Building Better Member Engagement Around Summer Life Milestones

The macroeconomic forecast may be cloudy and uncertain, but here’s the sunny outlook for credit unions: Warmer weather brings about a lot of exciting changes for members. Traditionally, the summer months usher in graduations, weddings, vacations, new homes on the market – all major milestones in the lives of our members.

Credit unions can kick-start a more rate-agnostic growth strategy – and win members for life – by focusing member engagement on one simple idea: Show up for members at these moments that matter most.

Life Milestones Drive Organic Demand for Credit Unions

Last year, Accenture’s 2023 Global Banking Consumer Study urged financial institutions to build their engagement and growth around what they called “life centricity.” In other words, moving from a more transactional relationship with members to “playing a more meaningful role in customers’ lives, and helping them achieve their life aspirations.”

Why? Because member life milestones are the biggest driver of organic demand for net-new financial products and services. Moreover, this organic demand is much less impacted by macroeconomic factors. Take the two classic summer milestones: Graduations and weddings. Teenagers will still graduate from high school and enroll in college – despite rates being what they are. Similarly, couples will still choose to tie the knot despite financial differences or difficulties.

Loyalties Are Formed – and Cemented – at These Key Moments

Life-centricity isn’t just about being there to offer a product or service. Life milestones are the anchor points for credit unions to build loyalty and establish members for life. These are the moments in life when things feel most in flux. As members graduate or get married, for example, their needs are changing, uncertainties abound, and they’re hungry for trusted financial guidance.

Credit unions that can deliver this relevant, useful guidance can go beyond just “making the sale” to win valuable members for life.

A Blueprint for Summer Milestones

What does life-centric engagement actually look like? Here’s a blueprint for the two biggest summer milestones:

New Graduates

Meeting immediate needs: Graduation is a big step into adulthood (whether high school or college). Data from hundreds of credit unions and other financial institutions show that new graduates likely have several new needs: High school grads or those continuing their education may be looking to take out new student loans, while others may be looking to refinance their student loan balances. Those heading into the workforce may be interested in career development loans for more trade-specific training and certifications. This is also a common point for opening a first credit card or getting an auto loan.

Building long-term loyalty: New grads are just starting their financial journeys. Most won’t yet have a trusted financial advisor, and research shows these young people want to improve their financial literacy. This is a tremendous opportunity for credit unions to establish that trusted position, helping new grads and their parents navigate their transition into financial independence.

Newlyweds

Meeting immediate needs: Newlyweds commonly look for several financial products and services within months of tying the knot: They open joint savings and checking accounts. They open new credit cards – often joint, but sometimes separate. They’re much more likely to be in the market for a first-time home loan or a new auto loan. And in some cases, they’re also exploring long-term investment products like CDs, retirement and 529 accounts.

Building long-term loyalty: A marriage is the start of a new household unit – and this is a critical time for a credit union to earn sticky status as the couple’s trusted financial advisor. Moreover, newlyweds are often considering other big life decisions (starting a family, buying a home, moving or changing careers, etc.). Credit unions that can engage with tailored, genuinely helpful information and guidance can build the foundation for a healthy long-term member relationship.

Credit Unions Need Insights — Connected to Action

The recipe for a life-centric engagement strategy is much the same as how credit unions have been approaching general personalization for the last several years – with one important twist. Credit unions can’t base personalization on superficial demographics. Not every 18-year-old is headed off to college, and people get married (for the first time or the last time) at any age today. Credit unions need to invest in purpose-built analytics and tools that deliver a deeper level of customer intelligence so they can reliably see the signals of members’ life milestones.

Most important of all, those insights need to be connected to action. To scale up a life-centric approach to engage with all members (and net-new prospects), credit unions need to be using smart automation. The best member engagement platforms today make it easy to build out highly automated engagement journeys that make members feel like they’re getting the one-to-one attention they crave – without requiring the credit union to add headcount.

Life-centricity Is an Easier Path to Growth

Accenture didn’t invent life-centricity last year. Credit unions have always prided themselves on personal member relationships, and the concept of relationship selling is as old as time.

But amid high rates and economic uncertainties, it’s the right time for credit unions to get back to basics – amplified, of course, by modern technologies. Rather than chasing deposits and throwing big budgets at campaigns to drum up loan demand, credit unions should be focusing on showing up for members at the moments that matter. As the summer weddings and graduations begin, make sure you’re ready.

James White is General Manager of Banking at Total Expert, a fintech software company based in St. Louis Park, Minn.