Take Your Credit Union From Surviving to Thriving
Develop the architecture required to broaden existing member relationships and prospect more intelligently.
Amazon represents an emblematic image of the new economy. The brilliance of the Amazon business model is that it can be reduced to a simple statement, the genius of which is to improve the member experience as a gateway to driving revenue. Similarly, every forward-thinking credit union endeavors to do the same.
Recognizing Competitive Advantage
The source of Amazon’s competitive advantage is actually very simple. The essence of what makes Amazon unique is that the brand possesses a name and address for every client relationship. The preponderance of any other retailer’s clients are innocuously walking in and out of their doors. As a result, while Amazon thrives, its competition is attempting to survive.
In reality, there is only one other business sector that naturally possesses the source of Amazon’s competitive advantage. Due to the fiduciary relationship that each credit union maintains with members, the financial sector exclusively shares the source of Amazon’s strength. Furthermore, every credit union recognizes the benefits of improving the member experience as a gateway to driving revenue. Executing with clarity, however, remains a challenge.
Creating Smart Data
The Amazon business model is operationalized with ease. Simply put, Amazon utilizes the physical address provided by every customer to leverage its understanding of each individual client. Insight is created by appending, mining and analyzing its client file to enrich the organization’s perception of each customer to personalize the purchase experience.
In the smart data economy, the credit union with the most actionable, local knowledge claims victory. The competitor that best knows its markets and members is well-positioned to adeptly anticipate needs, creating a competitive advantage. Becoming a more efficient organization requires greater member and market intelligence to prospect more effectively.
There is a prescriptive path to creating the smart data advantage and closing the knowledge gap. Operationalizing the Amazon business model is a quantitative exercise. The outcome of this analysis is to gain the member and market intelligence required to prospect more skillfully. The physical address is the gateway to success. It will identify the geography that each branch competes within for business, reveal the number of households and businesses available, define product line demand among consumers and businesses, establish penetration benchmarks, delineate incremental opportunities and determine product line purchase intent to prospect more intelligently.
Plan to Thrive
The architecture for success is present at every credit union. Recognizing data as an asset requires rethinking the business model. Broadening existing member relationships and prospecting more intelligently begins with the physical address. Smart data offers the market and member insight to build competitive advantage. Improving the member experience is the gateway to driving revenue. It is time to get personal. Plan to thrive.
This is the first in a three-part article series offering a prescriptive path to building competitive advantage by recognizing that smart data is the currency of business. Look out for the next installment on May 29.
Tom Long is the Founding Manager of The Long Group, a Merrimack, N.H.-based strategic planning, marketing and analytics firm.