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An independent group of UX, Design, Content and Analytics professionals conducted a "digital experiences" review of the Top 100 credit union by asset size – and they found "many credit unions are not investing in the digital capabilities that meet current and prospective members' wants and/or needs."
The Silicon Valley-based Finalytics.ai released its 2023 Credit Union Digital Experience report on Monday and published the findings from these experts that explored how effectively credit unions have been in providing digital experiences that can be leveraged as a competitive advantage. This is the fifth such report from Finalytics.ai.
The panel of experts were asked to focus on the following categories to rate the Top 100 credit unions: User Experience; Analytics and SEO; Key Features and Functionality; Visual Design and Branding; Content; Digital Marketing; and Security and Privacy.
The experts rated each credit union on a scoring level from 0 (poor) to 5 (most innovative). According to the report, "the average user experience score was 2.31 out of 5, indicating that many credit unions are failing to bring their high-touch approach to digital channels and successfully convert what has traditionally been a transactional environment into a relational one."
The credit unions that achieved the highest average scores across all categories were VyStar Credit Union (3.39), Alliant Credit Union (3.08), Community America Credit Union (2.79), Wings Financial Credit Union (2.79) and Redwood Credit Union (2.70).
The CEO of Finalytics.ai, Craig McLaughlin, said, "Our goal with this report is to provide a useful framework to analyze the quality of digital experiences in the industry and help credit unions build a strong digital strategy. Credit unions are working hard to meet their members' needs, but the report indicates that these efforts are going to need to be supplemented if credit unions want to win in the marketplace. By leveraging modern technologies, credit unions can move beyond a transactional, generalized digital banking experience and deliver branch-like banking on digital channels, at scale."
The Finalytics.ai report's key findings included:
- Only 21 of the 100 credit unions exhibit some level of personalization: and just seven of these feature deeper, more enhanced personalization.
- While the majority of credit unions (91%) identify some level of segmentation, just 30% represent their defined segments very well within their website content.
- Of those using defined segmentation, 58% show two or more segments in their primary navigation – typically Personal, Business and Wealth Management.
- Only 40% of credit unions track analytics across the digital journey and even fewer integrate web analytics across front-end/back-end data sources.
"The primary finding of the report is that many credit unions are not investing in the digital capabilities that meet current and prospective members' wants and/or needs," the report stated. "This means that the traditional selling point for credit unions – better in-branch support and service – is not translating into a digital experience that differentiates them from competitors in the market. With the majority of financial services now being consumed via digital channels, this inability to create a relational environment in the digital space is an existential threat that must become the singular priority for credit union leadership."
The report noted, "Those consumers that are satisfied with the level of trust they have in their credit union increased in the last few years but remains well below 50%. To maintain and improve member satisfaction, credit unions will have to create segment of one digital experiences for prospective and current members that go beyond simple personalization and broad segmentation. New technologies will be required to achieve this goal and there are several products poised to help in the market."
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Michael Ogden
Editor-in-Chief at CU Times. To connect, email at [email protected]. As Editor-in-Chief of CU Times since 2016, Michael Ogden has led the editorial team in all aspects of content strategy and execution, including the creation of the publication’s exclusive and proprietary research database of the credit union industry’s economic landscape. Under Michael’s leadership, CU Times has successfully shifted to an all-digital editorial product with new focuses on the payments, fraud, lending and regulatory beats. Most recently, he introduced a data-focused editorial product for subscribers that breaks down credit union issues into hard data, allowing for a deeper and more factual narrative for readers. In 2024, he launched the "Shared Accounts With CU Times" podcast, which offers a fresh, inside-the-newsroom perspective through interviews with leaders from the credit union industry and the regulatory world. He dives into pressing credit union issues, while revealing the personalities working behind-the-scenes to push the credit union world forward. His background includes years as a radio and TV anchor/reporter and a public relations and digital/social media manager, where he covered the food and music industries, as well as cooperatives and credit unions. Over the years, he has launched numerous exclusive video and podcast series, including a successful series of interactive backstage interviews with musicians at music festivals, showcasing his social media and live streaming production skills.
