Personalized service: How to turn up credit unions’ superpower with every (digital) interaction

Service has long been credit unions’ enduring superpower. The ability to differentiate by knowing and serving members better than large, for-profit competitors is a well-established strength. Over the last decade, though, as digital banking has evolved to become an indispensable modern convenience, it has dulled credit unions’ sharpest weapon against surging competition.

Because most banking transactions today happen digitally, opportunities for traditional in-branch personal connections are far less frequent. But that doesn’t have to diminish your ability to know, serve, and grow member relationships. Today’s digital banking technology and partnerships provide new, innovative ways to serve people and improve lives.

While they rely on the convenience of digital banking, consumers still want you to get personal. In fact, according to The Harris Poll, 74% of consumers, across generations, say they want more personal banking experiences. Also noteworthy: 66% say they are comfortable with financial institutions using their personal data—and even AI—to give them more relevant services.

But in a digital world, how do you know members you’ve never met and deliver the personalization they want? It starts with data—using the appropriate data, when it matters.

A powerful by-product of digital banking is a treasure trove of data that reveals member needs, preferences, and personal circumstances. With the right technology, approach, and partnerships, you can transform that data into usable insights to create relationships for life—at a scale and with efficiency never before possible.

Here’s what it takes:

While The Harris Poll research reveals that—from Gen X to baby boomers—people want personalization, and they don’t mind if you use their data to deliver it, what does “getting personal” actually look like in your digital channel?

If Angelica, a Gen X mother, and her daughter Maya, a Gen Z recent college graduate, are seeing the same content when they log on to your credit union’s digital banking, you’re not personalizing the experience for their very different needs. And, importantly, you're missing the opportunity to grow your relationships with them.

So, how do you create loyalty-building personal experiences with data? You do it by leveraging technology and partnerships to reveal members’ stories.

According to Q2 reporting, digital banking users log on more than 20 times per month. That’s more than 20 opportunities to get to know and engage them. Every login tells a story: a single mother saving for a child’s education; a financially vulnerable family struggling to cover expenses after job loss; a microbusiness owner on the verge of expansion; a recent college graduate managing income and expenses for the first time.

To understand the human experience behind the transactions, look closely through the lens of data.

Get personalization right, and you’ll build relationships for life. But if your personalization strategy stops at occasional targeted ads, you haven’t gone far enough. Differentiating takes curated offers, tools, and education that evolves with people throughout their life journeys.

With data insights, you can predict needs and deliver the most relevant mix of precisely timed solutions. More than targeted offers alone, deliver content that provides help when people need it most. It’s how you’ll build loyalty and improve lives.

For a new account holder, for example, the right content may include an in-app reminder about frictionless direct deposit enrollment. Or for someone with a goal-based savings account for a new vehicle, it could be a link to a free credit score monitoring tool.

No financial institution can afford to waste resources offering what account holders don’t want, or what they can easily get somewhere else. To continually expand offerings that differentiate your credit union and meet people’s evolving needs requires accelerating innovation.

Efficiently keeping pace with innovation may take strategic partnerships with fintechs that offer niche solutions. In some cases, the content may not highlight a product or service at all. Instead, delivering value at certain stages of someone’s life journey may be about education.

Financial literacy tools—particularly for younger generations—might be what’s most relevant and helpful. Remember, it’s not just about selling a product; It's about delivering value that changes lives—for good.

 When you use data, technology, and partnerships to get personal and continually deliver the next best experience to your members, relationships strengthen and endure. You build loyalty that keeps people—and their deposits—solidly with your institution, not chasing marginally better interest rates from competitors.