Uncover Financial Anxiety to Increase Deposits, Loans and Loyalty!
It’s no secret the pandemic has dramatically increased emotional and especially financial stress for many Americans. Prior to the coronavirus, many consumers had few reserves in the way of savings and now their financial pain is even greater. According to Raddon Research, 53% of consumers worry about an unexpected medical, car or home repair expense. You may be surprised to learn that 42% cannot even cover a $500 emergency. Even savvy folks with excellent savings and little debt want a plan to be financially secure in the future. Studies show consumers are looking for guidance and advice from their primary financial institution. Will they turn to you?
Improving financial health is a big growth opportunity for your credit union! The key question is, “are you ready to seize it”? If so, your staff must be confident in creating conversations and asking questions to first uncover financial anxiety. When training I frequently tell staff, “Please remember, no pain, no dream, no sale! Your members don’t want a product. They’re hoping you can help them alleviate a pain/problem or achieve a dream. Your job is to find out where they hurt!
Facts
- The branch is not dead. While digital use has exploded, members will seek a branch contact for financial advice and counsel.
- Digital-only members are less connected and loyal. They often view your mobile and online services as a commodity with little differentiation or personalization.
- Less branch traffic increases time for member outreach and building deeper relationships. Rather than waiting for members to visit or call, your staff must be proactive and actively engage with their assigned members.
Now you may be saying, “Okay Barb, we’re well aware of these facts and potential opportunities. Can you give us specific ideas or tools we can implement with our staff or training?” Yes, I’m happy to do that. Following are three proven recommendations.
Actions to Implement Financial Health as a Growth Strategy
- Create a financial health self-assessment or money values survey
Surely, you’ve noticed how print or electronic articles often grab your interest with a quiz or test to rate yourself. Frankly, I’m a sucker for these and love to see how I score. By answering several questions, I can find out if I’m resilient, healthy, a procrastinator or a romantic. Then it hit me, “why not create a Money Values Survey to offer members”?
Feel free to create any type of quiz or survey that creates a discussion around financial health. Here’s a partial sample of a survey I use in our virtual or on-site training to help Financial Coaches uncover a member’s values and anxieties about money. Imagine you are a member reading the following statements and checking if it’s very important, somewhat important or not important. How would you rate these?
- Freedom to travel and enjoy life
- Being unburdened by possessions
- Comfort and contentment
- Upscale lifestyle
- Being able to save regularly
- Little or no debt
- Helping the less fortunate
After quickly reviewing the full survey with 32 statements, like those listed above, the member totals the number of items checked Very Important. They are excited to discover their top two money values from four categories: Independence, Abundance, Stability and Generosity. However, the real magic happens when your FSR/Financial coach debriefs the survey with follow-up questions. “So, which two values are most important and how on-track are you right now?” Often a member will say, “I value stability and independence, but I’m not there yet.” A sharp FSR will go deeper and ask, “tell me what challenges are preventing you from getting there?” Typically, a member mentions they have too much debt or no emergency fund.
By integrating this fun survey into our clients’ onboarding process, the FSRs/Financial Coaches can easily uncover financial anxieties and offer solutions such as a refinance, savings plan, budgeting tool or other services. This is how you create a highly personalized experience!
2. Elevate the role and expectations of branch staff to financial coaches and relationship managers While you may not change their titles, it’s important to invest in developing and training your staff to embrace their important role as a coach and advisor. This means arming them with budgeting and other tools to truly educate and help members become financially fit. They don’t have to....-->
It’s no secret the pandemic has dramatically increased emotional and especially financial stress for many Americans. Prior to the coronavirus, many consumers had few reserves in the way of savings and now their financial pain is even greater. According to Raddon Research, 53% of consumers worry about an unexpected medical, car or home repair expense. You may be surprised to learn that 42% cannot even cover a $500 emergen...