The death of the branch: A lesson about credit union data

The way we think about credit union data these days doesn’t mesh with what’s actually happening in the industry. Credit unions now have access to more data than they ever have. Failure to leverage that data though? That’s where you should be concerned.

Let’s walk through an example: just over 20 years ago, Amazon entered the book retail market. Their mission was simple: deliver personalized experiences to its customers and make each interaction unique and customized to the individual.

At the time, Amazon was just one man, Jeff Bezos, selling books out of his home. For the book market retail giants, Amazon was hardly a threat, just some crazy guy trying to compete with very large and long-established institutions. Companies such as Barnes and Noble and Borders Books had well over a thousand retail locations and were selling books hand over fist.

Well, we all know how that story ends—Amazon is one of the top retailers in the world and Borders Books is now bankrupt and Barnes and Noble is struggling.

 

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