Key Trends in Member-centricity for Credit Unions of All Sizes

Member-centricity issues will impact financial institutions of all sizes in 2023 and beyond, making it crucial that these institutions ensure it is an area they are focusing on. It’s important to define member-centricity. In this case, “member” is being used universally but is equivalent to a credit union member, consumer, an account holder at a financial institution or any individual that is a future prospect to purchase a financial product or service.

Member-centricity sounds simpler than it really is: It means putting the member first and at the center of everything that you do.

Why is that important?  It’s simple yet powerful – if members aren’t happy, they won’t stay with a financial institution. If credit unions don’t have enough members, they won’t grow or sustain a business … which translates to: The credit union does not have a business, and certainly not one with much of a future.

When visualizing what it means to be a happy member, one should look at their own experience when interacting with brands – those that evoke a positive reaction and those that are either neutral or worse, result in a negative emotion.

Beyond hype and superficial words, those financial institutions that embrace member-centricity provide a great experience, which means that they make it easy to do business with them. They communicate well and in the preferred manner, and they present offers at a time when it’s of interest or the member has a plan to purchase.

What Does Member-centricity Mean in This Digital World?

The member experience is not an event – it’s a journey, and a credit union needs to be part of that journey, from awareness and education to purchase and advocacy. Yet so many digital interactions with said member are wasted!

As we embrace digital, member-centric organizations are being built with a foundation based on member commitment. Personalization of all digital touchpoints in a manner that conveys that the credit union knows, cares about and understands an individual member are becoming definitive competitive differentiators.

Exceptional member experiences will result in exceptional results that matter to the bottom line. Acquiring new members is expensive. Tending to the ones a credit union already has and being the one to offer them more of the financial products and services they need leads to loyalty and long-term retention. It makes each member more profitable to an institution when they make your institution their preferred and primary financial institution. So, why is this not top of mind for all credit union executives?

Many credit unions are concerned about the diminishing presence of their members in branches, which is being made up for by an increasing digital footprint. Now, they are beginning to emphasize the need to replicate the member experience digitally – across all the available digital channels. The experiences that delight and build trust are what will help retain members for the long haul.

A good question to ask is how many members work with you mainly because they lack a better current option – because they feel like they have no choice, not because they really want to?  The answer could determine what lies in the future for your credit union.

How Do You Approach Member-centricity?

These tenets are important to reach the goal of member-centricity:

• Member-centricity is not a sales, marketing or customer support function. It affects everything in the organization and must have an endemic cultural focus and impact.
• No decision is made without considering the member’s voice, the impact of the decision on the member and how it will benefit them.
• You cannot be member-centric without also being employee-centric. It is critical that they have the tools, resources, processes and policies to be member-centric in their actions.
• Employees across the organization need access to member insights that help them identify and act on opportunities to deliver high value to members – for which the employees are recognized and rewarded.
• While member acquisition is still important, the credit union must have a balanced and clear focus on what it takes to retain members, which means a focus on member experience. Positive results will follow.
• Building a member-centric culture requires a commitment from the top – a commitment to delight members that cut across all operations and groups.

How Technology Can Help You Become Member-centric

The good news is that once credit unions have established their mission to be member-centric, in this digital age there are key innovations that can help them reach their goals. It is important to seek differentiation through every part of the member journey and experience; in this matter, technology can be a cost-effective enabler.

The goal of member-centricity is to help the member make the best purchase decision – for them. Here’s how today’s innovations in technology and data can help:

• Utilize all your digital channels for consistent, relevant offers and communication, giving them a seamless digital banking journey at their fingertips.
• Mobile and online banking, email, web, SMS, e-statements and more are all digital touchpoints that you should be using to connect with your members.
• When thinking about easily accessible content, make member education and financial literacy a priority.
• Data availability is exploding – data insights supported by AI/ML make it practical to help you understand your members’ current needs better and faster.
• Use these data insights to power personalized, immersive video and content to captivate and engage.
• Stories and video content become integral to the strategy of bringing alive a human touch and evoking emotions that are powerful and impactful.
• The “consumer experience wrapper” around a financial product will ultimately differentiate one financial institution’s products from another.

Easier said than done, you say? Technology needs people too.

Credit unions are not just investing in technology but finding suppliers of comprehensive managed services bundled with that technology. This alleviates the labor shortage while also optimizing costs and return on investment. Qualified experts, such as those in digital marketing, can use their deep knowledge to serve credit unions on a fractional basis and yet provide the full-service lifecycle and higher returns, resulting in a win-win collaboration between suppliers and users.

Preetha Pulusani is the CEO of the Huntsville, Ala.-based fintech company DeepTarget.