Credit unions, regardless of their place on the digital transformation scale, have been pushing the limits of their processes, teams, and infrastructure to meet today’s digital member demands. According to a J.D. Power survey from April, 35% of consumers reported increased use of online banking since the COVID-19 crisis, and 30% increased mobile banking usage.
Just as many have adopted to the convenience of front-door grocery delivery or other socially distant services, many members have enjoyed the convenience of transactional online or mobile banking. Only 46% of consumers said they will go back to “banking as usual,” according to the survey. Now is the time for credit unions to take a look at their member’s digital experiences and ensure the high expectations consumers have for their financial institution matches the service they currently receive from their credit union.
Beyond digitalization, automation, and tech adoption, there are 3 key areas that credit unions can optimize for the new normal of financial services.
- Optimize Onboarding.
- Map Member Journeys.
- Educate and Advise.
In our webinar with the Credit Union Journal, Total Expert Director of Content Strategy & Development Kelly Guest and Content Director, Financial Services, Lori Blix shared strategies to optimize each of these focus areas. Here’s a summary of their recommendations, or you can access the webinar recording on-demandfor more, including best practices, detailed strategies, and example executions.
Optimize Onboarding
On the webinar, 47% of attendees shared that they do not have a structured onboarding program in place. Even those with an onboarding program admitted there was room to improve. Beyond best practices like engaging early and often, Total Expert encourages credit unions to put the same level of focus on the onboarding experience as they do marketing their credit union. In addition to sharing a warm welcome, here are some strategies you can include:
- Educate new members on how and why you serve them.
- Help them set up the basics for self-service, like online baking, eStatements, and mobile app adoption.
- Find opportunities to gather as much information about the member as possible — including their channel preferences and financial needs.
An onboarding journey leverages technology to ensure each member goes through the same experience when they join your credit union. But the credit union must be sure to include personalization, humanization, and added value to that journey to be successful.
Map Member Journeys
The onboarding journey is the first and most important one for your credit union. Done correctly, you can gather information that helps you better understand your member, based on actual data, versus a more broad persona group. Data-based member segmentation is a tool credit unions can use to help them on the next step in digital transformation, mapping modern member journeys.
Using actual member data, credit unions can begin to deploy journeys that are hyper-relevant to their members.
Any organization can digitize their experiences, but if the member and his or her needs are not at the forefront, the experience is quickly irrelevant. Only 6% of webinar attendees reported they are defining journeys based on member goals, so this is a great opportunity for growth.
Educate and Advise
Successful credit unions create journeys that serve as a path for each member’s financial growth. If journeys are the roadmap, campaigns and content are the fuel that drives them from one step to the next. Personalized, relevant, and value-add content are the baseline of what members expect from your credit union.
Educate members with authenticity and let them know you are a financial partner who understands their ever-changing needs and are there to support their life — whatever that looks like. This takes your credit union connection from a transactional relationship to one of a trusted financial partner.
Build Trust
Woven throughout the strategies for modernizing the member experience is the idea of combining technology with human touch to drive growth. Use technology to free up your people to do the things that only humans can do: build and maintain member-for-life relationships.
Watch the on-demand webinar for more detailed strategies to modernize your member experience across onboarding, journeys, and educational campaigns.
