How credit unions build trust and loyalty in the age of digital acceleration

The concept of trust is the foundation of every financial relationship there is between a customer and their financial institution, and twice-over with a member and their credit union.

That level of member faith managed to survive the COVID-19 pandemic and kept the financial sector relatively healthy as far as the institutions themselves are concerned. But one long-standing lesson the pandemic reminded us is the fact that credit unions needed to meet certain newfound digital realities in the years ahead.

To meet those new realities, however, means understanding data. W. Edwards Deming has a famous quote: “In God we trust. All others must bring data.” Data in the financial services industry offers a built-in advantage to certain financial institutions over their competitors. Credit unions, for instance, should inherently understand how they can and should work to consistently improve the member experience by exploiting the gathered data they have. By using such data, credit unions can then address member segmentation, which then enables them to better understand their members and the context with which they consume products and services.

 

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