How credit unions can use automation to enhance the member experience

As community-based, not-for-profit businesses, credit unions place high value on the interaction between members and employees in order to build loyalty and attract new members. Today, the customer-first approach is more important than ever before, and digital member experience is at the top of credit union priorities. While brick-and-mortar branches are here to stay in the post-pandemic era, members expect consistent in-branch service as well as a seamless omnichannel experience. To achieve omnichannel excellence, credit unions need to provide 24/7 access to services and digital self-service for activities ranging from new account opening to loan applications, as well as an online portal for clients to access their own documentation.

In order to keep pace with member expectations, credit unions are leveraging process automation to enhance human interactions — by supporting members’ ability to access the services they want when they want them; reclaiming time for employees to spend on value-added activities and member service; and easing collaboration between teams, departments and branches. Digital workflows and processes are also key to boosting productivity so that credit unions can take on more members and add new services without the resource strain or sacrificing quality of service. Here are some of the top transformative process automation initiatives that forward-looking credit unions are leveraging to enhance the member experience:

1. Self-service portals and online forms – Even when digital, incoming applications and members’ records are often scattered electronically across organizations’ local network drives and individual repositories without a standardized folder structure. Studies have shown that the average employee spends 3.6 hours each day searching for information. When members are waiting — whether in-person at a branch or online — this translates to longer wait times and decreased satisfaction. Self-service portals with links to online forms where members can easily initiate service requests or send in information — which can then be automatically routed to the appropriate departments or personnel for approval, or to member folders — help to alleviate the headaches of manually routing data and shorten processing time, while also creating a 24/7 access to services for members.
2. A Single source of truth: Automated records management in a central repository – Digitization of paper files is nothing new to credit unions, however, many organizations can take these efforts much further. By establishing a centralized repository, and leveraging process automation tools to auto-file member information into a standardized folder structure, credit unions can save time for employees who are able to be more responsive to member needs since can have member information at their fingertips. At the same time, automating processes related to members’ data eliminates error-prone manual tasks, improving accuracy of information. With a centralized repository that has granular access controls, too, credit unions support information governance and compliance with regulatory requirements. As a result, organizations mitigate the risk of unauthorized access to member information and build and maintain trust with their members.
3. Integrate line-of-business applications for end-to-end automated solutions – Many credit unions took a piecemeal approach to digital transformation during the pandemic as a reaction to immediate needs. Today, however, organizations need to assess the technologies adopted over the past few years in order to consolidate and optimize IT investments. Integrations can help to connect the different applications, systems and sites where member data is stored, enabling credit unions to create more holistic automated solutions and a complete digital experience for members and the employees who serve them. For instance, integrations can further reduce manual and repetitive data entry by prepopulating member information into electronic forms. Integration tools such as integration-platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) connectors and APIs can support organizations’ increasingly complex integration needs. By creating a more connected enterprise, credit unions can better facilitate information flow and avoid repetitive data entry; provide branch employees with accurate, real-time information; and enable a better, more personalized member experience overall.

The Member-Centered Digital Transformation Journey

Even as many credit unions are accelerating digital initiatives, the human element remains the most important piece of the transformation puzzle. A recent survey found that more than 80% of credit unions are prioritizing digital as a competitive differentiator, however, only 14% provide solutions that focus on their members’ digital experience. Credit unions are at an inflection point, and it’s critical that business leaders make decisions about digital initiatives — whether it’s creating an automated member onboarding process or implementing an AI-powered chatbot — through the lens of the member experience.