Time for credit unions to get real with analytics

The banking industry is entering a new frontier. Less banking is done in physical branches and interactions through mobile apps are shorter, but happening with more frequency. While at the same time, competition is creeping in from new places. Technology companies, such as Google, Apple and Amazon are using advanced technology that puts the customer center stage, making competition to attract and retain customers more fierce than ever before.

In response, credit unions across the globe are adopting strategies to become more member-centric. This means understanding members on a deeper, more individual level, and presenting them with more relevant and timely offers. The trick is providing members with the right content, within the right context and at the right time. This is why marketers should adopt a member-focused approach through the use of real-time data analytics.

You might think that centering marketing strategies around the member is a no-brainer. While it should be, many credit unions are still relying on product or campaign-based outbound marketing strategies that target people from static, socio-demographic information used to segment, such as Location and Age. The results are low-precision mass campaigns that are often times irrelevant to your many members. Members then wonder if their credit union really knows them at all, or cares to get to know what they want, while opportunities for targeted cross- and up-sell fall by the wayside.

With access to real-time data, credit unions can put the member front and center, resulting in one-to-one, individual-level marketing that is more appealing to members with tailored products, services, and offers that anticipate and fulfill their preferences and needs at the moments that matter most.

Let’s take a closer look at how credit unions can achieve this.

True View of Your Member

The most successful companies and financial institutions are those that don’t just put their customers first, they put them at the center – the center of everything. As soon as a customer begins interacting through any channel–whether it’s a store/branch visit, customer service call, or website inquiry—bring all the core information about this interaction into one central system and from that moment onwards keep connecting the dots for all future interactions, building a complete multichannel customer view. This allows credit unions to track what users do each time they interact with your brand so you can better understand them on an individual level and subsequently tailor your marketing initiatives to their specific needs. By understanding members on this level, you can answer critical questions like how did they initially find your company? When and from where did they visit your website? Do they act in different ways on different channels? Knowing these answers will help you achieve more targeted campaigns that engage and motivate both prospects and members.

Individual member data – from behavioral to contextual and everything in between – is the single most important key to enabling customer centricity. This is what creates “Member DNA.” When I say Member DNA, I’m referring to a collection of thousands of metrics representing the core information on individual members’ profiles, behaviors and preferences. These are calculated in real-time and organized for each individual member. The metrics are the basis of which to improve service and experience, and even increase up-sell opportunities, which grows lifetime value. Having a full understanding of your member at the individual, DNA-level allows credit unions to know how messages should hit the right person, at the right time, and through the right channel–ensuring relevancy of content and delivery.

In tandem, the member benefits by receiving offers that are actually relevant and helpful to their lives.

The Ability to Track Trends

Traditional business intelligence systems can reveal what happened in the past and why. That approach delivers insights: snapshots of understanding based on past events. However, insights aren’t enough. Without the ability to track trends, we won’t be able to make accurate predictions about future behavior, and thus can’t determine WHEN to take action. Companies need to be able to track trends in real-time to be ready to engage with relevant content, and to be able to answer important questions like, “What will happen?” and “What will we need to do?” Having these answers is the only way to achieve real impact. Both of which make member centricity a reality.

The Bottom Line

The key to delivering superior member experience is to contextualize data and get personal—understand your member at the individual-level, understand their lifestyle to deliver products, services and content that are pertinent to them, via the right channel, at the right time. Only then can your business truly become member-centric. Without leveraging all available cross-channel member data, in a timely manner, you risk missing opportunities to connect with your most valuable members to keep them coming back and to increase their value to your credit union.