Are millennials finding you… attractive?

As time marches on, we find Millennials coming into their most financially productive years, and they need financial services. In 2010, Gen Y made up only 17% of vehicle sales. Five years later, that number has grown to 28% of sales, while Baby Boomers and Gen X have flatlined or fallen back (according to J.D. Power and Associates). Many credit unions are considering process improvement in order to refine their processes to better appeal to Millennials but, believe it or not, easy appeals to any generation!

Consider the lending process from a Millennial’s perspective:

• How long will I have to wait for an answer? (Most things in my life so far have been instantaneous. I have never had to wait for the annual TV broadcast of “The Wizard of Oz” or for the radio station to play my favorite song, or sit through boring commercials)
• How many hoops do I have to jump through? (I have to drive somewhere to sign something? On paper? I have to gather a bunch of documents?)
• How many stipulations are on the deal? (Are all of these questions necessary? Why is this application so long? How does the other online place I found do it without all this? Why can’t this be easy like Amazon?)

Are you getting your fair share of Millennials’ business? Can you be found where they are looking? Are you offering the type of experience they value and expect? Have you considered that making things easy will appeal to other generations – not just Millennials?

Facebook recently published a white paper on Millennials and Money that uncovered some key findings. The Millennials on Facebook are turning out to be financially conservative, with a focus on paying off debt and saving. Unlike previous generations, Millennials talk openly about money matters and they talk about them online, crowdsourcing for their financial advice – the modern-day version of word of mouth. Who better to dispense financial advice than credit unions? The question is, are you part of that online conversation?

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