Be There for Members When It Matters Most This Summer
Summer brings several opportunities for credit unions to engage their membership when overall interaction is down given the unpredictable macroeconomic forecast: a flood of significant milestones like weddings, graduations and retirements in your members’ lives, which bring with them changing needs and organic demand for new products and services.
Credit unions can capture these opportunities and support members by building a summer engagement strategy around a simple idea: Show up for your members at these moments that matter most.
Meeting the needs that come with members’ summer milestones
For the last year and a half, Accenture has been preaching what it calls “life centricity” to financial institutions. In its 2023 Global Banking Consumer Study, Accenture urged financial institutions to move from a more transactional relationship with members to “playing a more meaningful role in customers’ lives and helping them achieve their life aspirations.”
Life milestones are the anchor points for this kind of life-centric member engagement. Why? Because member life milestones are the biggest driver of organic demand for net-new financial products and services. Take these three common summer milestones as perfect examples:
Newlyweds
Newly married couples are likely to be looking to open joint savings and checking accounts, as well as 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. In some cases, they’re also exploring long-term investment products like CDs, retirement and 529 accounts.
Recent Graduates
New high school or college graduates are eager to start their financial journeys. This milestone is a great opportunity to establish your institution as a trusted advisor and lay the groundwork to ensure you have a member for life. Data from hundreds of credit unions and other FIs 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 who have completed their education may contemplate refinancing 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 when opening a first credit card or getting an auto loan.
Retirees
Those on the other end of their career journey will also likely be interested in specific products and services. They may need a new mortgage or HELOC to fund relocation or renovation plans. Retirement also changes members’ perspectives on income and spending, bringing interest in annuities, high-yield CDs, and potentially reverse mortgages.
Life milestones are where you win members for life
Life-centricity isn’t just about smarter sales pitches. Instead of direct sales methods, it is a time for value-based interactions that build credibility and trust. Life milestones represent moments in members’ lives when things feel most in flux. Needs constantly change, uncertainties abound, and members are 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.
Life-centricity at scale
Life-centricity is really just a new name for the age-old concept of relationship banking. It’s what has always set the best credit unions apart. The challenge today is doing it in a digital-first landscape — and doing it at scale, across hundreds or thousands of members. Credit unions can’t rely on the individual knowledge of each member, nor can they depend on staff to make one-to-one calls on every graduation, wedding or retirement.
The credit unions that are making the most of these life milestones are doing it through two key capabilities: First, they’re using purpose-built analytics to go beyond superficial demographic data and get deeper member intelligence that shows the signals of life milestones. Just as importantly, they’re connecting these insights to a system of action — to enable omnichannel engagement journeys that use intelligent automation.
By giving marketing and sales teams the tools to see the signals and trigger highly automated engagement journeys, credit unions can show up when it matters most — and give members the one-to-one attention they deserve in these special moments.
About James White
James White, General Manager of Banking at Total Expert, has over 25 years of experience helping modern depositories grow market share and drive profitability. James’ leadership experience spans strategic planning, product development and delivery, professional services, sales and marketing, and customer success. Having worked with some of the largest banks and credit unions in the world, James believes in the power of an empathetic bank or credit union to create customers for life.