.
The loyalty that exists between credit unions and their members is unmatched in the financial services industry. Credit unions are all about relationships. In fact, a 2016 Gallup study shows that 52% of all credit union members are actively engaged with their institutions, compared to just 17% for national bank customers.
Finding ways to further connect is key to future success, and credit unions that embrace the application of experiences powered by artificial intelligence technologies in marketing efforts have an unprecedented opportunity to further fortify those relationships.
Well-implemented, intuitive and interactive solutions can help credit unions drill down to valuable insight about their members’ core values, habits and aspirations, creating the opportunity to build on the already deep loyalty they share with their members. While banks use personalization to push product promotions, credit unions may be more inclined to use it for education or service – and only for surface offers if they are clearly in the member’s interest. Having the right technology and processes is key to ensuring an optimized member experience that gets results.
The Right Technology
Fortunately, many credit unions have already automated production and digitized marketing collateral, and there are also platforms and solutions that automate key member-facing documents, ensuring they are accurate, current and compliant.
In implementing these solutions, the initial goal may be to reduce the cost and improve the quality and accuracy of marketing artifacts. But by digitizing these assets, they become more versatile, enabling credit unions to track and analyze how a member engages with them.
Next-generation content automation platforms can generate hyper-personalized member communications. They have the ability to track basic metrics such as opens, views, time on page, interactions (e.g., likes, questions and bookmarks), content sharing, conversations around content, return reading patterns, and longevity and popularity of content – providing significantly more valuable insights than those produced using passive reading patterns.
The continuous data gathering, combined with internal insight like customer relationship management and external sources such as current and historical market information, builds a large library of data mined by machine learning algorithms to discover patterns and predict future results. These patterns can relate to specific behaviors among asset management customers, such as:
- Predicting the outcome of a set of content for a given audience;
- Identifying sequences that end in success, failure or another result;
- Discovering high-engagement/low-engagement member-facing content; and
- Grading the effectiveness of content collections and sequences.
With these insights, credit unions can benefit from smart, hyper-informed suggestions about which content to use for which audience. More determined analysis may further improve these insights and recommendations by:
- Extending the data set to include information and events about members’ needs;
- Applying, as appropriate, ever-evolving machine learning and data science methods, and technologies; and
- Engaging the support of subject matter experts with a combination of machine learning and in-depth knowledge of the asset management industry.
The Right Processes
Creating an innovative member experience requires more than just the right “gadgets,” however. It is necessary for credit unions to take specific actions to ensure members are being served the way they want to be served, that data is accurate and that members understand how their personal information is being used.
Rethink personalization: To many, the idea of personalized customer service is a face-to-face interaction that creates and builds upon a deep relationship. But in today’s digital environment, it is important to consider and embrace evolving consumer needs. For example, chatbots that interact with members – and potential members – represent the opportunity to connect in an impactful way.
For younger consumers, digital communication is simply the norm. They want to interact on their terms, using technology that powers every aspect of their lives. For others, there are personal financial topics that a member may not want to discuss with someone across a desk. Personalization means meeting members where they want to be met, and intuitive, interactive tools have the ability to put credit unions in the right place every time.
Start with the best data: AI has the power to personalize automated member interaction, but it is only as “intelligent” as the data it is given. Before any implementation commences, it is critical to diligently comb through member data to ensure the accuracy of the information that will be analyzed. This process is not easy and takes a lot of time, but it will ensure the greatest ROI. And for credit unions, the challenge of accuracy can actually be viewed as a differentiator: It is hard to find financial institutions that understand their customers as intimately as credit unions, which means that data will often be more accurate than other institutions.
Be transparent: In an age where personal data collection is often conducted without consumers’ knowledge, it is important that credit unions are proactively transparent in how they are using the information members voluntarily provide. And because credit unions are member-owned and controlled, that transparency is even more important. When a void of communication exists, it stands to reason that members may make assumptions that data is being collected for nefarious purposes. Deep financial relationships are built on trust, and consistently reinforcing that data is collected to make the experience more personal is key to maintaining that trust.
Credit unions that are positioned to implement sophisticated AI-driven marketing strategies will find themselves on par with some of the most innovative banks and online retailers, which may be helpful should the likes of Google or Amazon decide to expand even further into financial services. Having the right technology and internal processes will ensure that initiatives strengthen member loyalty through personalized offers and services.
David Poole is Head of Financial Services Center of Excellence for Publicis.Sapient. He can be reached at info@publicis.sapient.com.