In an Age of Automation, Focus On Strategy

Anyone sick of hearing about ChatGPT yet? Of course, that powerful chatbot is just the latest example of artificial intelligence impacting how we do business. Even how credit unions do marketing.

From a larger perspective, ChatGPT is an illustration that we are living in the age of automation. Whether we are talking about predictive analytics, predictive personas, marketing automation or any other hot buzzwords, the reality is automation is not just a fad – it’s a trend.

At times it feels like we are living in the movies and the present is now the future (think “The Terminator” or “I, Robot”). Fortunately for credit unions, the robots have not taken over (yet!).

One of the traps with automation is that we lose one of the key ingredients to a credit union’s success: Strategy.

While AI and automation are great tools, there are terrible masters.

As you examine your credit union’s inevitable march toward implementing more automation, you must focus on strategy first. Here are three key questions you must answer:

Does your automation complement your brand?

If you are not careful, you can sacrifice your brand at the altar of AI and efficiency. Any AI tool you implement MUST match your brand. For example, if you position your credit union as “friendly, warm, personal” and you have a robot answering your phones, does that really match the friendly brand? I’ll be honest: The first time I called my credit union and its “robot” answered the phone, I was ticked. Even though they gave him a name and tried to make him sound nice, it was still a robot! Nothing personal at all. I just wanted to talk to a human being.

When it comes to branding, you must remember a few key strategies: Your brand, your niche, your messaging and your vision/values. All of those key elements must align. And they must be authentic. Yet sometimes when we introduce AI we lose that authenticity. People still want to talk to people.

When it comes to your brand, there are some things artificial intelligence just can’t do. For example, during a recent brand workshop with one of our clients we were working through their vision, values and niches. As a fun exercise, someone pulled up ChatGPT just to see what vision statement it would create. The result? A bunch of nice sounding words that meant absolutely nothing. While well written, it was about as generic as you could get.

Your brand must be unique. AI won’t give you that.

Does your automation create personalization?

Personalization should absolutely be one of the advantages AI can bring to your brand. But don’t assume it works every time.

Remember that when it comes to automation, you are often only as good as your data. For example, my full name is John Mark Arnold. My dad’s name was John, so I go by Mark. When credit unions (even my own credit union) market to me, they often refer to me as “J,” “John” or “JM.” That communicates right away that they don’t know me. There goes the personalization.

Consumers today don’t want email: They want me-mail. Offers that directly tie to their current needs. True personalization that automation brings is only as powerful as the data you are feeding it.

Personalization requires knowing your members. AI will only use the data (right or wrong) you have.

Does your automation tie to your strategic plan?

Nothing is much more important in your credit union than your strategic plan. If you want to truly implement automation throughout the organization, then make sure it is a strategic initiative.

Automation should give you more time to work on strategy. As Salesforce says, “Automating the many steps between marketing and sales gives your team more time to focus on overall strategy and nurturing the leads that show real promise. That means more prospects, and more customers. Marketing automation can also give you a richer, more detailed picture of potential customer behavior.”

What are your credit union’s top strategic objectives for the next 18 to 24 months? How can automation help you accomplish those goals? Or is using automation and AI itself one of those goals?

There are some truly amazing tools when it comes to automating your lending, marketing and operations. The credit unions that are having the most success with automation are the ones that are aligning the tools with the strategy.

You must determine your strategy. AI won’t create your strategy for you.

In the financial services world, automation is not going anywhere; it is here to stay. That train has left the station. However, who is driving the train? Hopefully the people in your credit union who are in charge of the overall strategy.

Mark Arnold is founder and president of On the Mark Strategies, a Dallas, Texas-based consulting firm specializing in branding and strategic planning for credit unions.