The Drive-Thru: Great for Fries and a Shake, but Not a Home Refi

The pandemic has accelerated consumers’ adoption of and engagement with digital technology. According to consulting firm McKinsey & Co., digital transformation has accelerated by seven years on average. And for credit unions, this acceleration has been experienced as a dramatic shift from in-person engagement to service via phone, drive-thru window and mobile device.

While there has been an increase in online channel engagement, friction still exists for members who use the phone and drive-thru channels. The most common reason friction occurs is because the credit union has migrated from in-person to drive-thru service without considering a complete picture of the transition. Specifically, they are not using the data available to fully understand branch transactions and the time and resources that are needed to migrate as smoothly as possible.

While many would like to believe that the world will return to the way it was before the pandemic, the data suggests otherwise. The same McKinsey report, which surveyed nearly 1,000 C-suite executives representing a wide range of regions and industries, found that 62% of respondents felt that customers who have changed their behavior would keep their new behavior and not revert back.

So, what can credit unions do to help reduce this friction and improve the member experience? Here are a few steps they can deploy right away.

1. See What the Data Tells You

Data for the call center, drive-thru window and branch (from 2019) is chock full of insights. Let’s review a few: Wait times, transaction types, days of the week and hours of the day. Looking at these three channels that involve human contact, identify when and how transactions most frequently take place. Are there patterns that correlate to a specific time of day? Or days of the week? A typical insight is an increase in balance verification after a form of direct deposit (such as a stimulus payment or paycheck) has occurred. Another common insight is the number of payments and check deposits that occur in the drive-thru and branch.

Since there are self-service options available to complete these transactions, the action item here is to create a campaign to change member behavior. Prompting a behavior change will involve educating both members and staff, as well as offering incentives. Please note that these efforts will not get 100% of members to change their habits, but it will lead to changes for some.

Successfully changing member behavior has many ramifications for the credit union. For one, the credit union will help members increase their satisfaction due to 24/7 availability of the online channel and build trust in the online channel itself. This is important because e-commerce will make up 22% of global retail sales by 2023 – an increase of nearly 10% from the 14% of global retail sales in 2019.

2. Create and Prioritize Use Cases

From the insights gathered in the previous step, brainstorm a list of actions that the credit union can take to lessen the friction and increase value. These are your data use cases – the business problems your credit union is looking to solve. As you look at that list, sort it into two considerations: What will make the most positive impact on the member, and what is feasible for your credit union to accomplish in less than 90 days with existing resources.

3. Identify the Team and Timeframe

Once the use case/member problem has been identified, the next step is to identify the team and timeframe/roadmap needed to solve this problem. As most credit union talent resources are already stretched thin, it is best to assemble a cross-functional team that can collaborate with consensus on the solution. This team will also dictate the time needed to implement the solution, and test and launch it to the member. Remember, the goal is to reach these goals quickly – in 90 days or less. Once the first use case has been solved, return to the list and start the process again. Yes, this process will create a virtuous cycle of member friction reduction.

We are in a new world with new experiences, expectations and opportunities. Developing capabilities that allow the credit union to leverage data to help improve members’ lives is a game-changer.

Anne Legg is the Founder of THRIVE Strategic Services, a San Diego, Calif.-based company that assists credit unions with data transformation, and author of “Big Data/Big Climb,” a credit union playbook for data transformation.